MEN U
SU B SC R IB E ( H T T PS: //W1.B U YSU B .C O M/L O C /O U M/IN T ER N A L N A V)
(/sear
Archives Miles Harvey (/2117726/milesharvey) and The Editors (/1741146/editors) May 2, 2004
(https://facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php? (https://twitter.com/intent/tweet/? (mailto:?
W
hen we first began compiling a list of our favorite books--and as that list evolved and begot other lists that recall the enormously rich tradition of outdoor literature--we were reminded of the old man who loved books so much that he
amassed 10,000 of them in his small studio apartment. In that little room, somewhere in southern California, neatly stacked tomes towered everywhere. The only space not landlocked by literature was a pathway from his door to his bed. Since bibliophiles and lovers of the outdoors alike yearn for those moments of discovery often found at the remote edges of our world, we began to view the old man as an adventurer himself. We like to imagine that as he drifted off to sleep each night, the stacks of secondhand hardbacks looked to him like shadowy Himalayan mountains. And that beneath those dark peaks, he would dream of the next day's climb. Until the moment those peaks came crashing down. Early one morning, an earthquake split California, triggering a bookslide in the old man's apartment. Our hero was buried deep beneath millions of words. For 11 hours he lay there, waiting to be rescued. Did he suddenly see himself as a tragic clown, the victim of his own peculiar excesses? Did he curse the obsession that had brought the gods--not to mention his entire library--down upon him? We hope not. Instead, we like to think that amidst the chaos the man felt strangely sheltered. Perhaps his thoughts were not unlike those of the great alpinist Maurice Herzog, who faced a similar brush with death on his famous 1950 climb of Annapurna: "I knew the end was near, but it was the end that all mountaineers wished for--an end in keeping with their ruling passion." As we've collected the following books for the Outside Canon--some of which come from our favorite writers, sages, argonauts, athletes, and other friends-the old man has never been far from our thoughts. Nor has this concept of a canon, taken most often to mean some sacred scroll of books dreamt up by gray-bearded men smoking cigars. In our case, of course, there can be no cigars about it. And while our canon only begins to encompass the entire world's outdoor literature (in fact, in the name of space, we've limited ourselves to one book per writer here, and chiefly to books written in English), we hope you'll find it by turns provocative, idiosyncratic, and just plain useful. Enough to fill your shelves for years to come. And should the earth take a sudden shift, may you, too, be sheltered by these many million good words.
Slocum was the first man to circumnavigate the globe single-handed, in a 37-foot boat that he rebuilt himself from a derelict oyster sloop. In this lovely 1899 book (https://amzn.to/2qnDmDv), he recounts one life-threatening escapade after another with unwavering Victorian good cheer. Sheridan House, $14.95.
Austrian mountaineer Harrer had the bad luck to be in Karachi when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. He was arrested and sent to an internment camp in northern India. He escaped, made a perilous mountain trek to Tibet, and eventually became pals with the young Dalai Lama. His 1953 book (https://amzn.to/2oQyGEU) tells his story-intense and incredible. J. P. Tarcher, $9.95.
"A long sea voyage not only brings out all the mean traits one has, but raises up others he never suspected he possessed, and even creates new ones," writes Twain in this darkly hilarious 1869 account (https://amzn.to/2qfwVmp) of a "pleasure excursion" to Europe and the Middle East. Who but Twain could have initiated the flip, no-bullshit style emulated by travel writers ever since? Signet Classics, $5.95.
Ernest Hemingway declared that after reading Markham's graceful memoirs (https://amzn.to/2pcvsPA), "I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer." Largely ignored when first brought out in 1942, this lively account of a childhood in Kenya and a career as a record-breaking aviator was a huge hit after being republished in 1983. North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $13.95.
Dinesen's account of life (https://amzn.to/2oQzrhn) on a Kenyan coffee plantation, full of sharp vignettes about native people and wildlife, is fascinating-all the more so when read side-by-side with Beryl Markham's West with the Night. The two works cover the same countryside and many of the same characters, including men who played important roles in the lives of both of these exceptional women. Modern Library, $15.50.
"You could do a lot worse than Hico," Morris writes about a town in Texas-no small praise from a travel writer who during the course of a 40-year career has been everywhere and done everything. In this fine collection (https://amzn.to/2qnLmUG), published in 1984, Morris takes us from the Lone Star State to Australia to Yugoslavia to China, with many delightful diversions along the way. Oxford University Press, $25.
Thubron won a couple of literary awards for this wild account (https://amzn.to/2pGzJfj) of a brutal solo journey into the enigmatic land of "a billion uncomprehended people." During the course of the 10,000-mile trip, he tours underground nuclear shelters, visits a tongue doctor whose diagnoses include "insufficient Yin," and has an uneasy night's sleep in the bed of the late Chairman Mao. Out of print.
"The thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: A tourist is an ugly human being," writes Kincaid. And in this powerful 1988 polemic (https://amzn.to/2qneRGc), in which she writes with passion and precision about her native Antigua, she looks at travel through the eyes of the visited rather than the visitor, exploring the links among tourism, imperialism, and racism. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $13.95.
The gifted author of In Patagonia looks at the way (https://amzn.to/2oTb9Eg) Australian aborigines map their world by ritual singing as they travel-and in doing so explores our contradictory urges to own land and to wander. Viking Press, $9.95.
