The Place Within: Portraits Of The American Landscape By 20 Contemporary Writers [Hardcover]

Daynard Jodi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 1996

Twenty distinguished American authors--including Harry Crews, Joy Williams, and Alan Lightman--explore places in the country's diverse landscape, from the neon lights of Times Square to the brush fires of Alaska.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Freelance writer Daynard has skillfully selected well-written and diverse pieces, some published previously, that reflect highly personal views of place. Several contributors describe the beauty of undeveloped spaces: Alan Lightman (Einstein's Dreams) offers a portrait of a remote Maine island; Diane Ackerman (A Natural History of the Senses) vividly evokes the Grand Canyon. Other essays, however, use nature?or even developed landscapes?as a backdrop for more intimately human concerns. Scott Russell Sanders (Writing from the Center) uses the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop to the ups and downs of his relationship with his teenage son; Phillip Lopate offers a compelling overview of his love affair with Manhattan. Included also is an article by Richard Rodriguez (Hunger of Memory) on gay life during the age of AIDS in San Francisco. Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman closes with his bird's-eye view of the American landscape from a spaceship. This collection is an evocative and pleasurable read. First serial to the Boston Globe; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

While each of these essays describes a different part of the United States, they are more than just a description of places; they portray the writers' relation to them. Some describe the natural world, like Diane Ackerman's "The Grandeur of the Grand Canyon" and Donald Hall's "Winter," on coping with a New Hampshire winter. Others, like Phillip Lopate's "Manhattan, Floating Island" and Richard Rodriguez's "Late Victorians," about San Francisco, describe cities. Most are as personal as Suzanne Berne's "Cloverly," describing her childhood home in Virginia, and Kathleen Norris's "Dreaming of Trees," which describes the significance of trees in her virtually treeless South Dakota home. Only four essays have been previously published. All are examples of the familiar essay at its best. Editor Daynard, a journalist who also contributes an essay on suburbia, currently lives in Boston. Other recent "place" anthologies of note are The Earth at Our Doorstep (LJ 9/1/96) and A Place Called Home (LJ 8/15/96). Highly recommended.?Judy Mimken, Boise P.L., Id.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.; 1st edition (November 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393039994
• ISBN-13: 978-0393039993
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,913,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful collection of essays, December 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Place Within: Portraits Of The American Landscape By 20 Contemporary Writers (Hardcover)

This book is one of the best essay collections I've ever come across. Noted writers contributed pieces about places important to them, and the result is an engaging work.

2 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is why we haven't entered the 21st Century yet., August 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Place Within: Portraits Of The American Landscape By 20 Contemporary Writers (Hardcover)

I read this book, and I must say that it is thinking like this that is the downfall of our society, both as we know it, as well as how we could know it. It is because of writings such as these that our poet-minded, philosophy-oriented culture has not become more technologically advanced in years of late. I wish that those who would write as well as those who would read this type of literature would spend their time doing something far more productive, like searching for answers to real problems, like disease and space travel, instead of puttering about discussing the imagination's status as a place vs. a space. Come on, people, get real. This book should be banned, with all other books of its kind. If that were to occur, I think our race (as people) could start to get somewhere.