Promotional Information

Contributes not only to our understanding of the place of wilderness in the popular mind, but to the forces that made early-twentieth-century Americans dissatisfied with the urban lives they had chosen. -- John R. Stilgoe

Table of Contents

Foreword, by John R. Stilgoe
Preface
Preface to the First Edition
Introduction
Chapter 1. Back to nature
Chapter 2. The Literary Commuter
Chapter 3. Birds in the Bush
Chapter 4. Nature Fakers
Chapter 5. This Elegant Art
Chapter 6. Keep Off the Grass
Chapter 7. Arcadia Comes to School
Chapter 8. Bluebirds and Beansprouts
Chapter 9. The Customary Thing
Chapter 10. Backwoods Brotherhoods
Chapter 11. Children's Fiction and the Out-of-Doors
Chapter 12. The Wilderness Novel
Chapter 13. The Church in the Wildwood
Chapter 14. Nature and the Camer
Chapter 15. The Search for Scenery
Chapter 16. The Search for Solitude
Chapter 17. The New Frontier
Notes
Selected REadings since 1969
Index

About the Author

Peter J. Schmitt is professor of history at Western Michigan University.

Reviews

The subject has needed detailed treatment for years, and I always expected the definitive study would be accomplished by a naturalist. But Peter Schmitt is a historian, and it's probably better that way after all. I guess this book is the one I've been looking for. -- John Eastman Natural History