The Outside editor-at-large happens to be one of the world's funniest and finest bards of adventure travel. This feverish collection (https://amzn.to/2oTvqJP) takes him from the jungles of Peru, where he searches for the ruins of a lost civilization, to the cloud forests of Rwanda, where he follows gorillas, to the icy waters of Alaska, where he kayaks among orcas. Vintage Books, $13.
Theroux's first travel book (https://amzn.to/2pGBx8l), about a hilariously improvised railway journey from London to Tokyo, became a surprising 1975 best-seller and launched the career of one of the world's top misadventure writers. Viking Press, $11.95.
An enterprising Brit travels to the Empty Quarter to satisfy that proverbial "urge to go where others had not been." This lively 1959 story (https://amzn.to/2qfHENY) of grueling adventures includes forward-looking insights into the bedouin culture and the environment. Penguin Books, $9.95.
Naipaul's return to India (https://amzn.to/2oTLCe1), the land of his ancestors, has been criticized as being politically incorrect, but it is undeniably fine travel writing, full of humor and disturbing details. Peter Smith Publisher, $20.80.
Morris has put together an extraordinary and sometimes offbeat collection (https://amzn.to/2qfrdku) that includes everyone from pioneering eighteenth-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft to Vita Sackville-West to Joan Didion. Vintage Books, $14.
Outside's ever-amusing Out There columnist travels the globe (https://amzn.to/2oTCTZh) in search of adventure and absurdityand always finds both, in locales ranging from a plush health spa in Florida to the terrorist-infested mountains of Peru. Henry Holt, $12.95.
After being swept off his feet in an avalanche and left dangling by a rope around his neck, Herzog "began to pass water, violently and uncontrollably." Your reaction may be only slightly less extreme as you move from one nail-biting moment to the next in this wonderful 1953 tale (https://amzn.to/2pGvjoW) of triumph and frostbite. Out of print.
Cherry-Garrard was one of the men who survived Robert Falcon Scott's doomed 1910-1913 Antarctica expedition. During the journey, he and his companions had to endure temperatures so cold that "we began to look upon minus fifties as a luxury." And although Cherry-Garrard maintains that "no words could express [the trip's] horror," he gives it an unforgettable try in this book (https://amzn.to/2qnqRI1), originally published in 1922. Carroll & Graf Publishers, $13.95. ¤ First appearing as a series of newspaper articles in 1955, early in the Nobel Prize-winning novelist's career, this creepy nonfiction work (https://amzn.to/2pGphoe) tells the story of a Colombian sailor who survived for ten days in a lifeboat without food or water after being washed overboard in the Caribbean. Vintage International, $9.
"But they eat people there! They're cannibals! Blowpipes! Phut. Phut. You die," a helpful official warns O'Hanlon at the beginning of this book (https://amzn.to/2pcLSqY). But perils be damned, nothing stops him from making a harrowing and hilarious journey into wildest Borneo. Vintage Books, $11.
Was Chris McCandless a nut case or simply another idealistic thrill-seeker in search of the ultimate adventure? Krakauer, a contributing editor of Outside, handles the question ingeniously in this story (https://amzn.to/2qnNoEi) of a complex character who starved to death after giving away $24,000 in savings and walking into the Alaskan bush, determined to live off the land. Villard Books, $22.
A great tale of not getting there: In this 1934 account (https://amzn.to/2pGRjQH)-hilarious in spite of its colonialist stereotyping-Waugh attempts a difficult expedition through British Guiana and Brazil but gets stranded in a backwater Amazon town inhabited by people "naturally homicidal by inclination." Out of print.
Near the end of this epic mountaineering misadventure in Afghanistan, Newby passes a group of lepers. "That's about all we've got left to catch," comments his ever-wry sidekick, Hugh. Written in 1958, Newby's story (https://amzn.to/2pcRJwr) of dysentery, ill-fitting boots, and failed climbing is a comic masterpiece.
In 1968, Crowhurst attempted to become the first person to sail solo around the world without stopping. His boat broke down first, then his mind. For months, he drifted aimlessly in the Atlantic, sending fraudulent reports about his progress back to London, slowly coming to believe that he was the son of God. Somehow, Tomalin and Hall make marvelous sense of this fascinating and bizarre story (https://amzn.to/2pGJxpA) of madness and tragedy at sea. International Marine, $15.95.
They don't make them like Isabelle Eberhardt anymore—then again, they never did. Traveling widely in North Africa at the turn of the century, she became a Muslim, dressed as a man, and engaged in more than her share of kif-smoking and random sex. This odd little collection (https://amzn.to/2pGzK32) offers fascinating glimpses into what the author herself describes as "the life of an adventurous soul." City Lights Books, $7.95.
Talk about tough trekking: In this curious little wonder of a book (https://amzn.to/2ppSbG6), originally published in 1542, a Spanish conquistador recounts an eight-year, 6,000-mile walk to Mexico that began as an ill-fated exploration of Florida in 1527. University of New Mexico Press, $9.95.
They shot "buffaloe." They were stung by "muskeetors." They found an inland route to the Pacific "ocian." But hey-President Thomas Jefferson wasn't paying them for their spelling ability. The quirky and at the same time majestic log of the most important trip in American history, published in book form (https://amzn.to/2qnIszv) in 1904, a century after the trip itself, never ceases to fascinate. Viking Press, $13.95.
