Customer Reviews

Illuminated Landscape, The (California Legacy Book)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Sierra Nevada remains a much misunderstood and underappreciated resource for California and the nation. This outstanding anthology provides a highly readable, entertaining and ultimately enlightening overview of the Sierra, past, present and future. It's a must read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Sierra's, whether a first time visitor or someone like myself who has been there many times without fully appreciating the geology, environment and human history of a truly unique place.

With selections ranging from John Muir to Mark Twain to Ansel Adams or Wallace Stegner, this is a remarkable book that will give readers a renewed appreciation for the huge role of the Sierra in our modern psyche and new hope for this threatened region. After reading this book I can't wait to get back to the mountains and will certainly see them in a new light.

The Illuminated Landscape: A Sierra Nevada Anthology, by Gary Noy and Rick Heide, collects significant, chronological Sierra writings in a single volume. Hey Day Books with co-publishers Sierra College Press and Santa Clara University, present pivotal works by Mark Twain, Bret Harte, John Muir, Horace Greeley, along with moderns Wallace Stegner, Kenneth Rexroth, David Brower and many others.

A primer, reference, or call to preservation, depending on the readers' perspective, The Illuminated Landscape delivers up history with a look ahead to a future Sierra, with writings in its final chapter, like those of Tom Knudsen and Gary Snyder.

Documenting the exceptional history, magnificent beauty and restorative qualities of the Sierra Nevada was only part of the editors' goals, "...we also hope that that this collection will serve as a reminder that the Sierra Nevada is a living organism that is constantly beset by environmental challenges."

I throughly enjoyed this book. Every short essay or story was worth reading and more than several were stunning. I have been introduced to some writers that I will now read further. An easy, delightful, historical adventure.

I was lucky enough to attend the first class (and second, I loved the first so much) that was the basis of the idea for this book and so just had to get this book when I found out it was coming out. This book does the class proud and really captures why many of us students were dragging in our friends and family and telling them they had to come enjoy the Sierra too. The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range is my favorite place on Earth. It is full of incredible animals, mystery, drama, beauty, and tales from end to another and is simply a fascinating place. This book does an absolutely spectacular job os capturing what makes the Sierra special.

This book is wonderful for any lover of history, whether the California Gold Rush Amerindian, Japanese Internment Camps, or many others. It is fantastic too for people who love nature and the wilderness. Any naturalists should have this book. And environmentalists will find many stories to lift their hearts and lead them to fight for our world again. There are a ton and a half of well-known writers in the book and a bunch of ones I know I want to read more from. I still can't believe there are so many tales in the book. Really, I was going to post here all the writers and their tales, but since there's nearly 100 stories and poems, I'm far too lazy to list all of them.

Curling up in a mountain meadow in the Sierra and reading these stories would be best, but even if you cannot do that, even if you are on the other side of the world, read these stories and get transported there, get a taste of the magic that is the Sierra.

Just a warning though...each story from the book inspires one to want to run up to the mountains and get their glad tidings :)

Also, if you like book, you may well want to check out more of John Muir's stuff, especially anything edited by Lee Stetson; John Muir Laws' Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada (the best field guide ever for the average person); The Red Dirt path by Gary Noy; and of course more Mark Twain, especially Roughing It.