The hour of land : a personal topography of America's national parks / Terry Tempest Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Terry Tempest.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Williams, Terry Tempest--Travel--United States.

Williams, Terry Tempest.

National parks and reserves--United States.

National parks and reserves.

Environmental conditions.

Human ecology.

Philosophy.

Landscapes--Social aspects.

Landscapes.

National parks and reserves--Social aspects.

Travel.

United States.

National parks and reserves--United States--Pictorial works.

National parks and reserves--Social aspects--United States.

Landscapes--Social aspects--United States.

Natural history--United States.

Natural history.

Human ecology--United States--Philosophy.

United States--Environmental conditions.

Ecology.

Human ecology--Philosophy.

Genre:

Pictorial works.

Biographies.

Illustrated works.

Travel writing.

Physical Description:

395 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.

Summary:

"A personal, lyrical, and idiosyncratic ode to our national parks"-- Provided by publisher.

"For years, America's national parks have provided public breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why close to 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now, to honor the centennial of the National Park Service, Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks, what they mean to us, and what we mean to them. Through twelve carefully chosen parks, from Yellowstone in Wyoming to Acadia in Maine to Big Bend in Texas, Tempest Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history, and part social critique, The Hour of Land is a meditation and manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America. Our national parks stand at the intersection of humanity and wildness, and there's no one better than Tempest Williams to guide us there. Beautifully illustrated, with evocative black-and-white images by some of our finest photographers, from Lee Friedlander to Sally Mann to Sebastião Salgado, The Hour of Land will be a collector's item as well as a seminal work of environmental writing and criticism about some of America's most treasured landmarks"-- Provided by publisher.

America's national parks have provided public breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing. Close to 300 million people visit the parks each year. To honor the centennial of the National Park Service Williams provides a literary celebration of our national parks, what they mean to us, and what we mean to them. Focusing on twelve carefully chosen parks he illuminates the unique grandeur of each place while examining into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making.

Contents:

America's National Parks: by definition

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming: keep promise

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota: all this is what the wind knows

Acadia National Park, Maine: "The stones, the steel, the galaxies"

Gettysburg National Battlefield, Pennsylvania: "There is no prevailing"

Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa: Death yes but as a gathering

Big Bend National Park, Texas: Any wind will tell you

Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska: There is no private space

Gulf Islands National Seashore, Florida and Mississippi: what more shall we do to others. To otherness

Canyonlands National Park, Utah: We Are In Some Strange Wind Says the Wind

Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California: The bodies are all gone from it, the purchases have been made

Glacier National Park, Montana: It is so extreme this taking-the-place-of, this standing-in-for, this disappearing of all

Cesar Chavez National Monument and the future: I say to myself keep on, it will not be the end, not yet, my children sleep, not yet.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780374280093

0374280096

OCLC:

918995039

Online:

Cover image