Writing the Western Landscape

Introduction and Illustrations by Ann H. Zwinger

Introduction and Illustrations by Ann H. Zwinger

The early twentieth-century works by Mary Austin and John Muir are nature-writing classics. Austin and Muir both adopted the American West as their home and wrote about its grand and wild landscapes in ways that came to define the genre of western nature writing.

Publishers Weekly

In the early 20th century, Austin, who was captivated by the desert, and Muir, who was devoted to mountains and forests, forged new territory in nature writing. Excerpts from Austin's Earth Horizons and The Land of Journey's Ending are paired in this collection with those from Muir's The Grand Canon of the Colorado and Travels in Alaska. Zwinger ( Beyond the Aspen Grove ) has selected striking examples of the work of these two writers; of particular note are the essays on the the Grand Canyon. This volume and its companion, the publisher's 1991 Nature/Walking by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, edited by John Elder, vividly illustrate the differences in perspective between early eastern observers and later western writers. (Sept.)

John Muir (1838-1914) was one of the most influential conservationists and nature writers in American history. Founder of the Sierra Club, and its president until his death, Muir was a spirit so free that all he did to prepare for an expedition was to "throw some tea and bread into an old sack and jump the back fence."