Twenty-two writers, as diverse as Barry Lopez and Rick Bass to Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, celebrate rivers, sharing their visions on the topic throughout the world.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The selections in this inaugural volume of what promises to be a superb classic on contemporary nature writing are simply stunning. Spanning three continents and two centuries, River flows through banks lush with the words and observations of Thoreau and Hemingway, Barry Lopez and Annie Dillard, Mark Twain and Meriwether Lewis, John James Audubon and Joseph Conrad. "Pick a river, any river," challenges Murray in his broad introduction. "If you sit beside it long enough you will hear many things, and most of them are worth waiting for." He might just as well have applied the test to the pieces he's chosen here. Pick one, any one, it really doesn't matter. Each is worth a good deal more than the time it will take to dip in, read, and savor. --Jeff Silverman
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
YA-Readers ride the rivers of three continents with some of the most gifted writers of modern times in this thoughtfully chosen collection. In the introduction, Murray places the authors in their regional and historical context. What follows is a riveting armchair journey. After all, what would a collection of river writings be without that great raconteur Mark Twain sharing his prodigious knowledge of river piloting in the selection from Life on the Mississippi. Or John Wesley Powell's white-knuckle narrative of his harrowing descent through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Even modest little creeks can briefly become mighty torrents as described in the laconic humor of Annie Dillard. Louise Wegenknecht reminds readers that "Rivers are more than hydrology; they have lives and souls and can be hurt." She grew up on soil drained by the mighty Klamath River and its tributaries, which have been so adversely effected by the logging industry in northern California and Oregon. And rivers can be malignant, as Joseph Conrad observes. Finally there are excerpts from Eddy Harris's Mississippi Solo, which chronicles an adventure he was not altogether prepared for. For nature lovers, this collection is the next best thing to being on the river itself. Any river.
Cynthia J. Rieben, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Cynthia J. Rieben, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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