Bibliographies

Environmental Great Books

Fri, 05 July 2002
John and Barbara Opie <1johnbarb@attbi.com>

Hi everyone from John Opie. Remember me from the "Environmental Great
Books" discussion?

Well, I counted a total of 181 e-mails that were directly or indirectly related to my query about the eight (8) best environmental "great books" that I might use for my undergraduate course at the U. of Chicago this fall (Remember, it is on a 10-week quarter system).

Since some of the students are Environmental Studies majors, I am assuming they have already read Thoreau's "Walden," a smattering of Muir, Carson's "Silent Spring," and Leopold's "Sand County Almanac."  Indeed, they read all but the Thoreau if they have already taken my US environmental history course.  All the books had to be in paperback at reasonable prices.  I also wanted to emphasize "classics" that they might not have thought of on their own.

With regret, I left out T.C. Boyle, John Hanson Mitchell, Scott Russell Sanders, T.T. Williams, Wallace Stegner, Gretel Ehrlich, Cormac McCarthy, Linda Hogan, Charles Chesnutt, Toni Morrison, and Barbara Kingsolver.  Indeed, there is so much good recent stuff, that I decided to limit the books to works before about 1970, or the beginning of the modern environmental movement.

My approach, not surprisingly, follows an historical sequence.  I also sought some geographical diversity, books that were activist or reflective, and a mix of fiction and non-fiction.

My choices were measured by books that have had a significant environmental
impact, were popular in their own day, and deserve exposure to undergraduate
students today.  And that they increase environmental engagement and are still a "good read!"

My biggest regret was not to include George Perkins Marsh's "Man and Nature"
(1864), and I might still use it instead of Norris.

Here goes:

Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, "Letters from an American Farmer"
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature"/ Henry David Thoreau, "Walking" (in one book)
John Wesley Powell, "Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons"
Willa Cather, "My Antonia"
Frank Norris, "The Octopus"
Loren Eiseley, "The Immense Journey"
Edward Abbey, "The Monkey Wrench Gang"
Annie Dillard, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"

I will also use a compilation of poems generously prepared by Chris Holland:
Robinson Jeffers, W.S. Merwin, Wendell Berry, and Mary Oliver.

Dare I say, let me know what you think?

John Opie