Kittredge and Smith-each a brilliant chronicler of the West-have put together a literary anthology (https://amzn.to/2pGBWaW) as grand as the state itself. More than 1,100 pages long, it covers everything from Indian myths to the accounts of early explorers to the work of contemporary writers such as James Welch, Ivan Doig, and Richard Ford. Montana Historical Society Press, $45.
In 1773, Bartram undertook the first botanical exploration of the then-wild terrain of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. His widely influential account (https://amzn.to/2oQyu8C), full of beautiful Cherokee maidens, noble Creek warriors, and "blessed unviolated spot[s] of earth," was published 18 years later and is still a delight. Dover, $8.95.
Frazier, a rare satirist who understands the difference between real humor and hip smugness, drives 25,000 miles up and down and across the often overlooked region between Montana and Texas. His account (https://amzn.to/2qnBlXN)-which take us from the spot where Sitting Bull's cabin stood to a house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde to an abandoned Cold War command center-is equal parts absurdity and profundity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17.95.
"If farmers were at all disposed to rhapsody," writes Klinkenborg (https://amzn.to/2qfLHtE), "they might get eloquent about [their] work." Luckily, we've got Klinkenborg to get eloquent for them in this lively account of visits to rural Minnesota, Iowa, and Montana at haying season. Who would ever have guessed that alfalfa could be so interesting? Lyons & Burford, $14.95.
"In the cabin I'm in, a grizzly skin is pinned to the wall like a spread-eagled moth. I should probably note that I'm allergic to it," writes Hoagland in his first book (https://amzn.to/2pGPgfl) of travel writing, which set the contrarian tone for the extraordinary career that has followed. Sierra Club Books, $12.
Raban's tragicomic tale (https://amzn.to/2pcTKsv) of his three-month, 2,000-mile boat trip down the Mississippi is among the best works of a growing genre of Twain-inspired Big Muddy travelogues. Picador, $11.50.
Hard upon its 1974 publication, this Pulitzer Prize-winning meditation (https://amzn.to/2qnsYeH) produced a plague of Dillard wannabes, yammering on endlessly about their supposed mystical revelations in nature. But what distinguishes the real thing is Dillard's grace, wit, and flat-out talent to convince us that she experiences religious ecstasy at the sight of a muskrat in her local creek--and to make us feel it ourselves. HarperCollins, $13.
"So stupid and tiresome and dull!" That was the way Mark Twain viewed the desert, and few argued with him until Austin came along. This pioneering collection (https://amzn.to/2oQA8qT), published in 1903, brings to life the fascinating and complex worlds, both natural and human, of the American Southwest. University of New Mexico Press, $11.95.
The Antichrist lives in the Arctic—at least that's what seventh-century theologians believed. It's just one of the many fascinating notions that Lopez ponders in his monumental 1986 look (https://amzn.to/2pGCLk2) at the Arctic's place in the human imagination, a study that took him to every corner of this vast and stunning landscape. Bantam Books, $5.95.
Anyone unfamiliar with the late Stegner's work (https://amzn.to/2pGNquK) need only read this eclectic set of essays, published in 1969, to understand the deep respect--even love--with which he's regarded by present-day writers about wilderness and the West. "We simply need...wild country available to us," he writes, "even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope." Out of print.
"I'd kill the last pregnant wolf on earth right in front of the president at high noon," declares one of the many unforgettable characters in this even-handed look (https://amzn.to/2ppXt4y) at environmental issues that faced the Alaskan wilderness in the midseventies and that have only intensified since. Coming into the Country, published in 1977, ranks among the finest of this gifted writer's works. Noonday Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $22.95.
Steinbeck contemplates Hitler, Marx, and Henry Ford on one page and then moves on to naked mollusks and keyhole limpets in this remarkable and offbeat 1951 journal (https://amzn.to/2qnynCG) of a scientific expedition he took with marine biologist E. F. Ricketts to the Gulf of California. Viking Press, $11.95.
Williams juxtaposes two types of inundation-the changing water level in the Great Salt Lake, which devastates a local bird refuge, and the spread of cancer through her mother's body. The result is a strikingly original book (https://amzn.to/2ppXF3M), both a meditation on the horror of death and a celebration of the raw power of life. Vintage Books, $12.
"I often find things renewing about ordeal," writes Ackerman. And in this rollicking set of hands-on essays (https://amzn.to/2pGDv8L) about exotic animals, her ordeals are the reader's delight, whether she's floating with whales off Patagonia or straddling alligators in Florida. Random House, $11.
How did Homo sapiens come to be? According to Gould, the answer has more to do with plain old luck than with the supposed superiority of the species. In this gripping work (https://amzn.to/2pGDzFf) on unusual 530-million-year-old fossils found in the Canadian Rockies, the noted science writer argues that evolution works more like a big lottery than a competition in which only the strong survive. W. W. Norton, $19.95.
Scientists know of at least 750,000 species of insect--but that's mostly a comment about what we don't know: The tropical rainforests may hold tens of millions more. In this authoritative book (https://amzn.to/2ptIYyy), the Harvard entomologist and Pulitzer Prize winner tells us why biodiversity is important-and why the insects won't be the only victims of rainforest destruction. Harvard University Press, $29.95.
