The Sound of Mountain Water
Title | The Sound of Mountain Water PDF eBook |
Author | Wallace Stegner |
Publisher | Vintage |
Total Pages | 290 |
Release | 2017-08-08 |
Genre | Nature |
ISBN | 0525435433 |
A book of timeless importance about the American West and a modern classic by National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Wallace Stegner. The essays, memoirs, letters, and speeches collected in The Sound of Mountain Water encompass memoir, nature conservation, history, geography, and literature. Compositions delve into the post-World War II boom that brought the Rocky Mountain West--from Montana and Idaho to Utah and Nevada--into the modern age. Other works feature eloquent sketches of the West's history and environment, directing our imagination to the sublime beauty of such places as Robbers Roost and Glen Canyon. A final section examines the state of Western literature, of the mythical past and the diminished present, and analyzesd the difficulties facing any contemporary Western writer. Written over a period of twenty-five years, a time in which the West witnessed rapid changes to its cultural and natural heritage, and by a writer and thinker who will always hold a unique position in modern American letters, The Sound of Mountain Water is a hymn to the Western landscape, an affirmation of the hope emobided therein, and a careful and rich investigation of the West's complex legacy.
The Sound of Mountain Water
Title | The Sound of Mountain Water PDF eBook |
Author | Wallace Stegner |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 151 |
Release | 1969 |
Genre | West (U.S.) |
ISBN |
The Sound of Mountain Water
Title | The Sound of Mountain Water PDF eBook |
Author | Wallace Stegner |
Publisher | Plume |
Total Pages | 286 |
Release | 1980 |
Genre | West (U.S.) |
ISBN | 9780525476313 |
The essays, memoirs, letters, and speeches in this volume were written over a period of twenty-five years, a time in which the West witnessed rapid changes to its cultural and natural heritage, and Wallace Stegner emerged as an important conservationist and novelist. This collection is divided into two sections: the first features eloquent sketches of the West's history and environment, directing our imagination to the sublime beauty of such places as San Juan and Glen Canyon; the concluding section examines the state of Western literature, of the mythical past versus the diminished present, and analyzes the difficulties facing any contemporary Western writer. The Sound of Mountain Water is both a hymn to the Western landscape, an affirmation of the hope embodied therein, and a careful investigation of the West's cultural and natural legacy.
Literature and the Environment
Title | Literature and the Environment PDF eBook |
Author | George Hart |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
Total Pages | 206 |
Release | 2004-07-30 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0313061661 |
The phrase literature and environment only achieved popularity in recent decades, yet writers dating back to the explorers of the 1500s—and later such 19th-century Romanticists as Thoreau—have long been addressing environmental issues through literary expression. This volume introduces students and educators to the field by tracing the evolution of environmental writing in the United States. Chapters written by distinguished scholars offer new perspectives on important environmental issues, guiding readers through 11 carefully selected literary works. Each chapter provides brief biographical information on the author, discussions of the work's structural, thematic, and stylistic components, and insights into the historical context that relates the work to relevant environmental issues. Each chapter concludes with information on works cited. The analyzed works cover a wide spectrum of literature and span nearly 100 years. Included are early writings, such as Mary Austin's 1903 The Land of Little Rain, and famous groundbreaking works, such as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) and Gary Snyder's Turtle Island (1974). Also included are frequently assigned works of special interest to students, such as The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), The Earthsea Trilogy (1977), and Ceremony (1977). A list of selected further suggested readings completes the volume. Students of literature, as well as educators looking for new ways to present social issues, will find many ideas and much inspiration in this volume.
Landscapes of the New West
Title | Landscapes of the New West PDF eBook |
Author | Krista Comer |
Publisher | UNC Press Books |
Total Pages | 324 |
Release | 1999 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9780807848135 |
In the early 1970s, empowered by the civil rights and women's movements, a new group of women writers began speaking to the American public. Their topic, broadly defined, was the postmodern American West. By the mid-1980s, their combined works made for a bona fide literary groundswell in both critical and commercial terms. However, as Krista Comer notes, despite the attentions of publishers, the media, and millions of readers, literary scholars have rarely addressed this movement or its writers. Too many critics, Comer argues, still enamored of western images that are both masculine and antimodern, have been slow to reckon with the emergence of a new, far more "feminine," postmodern, multiracial, and urban west. Here, she calls for a redesign of the field of western cultural studies, one that engages issues of gender and race and is more self-conscious about space itself_especially that cherished symbol of western "authenticity," open landscape. Surveying works by Joan Didion, Wanda Coleman, Maxine Hong Kingston, Leslie Marmon Silko, Barbara Kingsolver, Pam Houston, Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros, and Mary Clearman Blew, Comer shows how these and other contemporary women writers have mapped new geographical imaginations upon the cultural and social spaces of today's American West.
