What are your must-read biographies with a modern, environmental slant?
What are your must-read biographies with a modern, environmental slant?
Anything by John Muir, Edward Abbey or John Muir
Cabin Fever
You need God—to hope, to care, to love, to live.
It's not a biography, but rather a history of man's relationship with wild places and how it has changed over time. The more prominent figures contributing to this transformation are introduced along with their specific contributions.
It may serve as a better starting point than a list of biographies by introducing contributors in their historical context. When you complete the book, you will have a list and a better understanding of the relative importance of these individuals and their contributions.
Confessions of an Eco-Warrior by Dave Foreman
Epitaph For A Desert Anarchist: The Life And Legacy Of Edward Abbey by James Bishop
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (Not a biography, but a great book)
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.
-Edward Abbey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain
Recently or about to be released is the Autobiography - held back by his will.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
That'll be a good read.
Did you the picture of him in Tesla's lab. Thats awesome.
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.
-Edward Abbey
Billy Bryson! LMAO
sorry, i couldnt resist!
Click on Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to read a short piece by Lisa Budwig and for additional links.
I believe I know where to find an online image of Rachel on Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's North Lookout and I will post a link to it if memory serves.
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's visitors center is approximately 1 mile from the A.T. at Eckville via Hawk Mountain Road. Entrance to the visitors center is free and much can be learned there in an hour or less. Life-sized images of both Rachel Carson and Rosalie Edge welcome visitors. Mounts of all of the raptors observable as they migrate through Kittatinny Ridge IBA are displayed. A modest trail fee applies for those who wish to hike on HMS trails.
Last edited by emerald; 11-20-2010 at 22:01.
For a short article about a lesser known but important figure, click on Rosalie Barrow Edge to access another DEP page. A recent book about her is entitled Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy by Dyana Z. Furmansky.
Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. I'm going to take Emerald's advice and read the book by Roderick Nash first.
Gotta read a book called Desert Solitaire.
http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Solitai.../dp/0345326490
READ IT!
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.
-Edward Abbey
Last edited by emerald; 11-20-2010 at 23:44.
Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock
What? Me worry??
The outdoor account that I've enjoyed the most recently is Edwin Way Teale's "A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm," which is his account of 15 years of living on a small farm in a revolutionary War era house in northern Connecticut. It's been my bedtime reading in recent days.
Teale is best known for his four volume series tracing the seasons across America. But his 17 volumes of nature books, and the six volumes he edited of the works of other nature writers -- Thoreau, Fabre, Audubon and Muir -- made him by far the best selling naturalist of the 20th century.
Many of his books are being reprinted as quality paperbacks as the "Edwin Way Teale Library of Nature Classics" by Dodd Mead & Company.
I enjoyed but was not terribly enthusiastic about his four seasonal books. However, aside from cutesy names for every nook and cranny of his farm, his account of small town and rural life in the 1960s is superb. He was not a farmer, but a writer and observer. His farm returned to it's wild roots, as did the wild animals and birds. He describes them well.
Living as I do on midcoast Maine his descriptions of winters in Connecticut 50 years ago made me especially aware of the changes that are occurring in the world's climate. His 1960 Connecticut seasons are scarily similar to 2010 midcoast Maine seasons, a half century later and 200 miles further north.
Weary
Last edited by weary; 11-21-2010 at 10:50.