Environmental Literature

TEXTBOOKS AND RESOURCES FOR TEACHING

Anderson, Chris and Lex Runciman.  A Forest of Voices: Reading and Writing the Environment. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1995.

Anderson, Lorraine, Scott Slovic and John P. O’Grady.  Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture. Longman, 1999. Longman Literature and Culture Series.

Dobrin, Sidney I.  Saving Place: An Ecocomposition Reader.  McGraw Hill, 2005.

Ford, Marjorie and John Ford. The Natural World.  Streamlines, Selected Readings on Single Topics.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

Harding, Walter.  “Five Ways of Looking at Walden.” Critical Essays on H.D. Thoreau’s Walden. Ed. Joel Myerson.  Boston: G.K. Hall, 1988. 

Jenseth, Richard and Edward E.Lotto, eds.  Constructing Nature: Readings from the American Experience.  Prentice Hall, 1996. (Historical approach.)

Levy, Walter, and Christopher Hallowell. Green Perspectives: Thinking and Writing about Nature and the Environment.  New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Morgan, Sarah, and Dennis Okerstrom.  The Endangered Earth: Readings for Writers. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1992.

Roemer, Kenneth M.  Approaches to Teaching Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain. New York: MLA, 1988.

Ross, Carolyn.  Writing Nature: An Ecological Reader for Writers. New York: St. Martin’s, 1995.

Schneider, Richard J., ed.  Approaches to Teaching Thoreau’s Walden and Other Works.  New York: MLA, 1996.

Slovic, Scott H., and Terrell F. Dixon.  Being in the World: An Environmental Reader for Writers. New York: Macmillan, 1993.

Valenti, Peter.  Reading the Landscape: Writing a World. Harcourt Brace, 1996. (Writing Process, Journal Prompts, Rhetorical Strategies, Argumentation and Research, Visual Texts with color plates, discussion questions and writing assignments.  Gender and ethnic diversity a strong feature in this text.)

Verburg, Carol J. The Environmental Predicament.  Four Issues in Critical Analysis. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 1995.

Waage, Frederick, Ed.  Teaching Environmental Literature: Materials, Methods, Resources.    New York: MLA, 1985.

Walker, Melissa.  Reading the Environment. New York: Norton, 1994.

ANTHOLOGIES/ESSAY COLLECTIONS

Best of Outside, The:  The First Twenty Years.  New York: Vintage, 1996.  Great essays:  Edward Abbey, Tim Cahill, Jim Harrison, Jon Krakauer, Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, and more.

Branch, Michael P., Rochelle Johnson, Daniel Patterson, and Scott Slovic.  Reading the Earth: New Directions in the Study of Literature and Environment.  Moscow, Idaho: U of Idaho P, 1998.

Elder, John and H.D. Wong eds. Family of Earth and Sky: Indigenous Tales of Nature from Around the World. Boston: Beacon, 1994. (multicultural)

Glotfelty, Cheryll and Harold Fromm, eds.  The Ecocriticism Reader:  Landmarks in Literary Ecology.  Athens: U of Georgia P, 1996. 

Halpern, Daniel and Dan Frank.  The Nature Reader.  Hopewell, NJ, Ecco, 1996.

McCarry, Charles.  From the Field: The Best of National Geographic.  Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 1997  Without photos, but great writing by Shelby Foote,  Barry Lopez, Diane Ackerman, Joseph Conrad, Jane Goodall, Maya Angelou.

Murphy, P.D. ed.  Literature and Nature: An International Sourcebook.  Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998. (multicultural)

Torrance, R.M. ed.  Encompassing Nature: A Sourcebook.  Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1998. (multicultural)

Trimble, Stephan, Ed..  Words From the Land:  Encounters with Natural History Writing. Reno: U of Nevada P, 1995. Background and photographs of contemporary nature writers with their best essays.

FICTION/NONFICTION (Interdisciplinary)

Duncan, David James.  River Teeth: Stories and Writings.  New York: Bantam, 1996.

Griffin, Susan.  Woman and Nature.  New York: Harper, 1978.

Lopez, Barry.  Desert Notes, River Notes.  Avon, 1990.

---.  Of Wolves and Men.  Simon and Schuster, 1978.  Combines myth, history, and natural history.

Momaday,  N. Scott.  The Way to Rainy Mountain.  Albuquerque: U of New Mexico Press, 1969.

FICTION

Abbey, Edward.  The Monkey Wrench Gang.  Avon, 1976. 

Anaya, Rudolfo A.  Bless Me, Ultima.