For those Outside readers who find themselves craving Quammen's wry, incisive view on all things natural, this first collection of his columns (https://amzn.to/2pcQz4f) is a must. It delightfully digresses on everything from sea cucumbers' anuses to virgin birth among turkeys and is a wonderful introduction to the books that have followed it: his 1988 essay collection The Flight of the Iguana and the much-anticipated and just-published The Song of the Dodo. Avon Books, $11.
Trivia quiz for Talking Heads fans: Who first used the repeated phrase "once in a lifetime," writing about the flow of water? Apparently David Byrne is among the many admirers of these lyrical essays on the origins and future of the universe. Some of the science in this 1959 work (https://amzn.to/2pu14Rc) is now outdated, but Eiseley's prose is brilliant—same as it ever was. Vintage Books, $8.
Like a Venus's-flytrap, Second Nature (https://amzn.to/2ptTN3B) appears innocuous but packs a mean bite. Disguised as just another gardening tome, it is in fact a muscular meditation on the natural world, covering everything from Thoreauvian philosophy to raccoon turds. Bantam Books, $10.
The vice-president's 1992 bestseller (https://amzn.to/2qnvdil) about an ecological "race against time" is full of excellent information and solid proposals, even if the administration hasn't always practiced what its Number Two man preaches. Don't hold your breath, for instance, waiting for Gore's "Global Marshall Plan" for the environment. Plume, $13.
Not every writer can draw plausible links between U.S. farm policy and sex, but then again Wendell Berry, acclaimed poet, fiction writer, and essayist, isn't exactly a hack. In this moving 1977 manifesto (https://amzn.to/2qnyLBc), he argues that Americans must regain a sense of fidelity-to our families, to our communities, and especially to our land. Sierra Club Books, $12.
Pollution and global warming are nothing to worry about, and population growth is a darn good thing. These are just some of the contrarian views outlined in this voluminous text (https://amzn.to/2pGOw9T), which contains something to piss off just about everyone. Nonetheless, A Moment on the Earth is well worth reading-even if only to sharpen your arguments against the emerging "optimist" school of environmentalism. Viking Press, $27.95.
Chase, a leading "optimist," infuriated everyone from environmentalists to Reaganites with this hand grenade of a book (https://amzn.to/2oTHr1J). An attack not only on National Park Service policies but on the popular ecological beliefs that inspired them, Playing God in Yellowstone may make you mad, but it will also make you think. Harcourt Brace, $14.
"I'm old growth myself," jokes Brower, the elder statesman of the "pessimist" school. In what may be his final book (https://amzn.to/2qnv527), the 83-year-old Archdruid mixes sweeping calls for change-from the establishment of a World Ecological Bank to the development of hyperefficient cars-with eco-cheerleading and welcome doses of humor. Let the Mountains Talk is an excellent demonstration of Brower's inspiring fury. HarperCollins, $20.
"There are no other Everglades in the world," Douglas writes in the urgent opening of this prophetic work (https://amzn.to/2pGG36A) about south Florida's threatened ecosystem. Nearly 50 years after she warned that the Everglades was in its "eleventh hour," her words have long gone unheeded. Pineapple Press, $17.95.
"So we shall come to look at the world with new eyes," writes Emerson. Prophetic words indeed: This revolutionary exploration (https://amzn.to/2oTx1iK) of humankind's mystical links to the environment, published in 1836, inspired everyone from Thoreau to Annie Dillard. Beacon Press, $9.95.
Nash's groundbreaking and engrossing 1967 look (https://amzn.to/2oFN3jY) at our culture's changing views of nature takes us from Puritan days, when Cotton Mather preached that the wilds were full of "Droves of Devils" and "Fiery Flying Serpents," to the beginnings of the modern era. Yale University Press, $18.
"A rude thought about a Ground Squirrel or a Flicker or a Porcupine will not go unnoticed," Snyder writes. From anybody else such statements would be cause to break out the lithium, but from the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Zen philosopher they make brilliant sense, especially in this fine collection of essays (https://amzn.to/2pd11IY) on humankind's need for wildness. North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $22.95.
The label "ecologist" has been applied to everyone from Darwin to the Unabomber. So what does it mean? That's the question that environmental historian Worster probes in this immensely interesting book (https://amzn.to/2qnQvMA). By looking at the diverse ideological paths that led to modern environmentalism, he offers profound clues about the road ahead. Cambridge University Press, $15.95.
Turner's landmark essay (https://amzn.to/2qnMS9G)-still highly readable after more than 100 years-argues that the very wildness of the American continent stripped settlers of their European ways and fostered individualism, independence, and democracy. Hugely influential among historians, Turner's argument gave Cotton Mather's nasty old wilderness a righteous new image: birthplace of American virtue. In Early Writings of Frederick J. Turner, Irvington Publishers, $24.95.
McKibben conducts a strange experiment (https://amzn.to/2ptV8HF). First, he watches a single day's worth of cable TV programming-more than 1,000 hours of tape. Then he spends 24 hours camped on a mountaintop. What's fascinating here is not his obvious conclusion—nature is better—but his fine, penetrating observations about both worlds. Penguin Press, $11.95.
