Encounters in wild America / John McPhee ; David Remnick, editor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McPhee, John, 1931- author.

Contributor:

Remnick, David, editor.

Series:

Library of America ; 398.

Library of America ; 398

Standardized Title:

Works. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

McPhee, John, 1931-.

McPhee, John.

Conservation of natural resources.

Wilderness areas.

Canoes and canoeing--Maine.

Canoes and canoeing.

American essays.

Alaska--Description and travel.

Alaska.

wilderness areas.

Genre:

Essays.

Creative nonfiction.

Physical Description:

846 pages : illustrations, maps ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Library of America, [2026]

Summary:

"From legendary New Yorker writer John McPhee, here are four adventures in wild places. Exploring these untamed regions and the characters, skills, and ways of living they have fostered, McPhee quietly registers the costs of growth and progress and finds pleasure in what remains. The Pine Barrens (1968), finds McPhee traversing the byways of an unexpected near-wilderness--the New Jersey Pine Barrens--with it's unusual dwarf forests, cedar swamps, and tannin-brown creeks a world apart from the sprawling megalopolis that surrounds them. Encounters with the Archdruid (1971) recounts three trips, hiking and rafting, through pristine ecosystems in Washington's Cascade Mountains, off the Georgia coast, and down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Along the way, McPhee's expert companions--a mining engineer, resort developer, and dam builder among them--challenge the 'archdruid' of the book's title, the environmentalist David Brower, to defend his efforts to keep them 'forever wild.' The Survival of the Bark Canoe (1975) follows New Hampshire Canoe builder Henri Vaillancourt as he crafts a new vessel out of birch Bark, using the age old tools and methods of the American Indians. McPhee then joins Vaillancourt and others on a grueling, tense 150-mile test voyage through a Maine woods full of hauntingly beautiful prospects and potential peril. Coming into the Country (1977) is McPhee's magisterial composite portrait of Alaska and Alaskans. Here, as he crisscrosses this vast and sublime state, are Natives and newcomers; government officials, gold miners, and oilmen; wildlife ecologists, rugged outdoorsman, and bush pilots; and much more. Edited by current New Yorker chief David Remnick and prepared with McPhee's assistance, the volume includes a newly researched chronology of the author's life, detailed notes, and index, and all of the illustrations that accompanied the original editions" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The pine barrens

Encounters with the archdruid

The survival of the bark canoe

Coming into the country.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 818-830) and index.

Description based on publisher data.

Related Work:

Container of: McPhee, John, 1931- Pine barrens.

Container of: McPhee, John, 1931- Encounters with the archdruid.

Container of: McPhee, John, 1931- Survival of the bark canoe.

Container of: McPhee, John, 1931- Coming into the country.

ISBN:

9781598538427

159853842X

OCLC:

1561187768