Yearning for the Land: A Search for the Importance of Place (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Did that February morning leave John and his brother David time for one last look at the remains of ancient Dunbar Castle and the two..." (more)
Key Phrases: John Muir, Fountain Lake, New World (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

John Muir's childhood immigration to the U.S. and coming of age on his father's Wisconsin farm provide a spare glue for Simpson's investigation of what land means to us now. Drawn by a sense that he is missing a critical link to where he lives, a suburb in Ohio, Simpson (Visions of Paradise: Glimpses of Our Landscape's Legacy) reverses Muir's journey, visiting first the marsh that gave the 19th-century conservationist much of his early pleasure and then Muir's homeland in Scotland. Along the way he visits the people who currently live on the land that was the Muir farm, members of the displaced Ho-Chunk tribe and Scottish tenants and landlords whose lives echo the land use that shaped their culture. In Scotland, Simpson finds his sense of home, an affinity to the land and culture that he soon fears he cannot engender in his own Ohio. Throughout, Muir acts as a touchstone for Simpson, who reflects on trails of Muir's thought from time to time and finds avid lovers of Muir's legacy at each landing. Readers will find more of Simpson here than Muir, and Simpson's narrative is best when he relates history or allows the many intriguing people he interviews to tell their own story. Unfortunately, it all too often suffers when he races along, dispensing with a clear sense of chronology, building small stacks of questions he doesn't really answer and failing to coherently integrate the ideas from interviews with his own stream of thought. All the same, underneath this tangled surface, Simpson does articulate some keen insights into the tenuous ties we have to the places we live and the pleasure of giving in to a sense of belonging.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Simpson (Visions of Paradise) explores people's relationship with the landscape, defined in terms of all the physical and cultural events that have shaped it throughout history, including myths and folklore. He accomplishes this by visiting and talking to residents in two places where conservationist John Muir lived as a boy-his birthplace in Scotland and Marquette County, WI. Although glimpses of Muir's boyhood are provided, of greater interest are Simpson's interviews with fourth-generation farmers, Ho-Chunk Indians, a Scottish duke and earl, and just plain folks who talk about today's transient lifestyle and lack of rootedness and community. Simpson ultimately answers a question about his own yearning for a particular landscape when upon returning to America he discovers that he has left his heart in Scotland in the very village where an ancestor was christened. Although he makes good points, the writing is tedious at times. Gretel Erhlich explores a similar theme with more artistry and finesse in This Cold Heaven. For large public libraries or libraries with comprehensive collections on human ecology.
Maureen J. Delaney-Lehman, Lake Superior State Univ. Lib., Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1 edition (September 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037542086X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375420863
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,481,041 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)