Promotional Information

Discusses the lives and works of 52 early American nature writers.

About the Author

Daniel Patterson is Associate Professor of English and Coordinator of Graduate Studies in English at Central Michigan University. His previous books include Reading the Earth: New Directions in the Study of Literature and Environment (1998), Susan Fenimore Cooper: New Essays on Rural Hours and Other Works (2001), an edition of Susan Fenimore Cooper's Rural Hours (1998), Essays on Nature and Landscape by Susan Fenimore Cooper (2002), and Edward Taylor's Gods Determinations and Preparatory Meditations: A Critical Edition (2003).

Reviews

This work offers substantial entries on 52 writers, ranging from the literary to the scientific. . . . Although this volume probably will be most useful for undergraduates, especially those at institutions with strong American literature or nature writing programs, graduate students and faculty also will find it helpful. Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers.
*Choice*

The short biographies of this wonderfully eclectic group of writers offer enticing reasons to read their notable works and follow the paths of the references to learn more about them. Nature observation and writing have never been as important as they are now in a world under climate and ecological threat. These early writers can teach us much, especially the importance of writing and speaking well about important topics. Highly recommended for all libraries.
*Reference Reviews*

Along with luminaries such as John James Audubon, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and Henry David Thoreau this collection of essays includes information on fiction and nonfiction writers who may not be well-studied today, but were very influential in describing young America to America. The 53 entries include descriptions of birders, adventure writers, authors of juvenile fiction, nature guides, botanists, and even the occasional committed hunter, each of whom, in his or her own way, wished to make readers understand that the lush beauty of America was a treasure meant to be cherished rather than consumed.
*SciTech Book News*

Authors included range from the famous…to the mostly forgotten. While entries on the former will be useful to undergraduates and general readers beginning a study of environmental literature, entries on the latter are often the most valuable, calling attention to obscure authors who are worth reviving. Early American Nature Writers is thus a boon to graduate students in search of fresh subjects for theses and dissertations.
*ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment*