Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 10:47:14 -0500

Subject: [asle] return of the amateur

From: John and Barbara Opie <1johnbarb@attbi.com>
To: <asle@serv1.ncte.org>

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
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