Our Books

Taking its inspiration—and, for that matter, its form—from Ishmael’s abandoned “Cetological Dictionary” in Moby-Dick, this extraordinary, highly original work brings meditations on myth, representation, language, nature, consciousness, and notions of…

At midlife, the author writes, we are called to an “archaeology of memory”—turning over a potsherd here, a fragment there—to assemble something whole out of the messiness of experience. She encourages all of us to contemplate our own deep story, in…

In April 2003, the author and his wife set out with the Porcupine caribou herd as they journeyed from the Yukon Territory to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On the caribou’s trail, two people learn what is possible when they immerse themselves…

This timely collection—featuring essays from Wendell Berry, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Bill McKibben, and Rebecca Solnit, among others—challenges the division of human society from the natural world that has often characterized traditional…

Edward Abbey’s postcards and letters, legendary during his lifetime, convey the fullness of this singular writer and reveal a tender side seldom seen before. This collection is an awe-inspiring introduction for readers new to Abbey—and for devoted…

Baja California is a place where nothing is as it seems. As mindful of the peninsula’s history of conquest and exploitation as it is receptive to the extraordinary characters who are drawn to it—from daredevil aviators to expatriate artists, and from…

From the Adirondack Mountains to Kerala, India, to Curitiba, Brazil, this book offers clear-eyed and profoundly compelling portraits of places where resourceful people have confronted modern problems with inventive solutions, and thrived in the…

Hoping to get away from the complexities of her life, the author arrived at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station with the intention of researching the landscape; what she found, instead, was a zany population of misfits and dreamers. This is an exploration…

When Thoreau stood on the flank of Maine’s Mount Katahdin in 1846, he was one of only a handful who had ventured so far into wilderness for the simple purpose of seeing what was out there. This book observes today’s wilderness mob and wonders: If…

This colorful memoir traces the author’s path from “nature nut” to jock to writer, to his home at the end of Ridge Road near where he was raised by his grandparents. Just as essentially, it explores the links between his native Abenaki culture and…

Originally published in 1993, this pioneering anthology is a powerful polemic for fundamental cultural change: the transformation of basic attitudes about power, gender, race, and sexuality. This edition updates statistics and essays, and adds new…

In these short pieces—sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking—the author chronicles her return to a hometown in need of repair, physical and otherwise, after seventeen years away. Syrup boils, alligator trapping, and fighting to save the town…

Meditating on the successful marriage of science and poetry, these essays cover true stories about color-blind scientists, the knowledge stored in ancient Native American songs, the link between an Amy Clampitt poem and diabetes research, and a…

Commuters, suburbanites, city dwellers: Are you curious about making your life more livable and interested in knowing what that might mean? This anthology introduces a range of perspectives about creating successful, livable cities, with examples…

This book gathers the evidence of a lifetime’s commitment to nonviolence. Born the year World War I began, the author spent World War II in a camp for conscientious objectors. His writings show that it is possible—and crucial—to think independently…

A disarmingly honest story of the author’s restless, rootless, disaffected youth, looking for meaning in drugs and an active outdoor life in the West. From time spent fishing, climbing, and making a living logging—as well as through friendships with…

In these essays, the author describes how he found a way to balance his passions for literature and for the outdoors by building a sugarhouse with his sons in the Vermont woods. For him, the “frog run”—the tail end of the sugaring season in New…

In January 2001, the editors, responding to proposals to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, sent a call to writers across the country. With testimonies by President Jimmy Carter, Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Bill McKibben, and Terry Tempest…

Reared on her father’s thirty thousand-acre ranch, the author grew up to become a rancher herself, raising sport horses. In these essays—which rise and fall with the undulations of the prairie, and which can pack a punch like South Dakota weather—she…

The author was happily sailing through life, raised among naturalists and nurtured by a family history as American as the Stars and Stripes. But then a short trip to Guatemala changed his life, setting him on a very different path toward radical…

In this book, the author describes locales that are dear to her because they are still shaped by nature: Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy; Provincetown, Massachusetts; Tucson, Arizona; and Poamoho, Hawaii. The farther we remove ourselves from…

Written in the third century, this is one of the earliest Chinese works about the use of language, intended for those who wish to engage the art of letters at its deepest levels. In sixteen sections, it discusses the joys and problems that face both…

This book is the first of its kind, providing a thoughtful, practical process for neighborhood planning for concerned citizens as well as professional planners.

Part traveler’s journal, part philosophical exploration, this book considers the idea of islands and asks whether they encourage eccentricity and grandeur in human beings. Along the way, it introduces beguiling characters and cultures, from the well…

As a boy in Colorado, the author fell in love with alpine heights and the butterflies that float above the tree line. This early passion sparked a career in conservation that took him across the globe—until he realized that he was no longer as…

Arranged by letter of the alphabet, with at least one entry per letter, these short pieces capture the variety of daily life in contemporary China. Here, one learns what it is like to travel by “hard-seat” train to a remote village, to smuggle…

Deciding that her life was insufficiently grounded in real-world experience, the author, a Quaker reared as a Catholic, embarked on a year of tending sheep. In this often hilarious book, she describes her time in the barn as well as an extended visit…

Known for beautifully observed and illustrated books about the rivers, deserts, and mountains of the West, the author here focuses on the guiding principles of her life as naturalist. She moves from details to the larger patterns that link them to…

Growing up, the author could define failure easily; it was “to die in Minneota.” But when he returned to his hometown twenty years later, he began to discover more of himself and of our time. This books investigates—through the lens of small-town…

Organized by the seasons of the year, this book explores the natural and soul-sustaining beauty of the largest roadless area east of the Rocky Mountains. Drawing on the works of Thoreau and Wendell Berry, the author turns his naturalist’s eye on this…

Here the author recalls the stories and experiences that have guided him as a writer, and speaks on behalf of a life rooted in the commonplace. Emerging from his work is the conviction that moments of interaction with the nonhuman world restore the…

In this book, the author tells the story of his family’s homestead in the Great Basin, a ranch worked by horses when he was a boy and transformed into an agribusiness by the time he was a grown man. Recounting his life as farmer and writer, he…

A creature almost mythic, Colter—the brown dog of the Yaak—charges through mountain valleys following the scent of game. In this book, the author gives a history of his years with Colter—including vignettes about interactions with well-known writers…

An award-winning poet, a mother, a lover of the land and every creature in it, as well as a student of zoology, the author is at home in the vocabulary of nature. In this work of prose punctuated and intensified by poetry, she describes the genesis…

Bosses, partners, governments, corporations—all can act as bullies, intimidating us to their will. But changing their behavior may be in our power. This provocative, visionary book examines some of this century’s most far-ranging concepts about how…