The Pathless Way: John Muir and American Wilderness [Paperback]

Michael P. Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1986

"A tour de force, a remarkable narrative of spiritual and political development. . . . [Cohen's] oft unanswered, and unanswerable, questions, his views of Muir's spiritual, intellectual, and political growth are insightful, challenging, and new. They deserve an audience with scholars and Muir devotees."—Shirley Sargent, Pacific Historian

In this powerful study, Michael Cohen captures as never before the powerful consciousness, vision, and legacy of the pioneering environmentalist John Muir. Ultimately, Cohen stresses, this ecological consciousness would generate an ecological conscience.

It was no longer enough for Muir to individually test and celebrate his enlightenment in the wild. His vision, he now felt, must lead to concrete action, and the result was a protracted campaign that stressed the ecological education of the American public, governmental protection of natural resources, the establishment of the National Parks, and the encouragement of tourism.

Anyone interested in environmental studies, in American history and literature, or in the future of our natural heritage will be drawn by the very bracing flavor of his wilderness odyssey, evoked here by one of his own—a twentieth-century mountaineer and literary craftsman.
 

Editorial Reviews

Review

Winner of the 1983 Mark H. Ingraham Prize
Winner of the 1983 Utah Arts Commission Award

About the Author

Michael P. Cohen received his Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, Irvine, and presently teaches English at Southern Utah State College in Cedar City, Utah. He spent ten seasons climbing in the Sierra Nevada, and is now a passionate fly fisherman in the summer, a skier in winter. As Muir wrote to save wild places, so Cohen writes for the mountains, and for people who want to understand the evolution of ecological consciousness and conscience in America.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (September 15, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299097242
• ISBN-13: 978-0299097240
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #862,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael P.Cohen is known in the academic world as a pioneer in the realms of environmental history and "ecocriticism." His writing is directed not only toward academic audiences. His western history has the literary qualities of fiction, his writings on trees are accessible histories of science. His work radiates a passion for the western landscapes. He grew up in Southern California's San Fernando Valley, was educated at UCLA, U.C. Riverside, and U.C. Irvine. Between 2000 and 2005 he was Visiting Professor in Literature and Environment at the University of Nevada, Reno.

He has also embarked on a study of the groundings of Ecocriticism, in the historically changing ideas of ecology, evolutionary theory, and literary theory, in the context of the environmental politics of the late twentieth century.

Cohen also has a distinguished record as a rock climber and mountaineer. He is a pioneer of first ascents in the Sierra Nevada, is an avid skier, fly-fisherman, kayaker, and has been a professional mountain guide. His work is marked by familiarity with the wild rivers and mountains of the west, and informed by varied and multidisciplinary scholarly interests.

His first book, The Pathless Way: John Muir and American Wilderness, won the Mark H. Ingraham Prize, University of Wisconsin Press, among other awards. He has been a Research Fellow of the National Endowment of Humanities, a Danforth Fellow, and was awarded a Distinguished Teaching Award by the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. His The History of the Sierra Club 1892-1970 has been called "a rare book: an institutional history that is nonetheless balanced, impartial, and unsparingly honest." His most recent book, A Garden of Bristlecone Pines: Tales of Change in the Great Basin, was published by the University of Nevada Press and was a Finalist for Western States Book Award (WESTAF) in nonfiction.