"Fire and humans have coevolved, like the bonded strands of a DNA molecule," writes Pyne in a sweeping historical treatise (https://amzn.to/2oTxOAe) that examines our world's love/hate relationship with conflagration. His engrossing ideas leave bright embers in the memory. Henry Holt, $30.
The forest has been populated by a variety of strange creatures in the human imagination, from jolly green giants to goddesses wearing garlands of bull testicles. In this subtle book (https://amzn.to/2qnOsbu)-surprisingly accessible for a scholarly treatise —Harrison looks at what our mythical, literary, and artistic conceptions of the forest tell us about ourselves. University of Chicago Press, $24.95.
Full of deliciously bizarre events and characters-such as a British lord who kept pet leeches, which he named after prominent surgeons-this superb book (https://amzn.to/2oTLMBX) looks at the period between 1500 and 1800, when Western culture began to develop a revolutionary new respect for the natural world. Pantheon Books, $14.95.
Published in 1852, these famous hunting memoirs (https://amzn.to/2qnmD2Q) may have led to Turgenev's arrest-not because Russian bureaucrats had anything against hunting, but because they were shocked by the author's revolutionary portrayal of serfs as human beings. Politics aside, the collection is full of beautifully sensual evocations of a hunter's life in the natural world. Penguin Classics, $9.95.
Acclaimed novelist McGuane writes about his own experiences with fishing, sailing, cowboying, motorcycling, and hunting. But his essays (https://amzn.to/2ptSQbJ) are inevitably about more fundamental subjects, too, from "the necessary, ecstatic resignation to the moment" to the nature of death. Out of print.
Sprawson's loving meditation (https://amzn.to/2pcGUe2) looks at the cultural and psychological meanings of swimming throughout history, from ancient Greece to our own pool-possessed culture. Pantheon Books, $23.
The originator and chief practitioner of gonzo journalism flashes more than enough of his switchblade wit to make this twisted tale (https://amzn.to/2oTEs9w), set around the 1980 Honolulu marathon, well worth your time. Bantam Books, $15.95.
This single volume (https://amzn.to/2qfLAy9) brings together the first two books by one of the great writers of mountaineering narratives. The Mountain of My Fear, originally published in 1968, is especially gripping, recounting the first successful ascent of the west face of Alaska's Mount Huntington-an adventure that ends horribly when one of the author's fellow climbers falls to his death. The Mountaineers, $16.95.
In this glowing collection (https://amzn.to/2oTE8aH), Chatham pulls together essays by some of the great modern bards of angling, including Jack Curtis, Jim Harrison, and William Hjortsberg. Clark City Press, $22.95.
"When I run the roads, I am a saint," writes Sheehan in this captivating and contrarian 1978 tome (https://amzn.to/2qnEQgN) about the spiritual advantages of the sport. And despite moments of strange diatribe, Sheehan's far-ranging exploration-which draws on everyone from Gandhi to Vince Lombardi to George Santayana-is certain to get your mind racing, if not your feet. Out of print.
When athletes talk about getting into a "zone" they are speaking of a consciousness-free state central to Zen Buddhism. Attempting to achieve this "exquisite state of unconcerned immersion in oneself," Herrigel, a German philosopher, studied archery for six years under a Zen master. The 1953 tale (https://amzn.to/2oTyKER) of his attempt to become "simultaneously the aimer and the aim" is captivating and hilarious. Vintage Books, $10.
We tend to remember this great Japanese writer's death more than his 40 novels; in 1970, Mishima plunged a sword into his own abdomen and was then beheaded by one of his disciples. Sun and Steel-Mishima's morbidly fascinating 1968 account (https://amzn.to/2qnrOA4) of his attempts to achieve a "sense of existence" through years of compulsive weight-lifting-offers engrossing insights not only into his suicide but into our own culture's obsession with muscle. Kodansha International, $7.
You'll find plenty of fun and useful information (https://amzn.to/2ptURou) here on everything from sparking a fire by using a drop of water as a lens to making emergency snowshoes. Collier Books, $8.
This cult hit (https://amzn.to/2qeQX3i) uses wonderfully childish humor to address some very adult health and ecological problems. In addition to such chapters as "For Women Only: How Not to Pee on Your Boots," the revised edition includes a new section, "Plight of the Solo Poop Packer." Ten Speed Press, $6.95.
There are several fine books on low-impact backpacking-including Harvey Manning's Backpacking One Step at a Time and Chris Townsend's Backpacker's Handbook-but this well-organized guide (https://amzn.to/2qfdVHB) is our favorite. Lyons & Burford, $14.95.
Along with a lot of very useful information on subjects such as safety, clothing, water, plants, and wildlife, this guide (https://amzn.to/2qnCT4e), now in its third edition, conveys a sense of the beauty and mystery of the desert. Wilderness Press, $13.95.
Written by an Outside correspondent, this guide (https://amzn.to/2qfXZC3) covers alpine, cross-country, and backcountry forms of the sport, as well as less traditional pursuits from snowboarding to ballet skiing. Out of print.
Telly freaks need look no further than the second edition of this definitive manual (https://amzn.to/2ptXhDi) for both beginners and veterans. Parker keeps things lively with anecdotes about his own adventures on Denali, Mount Sopris, the Haute Route, and more. The Mountaineers, $19.95.