Atwood, Margaret.  Wilderness Tips. Doubleday, 1991.  New York: Bantam, 1996.  Short stories.

Bass, Rick.  Platte River. “Mahatma Joe,” “Field Events,” and “Platte River.” New York: Ballantine, 1994. Short stories.

Berry, Wendell.  Fidelity: Five Stories.  New York: Pantheon, 1992.

Boyle, T. Coraghessan. Without a Hero and Other Stories.  Viking, 1994.

Byatt, A.S. “Morpho Eugenia” in Angels and Insects.  Vintage, 1994.  Novella.

DeLillo, Don.  White Noise.  New York: Penguin, 1985.

Duncan, David James.  The River Why. New York: Bantam, 1983.

Giono, Jean.  The Man Who Planted Trees.  Chelsea, VT: Chelsea Green, 1985.  Wood engravings by Michael McCurdy. Available in paperback.

Hogan, Linda.  Power.  New York: Norton, 1998.

Kesey, Ken.  Sometimes a Great Notion.  Viking, 1964.  620 pages.

Lopez, Barry.  Crow and Weasel. Tom Pohrt, Illus.  San Francisco: North Point, 1990.

Maclean, Norman.  A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1976.

Momaday, N. Scott.   House Made of Dawn.   Perennial/Harper, 1968.  Pulitzer Prize winning novel, 1969.

Nichols, John.  The Milagro Beanfield War.  1974.

Silko, Leslie Marmon.  Ceremony.  Penguin, 1977.

NONFICTION

Abbey, Edward.  Desert Solitaire:  A Season in the Wilderness. New York: Ballantine, 1968.

Austin, Mary and John Muir.  Writing the Western Landscape.  Ed. and Illus. Ann H. Zwinger.  Boston: Beacon, 1994.

Bass, Rick.  The Book of Yaak. 1996.  Attempt to save a valley in northwest Montana. Publisher?

Berger, John.  “Why Look At Animals.” About Looking.  New York: Vintage, 1980.

Carson, Rachel.  Silent Spring. (1962).  Exposes the danger of pesticide use and launched the modern environmental movement in the U.S.

---.  Lost Woods:  The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson.  Linda Lear, ed. Boston: Beacon, 1999. 

Dillard, Annie.  Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  Harper and Row, 1974.

            ---. Teaching a Stone to Talk. New York: Harper and Row, 1982.

Ehrlich, Gretel.  The Solace of Open Spaces. Viking, 1985.

 ---.  Islands, the Universe, Home. New York: Viking, 1991.

            Hubbell, Sue.  A Country Year:  Living the Questions.  New York:  Random, 1983.

            Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild.  New York: Villard/Anchor, 1996.  

Leopold, Aldo.  Sand County Almanac with other Essays on Conservation from Round River. 1949 Oxford UP. Renewed 1977, 1981.

            McKibben, Bill.  The End of Nature. New York: Anchor, 1989.

Mowat, Farley.  Never Cry Wolf.  New York, Bantam, 1976.

Norris, Kathleen.  Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

Siebert, Charles.  Wickerby:  An Urban Pastoral. New York: Crown, 1998. 

Snyder, Gary.  The Practice of the Wild: Essays by Gary Snyder.  San Francisco: North Point, 1990.

Thoreau, Henry David.  Walden; or, Life in the Woods. 1854. ED. Philip Smith. New York: Dover, 1995. (Costs about $2.00.)

---.  Walden. 1854. Ed. J. William Shandley.  Intro. Joyce Carol Oates.  Princeton UP, 1971. An approved text of the Modern Language Association.

Thomas, Lewis.  The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher. New York: Penguin, 1974.

FEATURE FILMS

            A River Runs through It.  Dir. Robert Redford. Based on N. Maclean’s book.

            Never Cry Wolf.  Based on Mowat’s book.

Milagro Beanfield War.  Dir. Robert Redford. Based on J. Nichol’s book.

*Sometimes a Great Notion. Dir. Paul Newman.  Perf. Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Lee Remick, Michael Sarrazin.  Universal, 1971.  Based on Kesey’s book.

POETRY

Berry, Wendell.  Collected Poems.  1957-1982. New York:  North Point, 1984.

Snyder, Gary.  Turtle Island with “Four Changes.” New York:  New Directions, 1974.

---.  No Nature:  New and Selected Poems. New York: Pantheon, 1992.

            Oliver, Mary.  New and Selected Poems.  Boston: Beacon, 1992.

Williams, Terry Tempest. An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field. New York: Pantheon, 1994.