- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Vintage (April 9 1991)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679733825
- ISBN-13: 978-0679733829
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 12.7 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#824,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #66 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Women Writers
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Women have been writing, and writing very well, about nature for hundreds of years, but, as in so many other fields, their contributions were overlooked and undervalued until recently. Lorraine Anderson's anthology Sisters of the Earth is just the remedy. In it, Anderson gathers writing on nature from a range of authors, among them the relatively familiar Sally Carrighar, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ann Zwinger, Rachel Carson, and Ursula Le Guin and younger contemporaries like Pat Mora, Terry Tempest Williams, Luci Tapahonso, and Joy Harjo. Anderson showcases essays, fiction, and poetry in roughly equal measure, and her intelligent notes and introduction add much to this generous--and long overdue, and most welcome--collection.
From Publishers Weekly
The voices of nearly 100 women--white, black, Native American--sing out in this luminous anthology, which spans centuries, genres and literary careers from Willa Cather's to Sue Hubbell's. The thread that binds together the poetry, short stories and essays collected here is the harmonious relationship between women and nature that is about "caring rather than controlling," as editor Anderson indicates. In her poem "My Help Is in the Mountainsic ," Nancy Wood ( Hollering Sun ) becomes part of the sun-warmed rock that soothes her "earthly wounds." In a prose reflection, "The Miracle of Renewal," Laura Lee Davidson is rejuvenated by a year spent in the Canadian woods in 1914, which provided her with a "gallery of mind-pictures." Both Linda Hogan's essay, "Walking," and Elizabeth Coatsworth's poem, "On the Hills," seek and find continuity in nature, as well as a kinship with the other times and places that is evoked by it. Taste and sensitivity are evident throughout the volume, whether tacit as nocturnal solitude or vocal as a feline "howl . . . for the flame of yellow moons" in Judith Minty's poem, "Why Do You Keep Those Cats?" Anderson is a freelance writer and editor. QPB selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anthology of short bits by women naturalists,
By
This review is from: Sisters of the Earth: Women's Prose and Poetry About Nature (Paperback)
Naturalists is perhaps too narrow a word choice for the one hundred contributors to this anthology; I suspect only a few would use that word when describing themselves. Their ages span more than a century, so the style of writing varies widely, but each has something quite special to share with a reader looking for a few moments of luminousness or quiet revelation in the midst of a busy day.Here's one of my favorite bits, and I'm paraphrasing: Men climb mountains to conquer them; women climb mountains to go deeper within themselves, to feel a oneness with nature. When I read that, I lifted my eyes from the page, stared at the horizon and thought how much more poetic and truthful that is than the usual Mars/Venus type of comparison. Contributors range from regionalist Sarah Orne Jewett to internationalist Diane Ackerman; there are African Americans, Native Americans, Jews, Catholics, mystics, and poets among this mix, with plenty of boundary crossing. Very lovely. Not, I believe, a book meant to be read cover to cover. Rather, let it rest beside your favorite reading chair or at your bedside, and read a few entries now and then at random. I think you'll be charmed, as I was.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something for Everyone,
By
This review is from: Sisters of the Earth: Women's Prose and Poetry About Nature (Paperback)
I found a lot more than I'd expected in this book. The editor obviously put a lot of thought into her selection of authors and passages from their works. It seemed to me as if these were the passages I would have marked for rereading had I read those works myself. Pretty much every selection struck me as being beautifully inspirational, poetic, or otherwise moving. I'd forgotten how much simply reading about nature can do to lift and heal the spirit. I also learned a lot: I was unaware that so many women have been writing about nature for so many years -- and it was sobering to realize that much of what the earlier authors wrote about no longer exists in our world today.The author bios themselves make for fascinating reading. (You can't help but wonder how your own life would be summed up in a paragraph or two.) And of course, as I'd expect from any good anthology, this collection inspired me to add quite a few items to my "to-read" list. The nearly 40-page bibliography includes very helpful summaries, and lists not just the sources of this anthology's selections but many other works as well. Whatever you might expect from Sisters of the Earth, I doubt you'll be disappointed. There should be something in it for everyone -- and it's a pretty book that would make a great gift.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Journeying,
This review is from: Sisters of the Earth: Women's Prose and Poetry About Nature (Paperback)
I have found this book to be wonderful in the growth process of the spirit. A truly marvelous piece of work, a compilation that is worth a second volume, indeed. This is a perfect "anytime" gift, to your self as well as others that are journeying the spirit.
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