Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints [Hardcover]

Tom Killion and Gary Snyder (Author), Tom Killion (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

Seventy-two views of Mt. Tamalpais In a new collaboration by the authors of the bestselling The High Sierra of California, readers are introduced to the unique mountain overlooking San Francisco Bay. A source of story and myth since time began, Mt. Tamalpais has inspired conservationists, trail builders, botanists, artists, and poets for more than a century. With freshness and sustained delight, Tamalpais Walking explores Mt. Tamalpais s natural, cultural, historic, and spiritual dimensions. It is a book shaped by two master craftsmen collaborating on an enterprise nurtured by long and passionate involvement. The artwork is the product of Tom Killion s decades of depicting and interpreting the mountain s many moods and aspects. Gary Snyder has been hiking Mt. Tamalpais since 1948, and through poetry and a new, revealing essay he offers his thoughts on the mountain, its history, and the practice of walking meditation. Further enriched with Killion s essays on the mountain s history and selections from the work of Jack Kerouac, Ina Coolbrith, Kenneth Rexroth, and Lew Welch, Tamalpais Walking takes us deep into Mt. Tamalpais s pathways, offering original, revelatory views of a mountain prominent not just on the landscape but in the history and imagination of the West Coast.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Poet Snyder refers to Mount Tamalpais as œSan Francisco's backyard wilderness. But Killion's brief history makes clear that the location has been an integral part of San Francisco's outdoor culture since the 19th century. Although œTamalpais is a Miwok Indian word, what role the mountain played in their traditions has been lost. Place names on the mountain commemorate settlers who hiked its slopes, and the genteel poets and writers of the post–Civil War generations created most of the œIndian legends associated with it. But it was with Kenneth Rexroth and the burgeoning San Francisco scene of the 1930s that Tamalpais found its place in American literature, and later Jack Kerouac placed scenes in The Dharma Bums on the small mountain. Snyder is Tamalpais's greatest poet, and his essay recalling three circumambulatory hikes on the mountain is a highlight of the book. Poems by Rexroth, Snyder and Lew Welch are interspersed throughout, and multiblock color prints by Killion (who collaborated with Snyder on The High Sierra of California) pay homage both to Tamalpais and the Japanese masters of ukiyo-e, who perfected the complicated technique. (May)
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About the Author

Woodcut and letterpress artist Tom Killion grew up in Marin County, on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, where the rugged scenery inspired him from an early age to create landscape prints strongly influenced by traditional Japanese woodblock prints. Along with publishing fine art letterpress books, Killion holds a Ph.D. in African history from Stanford University and has taught history at several Bay Area universities. Gary Snyder is a poet, author, scholar, cultural critic, and professor emeritus of the University of California at Davis. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His Turtle Island won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1975, and his book-length poem Mountains and Rivers Without End won the Bollingen Prize for poetry in 1997. In 2008 he was awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Heyday Books (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159714097X
• ISBN-13: 978-1597140973
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 11.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #264,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #43 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Mountains
  • #44 in Books > Arts & Photography > Other Media > Prints

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ideal blend of art work and text for artistic and spiritual enjoyment, June 15, 2009

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints (Hardcover)

The woodcut and letterpress artist Killion has a Japanese touch to his artwork. The modest graphic style and the coloring remind one of Japanese woodcuts, as does the nature subject matter. Killion's prints though concern Mount Tamalpais north of San Francisco. It's a nature area popular with hikers and campers and also arousing spiritual feelings. Gary Snyder's poetry goes along with Killion's prints concerning the Mount Tamalpais notable throughout the region for physical and spiritual reasons. Snyder's poems with haiku-like lines mirror physical aspects of nature and spirituality in connection to nature. Beyond his poetry, Snyder embraced an Asian, Zen-like spirituality and lived close to nature. He spent much time hiking about Tamalpais, and he spent time in Japan to experience Asian spirituality directly.

Besides the art work, Killian writes fetching essays for the book. Snyder contributes journal-like parts going back to the 1950s and '60s. But the two are not the only ones found. Quotes from the writings of Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Kerouac, Ina Coolbright and anecdotes on such authors representing the fusion of Asian spirituality and American openness of spirit and attraction to nature are interwoven into the text.

There are 14 full-page color woodcuts of Killion's including the frontispiece. Others are of varying sizes in full-color or shades of dark colors. Coming upon the woodcuts of all sizes throughout the pages, one is drawn to them again and again perusing their details of coastline, clouds, craggy earth, and slopes. One wants to notice Killion's technical skill and spots of originality in this art, and also enjoy again and again the aesthetic and spiritual freshets afforded by them. At the end are three pages of color woodcuts four to a page.

The book is a rare book published these days, or ever. Not falling neatly into a marketing or shelving category of the book trade, it is a risky publishing venture even considering the reputations of the artist and poet. Despite this, no effort or expense has been spared in design or production. Though it has aspects of each, Tamalpais Walking cannot be reduced to a nature book, an art book, or a book of spirituality. These aspects are joined ideally; and to some point brought together subliminally, although the book is founded in the particular place of Mount Tamalpais. Primarily it's a book of spiritual and artistic enjoyment.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspired Collaboration Again..., May 27, 2009

By 

Judy Watt "judywatt" (Land's End, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints (Hardcover)

Another inspired collaboration of great art and great poetry, with interesting history in the mix as well.

I have all of Professor Killion's art books (except 28 Views) and about a dozen of his prints collected over the past 25 years or so. They get more expensive all the time, so while I used to buy big ones, now I just buy little ones. :)

Highly recommended for anyone who admires this style of block printing, or is a fan of Gary Snyder and somehow doesn't know about Tom Killion - buy it and find out what you've been missing all these years!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the most beaultiful woodcuts ever......and great history of Mt. Tam, August 1, 2009

By 

Alma G. Mcdaniel "familiy shrink" (San Anselmo, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints (Hardcover)

The author, along with poet Gary Snyder have put together the most beautiful collection of woodcuts and poetry/history of Marin county's Mt. Tam ever. You will be transported by this treasure.