Gillette is an insatiable adventurer, whose resume of thrills includes the first circumnavigation of Everest by ski. Dostal is a respected expert and instructor whom Outside readers know well. In this authoritative volume (https://amzn.to/2qnPTH2), wonderful, twisted humor is used to get across the finer points of hoofing it on nordic boards. The Mountaineers, $12.95.
This lively and slickly produced volume (https://amzn.to/2qf05VJ) covers an impressive variety of cold endeavors, including winter camping, snowboarding, ice skating, ice climbing, sledding, snowshoeing, mushing, curling, and, uh, ice golf. W. W. Norton, $17.95.
Avalanches are not acts of God. This valuable book (https://amzn.to/2pu5cAK) details how to read terrain, snowpack, and weather variables to determine the possibilities of avalanche-and how to save yourself in case of one. Alaska Mountain Safety Center, $7.95.
A consensus favorite of mountaineering experts, the beautifully designed fifth edition of this classic (https://amzn.to/2qeZu6z) covers everything from climbing techniques to snow and glacier travel to the perils of explosive weather. The Mountaineers, $22.95.
Long is a legendary climber and an able writer-and the second edition of his book (https://amzn.to/2oQDE4g) is arguably the most complete instruction manual on free climbing. From history to rope management to crack-climbing skills, it offers a great introduction to life on the rocks. Chockstone Press, $11.95.
Before there was Yvon Chouinard, king of the Patagonia clothing empire, there was Yvon Chouinard, rock and ice climber extraordinaire. Nearly 20 years after its first publication, his stylishly written guide (https://amzn.to/2qfEFF0), spiced with tales from his own career, remains a classic. Sierra Club Books, $24.
Lowe's new bible (https://amzn.to/2ptXYfS) for the slippery game offers state-of-the art information on tools and techniques from a current master. The Mountaineers, $29.95.
The three-time Tour de France champ mixes autobiography, history, and practical instruction in this book (https://amzn.to/2qnIZBj), which puts emphasis on racing techniques as well as training and fitness for serious cyclists. Perigee Books, $14.
About half of this book (https://amzn.to/2ptUCtq) deals with technology; you're likely to learn more about elastomers than you ever thought possible. Bicycle Books, $10.95.
Another in the collection of how-to guides that accompanies the Trailside public-television series, Oliver's well-organized manual (https://amzn.to/2qnNtYX) covers an impressive range of topics, from buying a bike to advanced riding techniques. W. W. Norton, $17.95.
It's a bit heavy on 1970s psycho-babble about the spiritual benefits of running, but this best-selling classic (https://amzn.to/2qnES8G) remains a fine introduction to the sport. Random House, $23.50.
The authors reject rigid approaches, arguing instead that "running should be simple, easy, fun." The book (https://amzn.to/2qnGW0j) examines everything from training programs to diet to physical disabilities. Penguin Books, $14.95.
Anderson's cartoon-format classic (https://amzn.to/2oQxvVO) is a first-rate guide for the beginning fly fisherman, full of easyto-follow instruction on equipment and technique. Frank Amato Publications, $7.95.
Recommended for novices who can't tell a caddis fly from vacuum cleaner lint, as well as for more seasoned anglers who want a refresher course (https://amzn.to/2ptUA4H) on stream tactics and insect imitation. Lyons & Burford, $17.95.
The grande dame of the waders offers female anglers an excellent overview (https://amzn.to/2pd8LL2) of the basics. Stackpole Books, $19.95.
While the material from this 1975 guide (https://amzn.to/2pd60cF) is somewhat dated, it's still a classic. Vintage Books, $13. Readers looking for state-of-the-art info might pick up Laurie Gullion's slickly designed 1994 book, Canoeing. Human Kinetics Publishers, $12.95.
This well-organized and solidly written text (https://amzn.to/2qnHymD) is a fine introduction to paddling the high seas. Hearst Marine Books, $15. Hardcore enthusiasts may be more interested in John Dowd's Sea Kayaking: A Manual for Long Distance Touring, which among other things details what you might do when stranded on an uninhabited island. University of Washington Press, $18.95.
Seidman, who is also the author of an excellent book on sea kayaking, offers plenty of nuts and bolts (https://amzn.to/2qnQgBr) but warns that "by its very nature sailing is enigmatic." International Marine, $15.95.
A former member of the U.S. National Whitewater Slalom teams offers a comprehensive overview (https://amzn.to/2qnJ345) of whitewater kayaking, from how to get into the boat to how to win a slalom race. Stackpole Books, $15.95.
For novice and expert river runners alike, here is a comprehensive, user-friendly guide (https://amzn.to/2qnPiF7) on everything from basic raft anatomy to leading exploratories. Ragged Mountain Press, $16.95.
Like Jim Fixx's book on running, Whitten's excellent all-purpose guide (https://amzn.to/2qnyYV5) attempts to proselytize as well as to inform. Random House, $16.
Whether you're trying to find a cheap way to ship your Range Rover overseas or simply having trouble with a visa, this is the first place (https://amzn.to/2ptV8HN) to go for help. Globe Pequot Press, $19.95.
Covering the gamut of outdoor sports, from bicycling to hang gliding, this gorgeous volume (https://amzn.to/2qnKP5b) offers thorough resource listings, rates tour operators, and breaks down costs. Turner Publishing, $29.95.
