Essential prose /
This volume gathers the essential prose writings of our 'poet laureate of Deep Ecology,' spanning the entire arc of his seventy-year career and sounding his deepest themes. How can we learn to tread lightly on the land we inhabit? What can ancient faiths and traditions teach us about livin...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Library of America,
[2025].
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| Series: | Library of America ;
391. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | This volume gathers the essential prose writings of our 'poet laureate of Deep Ecology,' spanning the entire arc of his seventy-year career and sounding his deepest themes. How can we learn to tread lightly on the land we inhabit? What can ancient faiths and traditions teach us about living creatively and in community in the here and now? A companion to Snyder's Collected Poems, it completes the definitive Library of America edition of his writings, which has been prepared in close collaboration with the author by his friend and longtime editor, Jack Shoemaker. The volume begins with essays, memoirs and poetic notebooks from Snyder's landmark first prose collection, Earth House Hold: Technical Notes & Queries to Fellow Dharma Revolutionaries (1969). In 'Lookout's Journal,' he describes his life as a young fire spotter in the mountains of Washington State, and his emerging sense of vocation as a poet; in 'Spring Sessin at Shokoku-ji' and 'Suwa-no-se Island and the Banyan Ashram,' he recounts his experiences as an initiate in a Kyoto monastery and in communal living on a remote island in the Ryukyus and in 'Buddhism and the Coming Revolution,' he foresees the 'nation-shaking implications' of personal enlightenment and spiritual discovery. Selections from He Who Hunted Birds in His Father's Village: The Dimensions of a Hidden Myth (1979) reflect Snyder's lifelong studies in Native American religions and cultures. His sense of humor and conversational brilliance shine through in wide-ranging interviews from The Real Work 91980) and elsewhere. In chapters from Passage Through India (1984), his account of a six-month tour through South Asia with his wife Joanne and his friend Allen Ginsberg, he explores holy sites both ancient and modern, from the temples at Khajuraho to the Dalai Lama's residence-in-exile at Dharamshala. In The practice of the Wild (1990), now considered a classic of American environmental writing in the tradition of Walden and A Sand County Almanac, Snyder offers an "exquisite, far-sighted articulation of what freedom, wildness and grace mean, using the lessons of the planet to teach us how to live," as Gretel Ehrlich puts it. Essays from A place in Space (1995) and Back on the Fire (2007) explore bioregionalism, forestry practices, sustainability and the ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada, where Snyder has lived since 1970. The Great Clod: Notes and Memoirs on Nature and History in East Asia (2016), included here in its entirety, meditates on the intersections of nature and culture in Asian art, literature and history over millennia. |
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| Physical Description: | xviii, 679 pages ; 21 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781598538106 1598538101 |