From Amazon
Although anthologist John Murray does not belabor the point, nature writing by women has long been undervalued, the canon dominated by the likes of
Thoreau,
Abbey, and
Krutch. In the 2000 edition of his well-regarded annual series, Murray--himself a fine nature writer--gathers recently published short work by 19 established and emerging women nature writers. Among these nicely diverse essays are several standouts, such as Carol Ann Bassett's luminous travelogue on a rafting excursion on a Chilean river; Trudy Dittmar's short treatise on the lifeways of the moose;
Pattiann Rogers's elegiac meditation on a car-struck snake; Lisa Couturier's lovely memoir on walking through the crow-rich fields of Maryland; and
Janisse Ray's thoughtful appreciation of the deer who inhabit the pine woods of Georgia, and the men and women who hunt them. The contributors range in age from 20 to 60; some have published widely, while others are appearing in print for the first time. Although their work differs in many respects, together these writers offer a body of work that admirers of nature literature will want to know about, and follow in the future. Murray's well-conceived anthology is a fine place to start.
--Gregory McNamee
From Publishers Weekly
With subjects and backgrounds that range from a treacherous hike in the Grand Canyon to a frog chorus in a central Louisiana marshy woodland, this invigorating collection (the seventh from series editor and founder Murray) offers examples of nature writing at its best, drawn from books, periodicals and unpublished work. This time around, all the contributors are women. Lisa Couturier writes about drawing inspiration from observing crows' strong family bonds from her stone house on the Potomac River in Maryland. Trudy Dittmar's beautiful, Hemingway-esque essay on encounters with moose in Wyoming probes that unpredictable, fiercely blustering, idiosyncratic creature. Colorado poet Pattiann Rogers describes having an epiphany after witnessing the death of an injured snake, hit by a car. And, in her delightful "The Queen and I," Seattle environmentalist Adrienne Ross enlists a beekeeper's help to rid her house of a bee invasion without calling in the exterminator. Some of the book's strongest selections voice ecological concerns: Marybeth Holleman reports firsthand on the ongoing damage to communities and to wildlife hurt by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill; Kate Boyes profiles a disillusioned Utah desert town "saved" by a Faustian pact (U.S. military provided jobs but used the town's environs as a toxic dump); and Carol Ann Bassett braves the rapids of Chile's wild B!o-B!o River as she mingles with the ancient Mapuche Indians, whose traditional culture is being threatened by a hydroelectric dam project. There are two grating pieces about hunting--including one by a Buddhist meditator--but, overall, this is a strong and worthy compilation. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
