Speaking for Nature: How Literary Naturalists from Henry Thoreau to Rachel Carson Have Shaped America

The chief weapon of the men and women who led the fight to protect the American environment over the past century has been the pen. From Henry David Thoreau to Rachel Carson, they formed as dynamic, as varied, as persuasive a company as one can imagine. Paul Brooks tells their stories through a series of interlocking portraits, from the Confederate poet, Sidney Lanier, to California firebrand, John Muir; and from the lyrical Mary Austin to America's master polemicist, Bernard DeVoto. Without their work, America would be a different country.