Listening for the Heartbeat of Being
Title | Listening for the Heartbeat of Being PDF eBook |
Author | Brent Wood |
Publisher | McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |
Total Pages | 265 |
Release | 2015-11-01 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0773598111 |
Poet, philosopher, translator, typographer, and cultural historian Robert Bringhurst is a modern-day Renaissance man. He has forged a career from diverse but interwoven vocations, finding ways to make accessible to contemporary readers the wisdom of poets and thinkers from ancient Greece, the Middle East, Asia, and North American First Nations. This collection shows the ways in which his industry-standard textbook The Elements of Typographic Style, his remarkable translations of Haida oral epics, and his experimental and traditional poetry and prose form a single coherent project. Listening for the Heartbeat of Being brings together a range of literary scholars, poets, journalists, and publishers to comment on Bringhurst’s far reaching body of work. The essays include a comprehensive biography of Bringhurst, first-hand accounts of his book design and production efforts, an analysis of his ground-breaking polyphonic performance poems, and re-considerations of the Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers translation trilogy. Experienced Bringhurst scholars join well-known writers such as Dennis Lee and Margaret Atwood to create a multi-dimensional view of Bringhurst’s career. Guided by the simple faith that "everything is connected to everything else," Bringhurst’s ability to listen closely to the great minds of many cultures and represent their voices pragmatically is, as this diverse and insightful book shows, of greater interest than ever in a world facing unprecedented ecological crisis and intensive cultural evolution. Contributors include Margaret Atwood, Nicholas Bradley (University of Victoria), Crispin Elsted (Barbarian Press), Clare Goulet (Mount St. Vincent University), Iain Higgins (University of Victoria), Ishmael Hope, Peter Koch (Peter Koch Printers), Dennis Lee, Scott McIntyre, Katherine McLeod (Concordia University), Kevin McNeilly (University of British Columbia), Káawan Sangáa, and Erica Wagner.
Wallace Stegner and the Continental Vision
Title | Wallace Stegner and the Continental Vision PDF eBook |
Author | Curt Meine |
Publisher | Island Press |
Total Pages | 296 |
Release | 1997-09 |
Genre | Nature |
ISBN | 9781597262866 |
Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) was, in the words of historian T. H. Watkins, "a walking tower of American letters." Winner of the Pulitzer prize and the National Book Award for fiction, founder of the Stanford Writing Program, recipient of three Guggenheim fellowships and innumerable honorary degrees, Stegner was both a brilliant writer and an exceptional teacher.Wallace Stegner and the Continental Vision brings together leading literary critics, historians, legal scholars, geographers, scientists, and others to present a multifaceted exploration of Stegner's work and its impact, and a thought-provoking examination of his life. Contributors consider Stegner as writer, as historian, and as conservationist, discussing his place in the American literary tradition, his integral role in shaping how Americans relate to the land, and his impact on their own personal lives and careers. They present an eclectic mix of viewpoints as they explore aspects of Stegner's work that they find most intriguing, inspiring, and provocative: Jackson J. Benson on the personal qualities that so distinctively shaped Stegner's writings Walter Nugent on the historical context of Stegner's definition of the West T. H. Watkins on Stegner's contributions to the modern conservation movement Terry Tempest Williams on Stegner's continuing importance as an "elder" in the community of writers he nurtured Other contributors include Dorothy Bradley, John Daniel, Daniel Flores, Melody Graulich, James R. Hepworth, Richard L. Knight, Curt Meine, Thomas R. Vale, Elliott West, and Charles F. Wilkinson.Wallace Stegner and the Continental Vision is an illuminating look at Stegner's many and varied contributions to American literature and society. Longtime admirers of Stegner will appreciate it for the new perspectives it provides, while readers less familiar with him will find it a valuable and accessible introduction to his life and work.