Foehr's tightly organized book (https://amzn.to/2qnSCQF) offers useful information on hundreds of ecotourism opportunities worldwide, from researching dolphins in Belize to tracking black rhinos in Zimbabwe. Noble Press, $14.95.
This delightful compendium (https://amzn.to/2ptTdTJ) of festivals, holiday celebrations, and other spectacles worldwide is so thorough that its index includes seven entries under "burning of effigies." Visible Ink Press, $18.95.
The first full-fledged novel in English (https://amzn.to/2qnIur9), published in 1719, was also its first great modern wilderness tale. And it starred literature's original adventure traveler, a shipwrecked hero whose reliance on raisins set a trail-food standard for centuries to come. Oxford University Press, $3.95.
It's easy to snicker at the exclamatory excesses of the original Sensitive White Guys. But because of their fascination with wild places, the Romantics gave legitimacy to an outdoor ethic still embraced today. This solid collection (https://amzn.to/2pu4JhP) includes, among many others, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Emerson, and Thoreau. Viking Press, $14.95.
A man called Ishmael, a big-blowing whale, and a wild ocean. Enough said. It's also a delightful work of natural history (https://amzn.to/2oQyW6E), with detailed observations about cetacean life. Barnes & Noble Books, $5.98.
"I tuck'd my trouser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time," the Good Gray Poet writes. His exuberant 1855 masterpiece (https://amzn.to/2ptZHlD) is a remarkable-and remarkably fresh-stroll through nature and culture. Prometheus Books, $8.95.
"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much," writes Conrad. This remarkable 1902 story (https://amzn.to/2qfQ1c3) of African intrigue looks unflinchingly at the horrors of subjugation and exploration. Penguin Classics, $6.95.
Cather's brilliant 1918 lament (https://amzn.to/2pu504l) about the settling of Nebraska's great prairie is especially poignant today, when we realize just how badly we've obliterated the place where "the grass was the country, as the water is the sea." Houghton Mifflin, $24.95.
This 1924 collection of stories (https://amzn.to/2qf1Xhd), mostly set in northern Michigan, is the work in which Hemingway's love of the wild shines brightest, as exemplified by the dark and hypnotic trout-fishing tale, "Big Two-Hearted River." Simon & Schuster, $9.
Organized around a loose theme, the ritual of the hunt, this 1942 short-story collection (https://amzn.to/2qfh2zg) includes Faulkner's finest piece of nature writing, "The Bear," set in a "doomed wilderness whose edges were being constantly and punily gnawed at by men with plows and axes who feared it because it was wilderness." Modern Library, $15.50.
The dominant myth in American literature is one of Anglos whupping the wilderness. In Australian storytelling, however, the outback is often the winner of that battle. Nowhere is the Down Under's darker version of this encounter told more eloquently than in Nobel Prize winner White's 1957 novel (https://amzn.to/2qfCaCV) about a nineteenth-century German explorer who meets a nasty end while trying to cross Australia. Out of print.
This fun and fevered 1958 tale (https://amzn.to/2qnFf2S) of group sex, Zen philosophizing, and mountain climbing features a character named Japhy Ryder-a thinly disguised stand-in for the poet Gary Snyder-whose beatnik wisdom includes lines like, "Yeah, man, you know to me a mountain is Buddha...just sittin there bein perfectly, perfectly silent and like praying for all living creatures." Go, cat, go! Penguin Books, $10.95.
"Switzerland is only bearable covered with snow, like some people are only bearable under a sheet," says the indomitable Aunt Augusta, the elderly globehopper at the center of this marvelously funny 1969 novel (https://amzn.to/2ptLbtW) about the joys of journeying, by one of the greatest of journeying writers. Viking Press, $10.95.
We used to read a lot of haiku that seemed like a bad joke-then came this eye-opening collection, edited by the U.S. poet laureate. Reviving the work of three old Japanese masters, the anthology (https://amzn.to/2oQHt9L) shows haiku to be the purest kind of nature poetry of all. Ecco Books, $15.
This extraordinary little 1896 book (https://amzn.to/2qnHfs2) is set in an isolated fishing village on the eastern coast of Maine. Sadly, Willa Cather was only two-thirds right when she predicted that it would go down in history as one of the great American novels, along with The Scarlet Letter and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Dover, $1.
The early part of this century was not lacking for great poets of the natural world, from William Butler Yeats to Marianne Moore to Robert Frost. But perhaps our favorite is the lesser-known Jeffers (https://amzn.to/2ptRqhx), a take-no-prisoners bard of the wild. His advocacy of "the value of rareness" in nature came decades before scientists began talking about the importance of biodiversity. Random House, $24.95.
Set on a remote Pacific atoll, this all-but-forgotten 1935 novel (https://amzn.to/2oQFTVr) is the kind of old-fashioned humanversus-nature potboiler that's rarely written these days-and never with such chutzpah. Amereon Ltd., $20.95.
Under the pretext of writing a travel book, Auden persuaded his publisher to pay for his journey to Iceland in 1936. But when he got there, he realized that he had no idea how to pull the project off. So he asked fellow poet MacNeice to join him in Reykjavik and collaborate on the book. The result is one of the quirkiest travelogues ever written (https://amzn.to/2qfPirG), half poetry, half prose, and 100 percent delightful. In The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Prose and Travel Books, Volume One (https://amzn.to/2pd33sH) , 1926-1938, Princeton University Press, $59.50.
