Wilderness Reading


Montana librarians compiled this great list of readings on wilderness and nature to celebrate the 50th anniversary (2015) of the Wilderness Act

 

   Celebrate 50 years of wilderness with a good book! 

Here are some titles recommended by Montana librarians. (** indicates multiple recommendations)

 

Non-fiction:

 

Abbey, Edward

               Desert solitaire

Austin, Mary    

               The Land of Little Rain 

Bartlett, Richard A    

               Great Surveys of the American West

Bass, Rick  (selected titles)

               The Wild Marsh: Seasons in Montana

Blehm, Eric    

               The Last Season

Brinkley, Douglas     

               Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America

Bryson, Bill   

               **A Walk in the Woods

Byl, Christine   

               Dirt Work

Connors, Philip  

               Field notes from a wilderness lookout by Philip Connors

Dillard, Annie

               Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Douglas, Chadwick

               The Wolverine Way

Egan, Timothy  

               **The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America

Ehrlich, Gretel   

               The Solace of Open Spaces

Frederick, Carl  

               The Great Plains in Transition

Fromm, Pete  

               **Indian Creek Chronicles

Glover, James M  

               **A Wilderness Original: The Life of Bob Marshall

Hagan, Pat  

               Seasonal Disorder  

Haskell, David  

               The Forest Unseen 

Heinrich, Bernd  

               Life Everlasting

               Summer World

               Winter World

Hoover, Helen  

               **The Years of the Forest

Jenkins, Peter  

               A Walk Across America

               The Walk West   

 Kerouac, Jack  

Dharma Bums

Krakauer, Jon  

**Into the Wild

Laycock, George  

The Mountain Men:  the dramatic history and lore of the first frontiersman 

Leopold, Aldo  

**A Sand County Almanac

Lopez, Barry   (anything by Lopez)

Crossing Open Ground

**Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape

**Of Wolves and Men

Louve, Richard   

               Last Child in the Woods

MacLean, Norman  

               **Young Men and Fire

               The Ranger, the Cook & the Hole in the Sky

Marshall, Robert, and George Marshall

Alaska wilderness: exploring the Central Brooks Range

McMillion, Scott     

Mark of the Grizzly

McPhee, John  

Encounters with the Archdruid

Mowat, Farley (selected titles) 

Muir, John (anything by Muir)

               The Mountains of California

               **My First Summer in the Sierra

Murie, Margaret E,  Murie, Olaus Johan, and Williams, Terry Tempest

Two in the Far North.

Nash, Roderick   

**Wilderness and the American Mind

Parratt, Mark W  

Fate is a Mountain 

Peacock, Doug (selected titles)

Petersen, Thomas Reed  and Proulx, Annie

A Road Runs Through It: Reviving Wild Places

Preston, Richard    

The Wild Trees

Punke, Michael   

               Last Stand: George Bird Grinnel, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West

Ripley, Richard   

The Ridgerunner: Elusive loner of the wilderness

Russell, Jerry and Renny   

On the Loose

Schaller, George B    

Stones of silence: journeys in the Himalayas

Smith, Diane 

Letters from Yellowstone

Snyder, Gary 

Practice of the Wild: Essays

Earth House Hold

Stone, Irving    

Men to Match My Mountains: The opening of the far west 1840-1900

Strayed, Cheryl   

Wild: From lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Thoreau, Henry David

**Walden; or, Life in the Woods

Wettstein, B L  

               Dream Chasers of the West

Parrat, Mark W  

               Fate is a Mountain 
Wheeler, Sarah    

               Terra Incognita

 

Fiction: 

 

Atwood, Margaret 

               Oryx and Crake

               Year of the Flood

               MaddAddam

deWitt, Patrick   

               The Sisters Brothers

Boyle, T C  

               Drop City

Faulkner, William   

               Big Woods

Lopez, Barry (anything by Lopez)

Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven

River Notes: The Dance of Herons

Winter Count

Crow and Weasel

Field Notes: The Grace Note of the Canyon Wren

MacLean, Norman    

               **A River Runs Through It

Welch, James    

               Fool's Crow  

 

Youth and children fiction and non-fiction:

 

Arnosky, Jim (any book by Arnosky)

Art, Henry W.  

Woodswalk: Peepers, Porcupines & Exploding Puff Balls! What You’ll See, Hear & Smell When Exploring the Woods

Chin, Jason     

Redwoods

Fendler, Don, Egan, Joseph B 

               Lost! On a Mountain in Maine

Ingold, Jeanette

**The Big Burn

Hitch

George, Jean Craighead

               **My Side of the Mountain

Gerber, Carole   

Winter Trees

London, Jack 

**Call of the Wild

White Fang

Love, Donna and Turley, Joyce Mihran  

The Totally Out There Guide to Glacier National Park

Love, Donna and Bersani, Shennen  

The Glaciers are Melting!

Love, Donna and Wald, Christina 

The Wild Life of Elk

Henry the impatient Heron

Mikaelsen, Ben (series)

Touching Spirit Bear

Mowat, Farley (selected titles)

Paulsen, Gary  (any book by Paulsen)

Hatchet

Shirley, Gayle C   

               Montana Wildlife: A Beginner’s Field Guide to the State’s Most Remarkable Animals

Trollope, Anthony

               The Way We Live Now

Yolen, Jane  

               Owl Moon

 

Other suggestions:

Rockhounding books!

Maybe the Tao Te Ching for something ancient and meditative?

http://www.goodreads.com/genres/wilderness

Wilderness.net bibliography of wilderness-related literature