Wow. Thats what you are going to say when you pick up this book. There have been a lot of great American writers over the years that have changed the way we look at ourselves, and our place in the environment. American Earth, Environmental Writing Since Thoreau covers them all. Literally starting with Thoreau and moving through all the greats, Walt Whitman, Theodore Roosevelt, Woody Guthrie, Rachel Carson, Philip K. Dick, Lyndon B. Johnson, and many many more. It has been lovingly collected and edited by Bill McKibben who we have covered many times before. It is a hard back but small and compact wasting little in the way of extra paper, the stories are indexed and there are two picture sections that beautifully bring the stories to life with pictures and illustrations.

I read a couple of the older works and was immediately struck with how long the tradition of respecting and protecting our environment is in this country. From our national park system, to the early pioneers , Americans have a proud tradition of fighting to keep our world clean and healthy. It is a tradition we need to re-kindle. Each bit of writing is introduced with some contextual information by McKibben. When taken as a whole it is a force of literary inspiration, you are stuck by “just how many” great American authors have written about the state of our environment. There is much to be learned in these pages.

There is a wonderful foreword by Al Gore that starts like this

It was a writer that first drew my attention to the environment, years before the word entered the public lexicon. My mother often read to my sister Nancy, and me at the dinner table, and in 1962, she read to use from a new book, Silent Spring. It made an unmistakable impression.

This collection is full of writing that have the power to inspire, to awe, and to inform. The at 1050 pages it is a hefty dose of literary and ecological might that I recommend everyone check out. The pictures are great, the author list would take a page just to type out, and the whole thing is printed on recycled paper using organic inks. It even comes with a little slip of ribbon woven into the binding to keep your place, a feature I wish more books had. If all that wasn’t enough the proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to support the mission of the Library of America, a nonprofit organization created in 1979 to preserve America’s literary heritage by publishing and keeping permanently in print authoritative editions of America’s best and most significant writing.

My one and only quibble with this collection is that it contains nothing from Frank Herbert, (who if you look at this site has obviously inspired me). Frank Herbert explored complex systems and ecological themes in his seminal masterpiece Dune long before many other people began thinking about it. I suggest you check it out as it is amazing, and one of the most exceptional books ever written. I will forgive Mr. McKibben for leaving Herbert out this time…but when the second edition is written he had better be in there!

If you want a one stop shop for all things literary and environmental when it comes to America (minus the part about Herbert not being in there), this lovingly crafted book is the one for you. Give it to someone you love and foster a strong environmental tradition in them as well.