This gripping 1965 novel (https://amzn.to/2qfGzFJ) about Western encroachment into the Amazon is noteworthy not only as a stirring piece of literature but as an early wake-up call about the razing of the rainforest. Vintage Books, $12.
In this 1977 work (https://amzn.to/2pdaMqB), regarded as the first full-length novel by an American Indian woman, ancient stories and reinvented ceremonies help a Laguna Pueblo man return to harmony with the earth after World War II. Penguin, $10.95.
This disturbing road novel (https://amzn.to/2pu7nEm), published in 1949, is set in the North African desert, a perfect place to explore what Bowles once called "the inner desert of the spirit." Vintage Books, $13.
"Of the many things love could not provide, one was such a thing as a mountain," reflects the protagonist of this fine first novel (https://amzn.to/2qfVvUp) from Outside contributing editor Shacochis. Set beneath an active volcano on a fictional Caribbean island, the 1993 National Book Award nominee is a powerful political tale as well as an engrossing look at addictive passion and a stunning rendering of life and wildlife in the tropics. Penguin Books, $11.95.
Celebrated for his lithe, lyrical prose, Salter sets this 1979 book (https://amzn.to/2qnVZHi) high in the French Alps, unraveling a high-stakes, high-adrenaline tale of a complicated friendship between two climbers. North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $12.
We might have included any of Harrison's fiction works-Wolf to Dalva to Legends of the Fall-among the great works of contemporary outdoor literature. But we have a particular soft spot for this lovely set of poems (https://amzn.to/2pd8qaY), especially the title piece, a mournful meditation on the rush of water and the rush of time. Clark City Press, $17.95.
The great Peruvian writer gives us an ingeniously constructed tale (https://amzn.to/2qfsRFP) about an outcast Jewish academic who recasts himself as a key member of an obscure Indian tribe deep in the Amazon jungle. It's a superb look at how we are transformed by our journeys and how the line between tourist and native is sometimes surprisingly thin. Penguin Books, $11.95.
Kingsolver's formal training in biology informs this high-voltage, powerfully political novel (https://amzn.to/2qnEWVI) about a science teacher who uncovers an eco-disaster caused by a mining company in her Arizona town. Kingsolver's subtle touch keeps things from getting too didactic. HarperCollins, $13.
The works of Homer inspired Nobel Prize winner Walcott as he worked on this brilliant book-length poem (https://amzn.to/2qnIwzk). A sailor from Walcott's native island of Saint Lucia is the protagonist of this story about physical, historical, and spiritual travel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30.
This 1992 National Book Award-winning novel (https://amzn.to/2pu17fX), about a 16-year-old cowboy's coming of age amid the deserts and mountains of Texas and Mexico-is proof that landscape can be a compelling central character. Vintage Books, $12.
These two collections are excellent introductions to the varied and fascinating ways in which today's poets interpret the natural world. They include verse from a striking variety of writers, including Sandra Alcosser, Wendell Berry, Amy Clampitt, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Rita Dove, Robert Hass, Stanley Kunitz, Denise Levertov, W. S. Merwin, and Pattiann Rogers.
Set in Newfoundland "on the most utterly desolate coast of the world," this 1993 National Book Award and 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner (https://amzn.to/2pd2u20) is an extraordinary exploration of both nature and culture, covering issues ranging from seals to child pornography, from birds and boatbuilding to the state of journalism. Scribner Paperback Fiction/Simon & Schuster, $12.
Walt Whitman advocated a kind of poetry based on "genuineness," a respect for the way things really are. One of his most energetic heirs is McGrath, a muscular poet who concerns himself with "America, the thing itself" and whose work (https://amzn.to/2pu7Qqf) arises from the tension between the natural and man-made worlds, encompassing the Rocky Mountains and Captain Kirk all within a few lines. Ecco Press, $23. From Outside Magazine, May 2004 (/1749236/outside-magazine-may-2004) Culture (/category/culture) / Books (/category/books) / M edia (/category/m edia)
By: Heather Hansman By: Abe Streep
(/2176152/adventurers-bookschanged-their-lives)
(/1985721/new-adventurelibrary)
By: Brian Kevin By: Brad Wieners and The Editors
(/2123771/essential-readingyoung-adventurers)
(/1928591/25-essential-bookswell-read-explorer)
M ORE CUL T URE (/CUL T URE)
(/)
(https://www.facebook.com/outsidemagazine) (https://twitter.com/outsidemagazine) (https://instagram.com/outsidemagazine) (https://pinterest.com/outsidemagazine/) Contact Us (/contact-us) Terms of Use (/1929046/outside-terms-use-and-end-user-license-agreement) Privacy (/1929051/mariah-media-network-llcs-privacy-policy) Ads (/1929491/about-our-ads) Media Kit (http://www.outsidemediakit.com/) Subscriptions (https://w1.buysub.com/loc/OUM/footer) Affiliate Links (/2171581/outside-onlines-policy-affiliate-links) RSS (/1824056/outsides-rss-feeds) Site Feedback (/2271831/give-us-your-feedback) © 2018 Mariah Media Network LLC.