At Home on this Earth: Two Centuries of U.S. Women's Nature Writing

The canon of U.S. nature writing, like the literary canon in general, has long been male-centered. But as this anthology shows, women’s voices have been there since the early Republic. At Home on This Earth features the most readable and accomplished pieces of nature writing by more than 50 U.S. women authors, from the early 19th century to the present. Spanning a range of genres including memoir, story, journal entry, sketch, and essay, it brings together pieces long out of print by such forgotten authors as Elizabeth C. Wright and Edith Thomas with selections by such well-known and acclaimed authors as Rachel Carson and Alice Walker. Moving far beyond the customary association of nature writing with New England and its Yankee progenitors, the book offers work from across the United States by Jewish, Asian, Hispanic, African American, and Native American women. With its rich diversity in voices, attitudes, and styles, this anthology expands the definition of nature writing, recognizes the specific contribution of women to this genre, and shows their unique relation to the natural world.

Designed for undergraduate courses as well as for general readers, the book includes a short biography of the author preceding each selection. A bibliography and list of further reading is included, as well as an index of authors and titles. Lorraine Anderson’s introduction traces for the first time a distinct tradition of women’s nature writing in the United States.

Contributors — Mary Hunter Austin, Marilou Awiakta, Florence Merriam Bailey, Fabiola Cabeza de Vaca, Sally Carrighar, Rachel Carson, Denise Chávez, Anna Botsford Comstock, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Terri de la Peña, Annie Dillard, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Gretel Ehrlich, Virginia Eifert, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Fuller, Susan Griffin, Charlotte Forten Grimké, Linda Hasselstrom, Julia Butterfly Hill, Linda Hogan, bell hooks, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Pam Houston, Sue Hubbell, Florence Page Jaques, Sarah Orne Jewett, Josephine Johnson, Diana Kappel-Smith, Caroline Kirkland, Maxine Kumin, Anne LaBastille, Ursula K. Le Guin, Meridel Le Sueur, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Ellen Meloy, Olive Thorne Miller, Brenda Peterson, Gene Stratton Porter, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Sharman Apt Russell, Leslie Marmon Silko, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Celia Laighton Thaxter, Edith M. Thomas, Alice Walker, Evelyn C. White, Terry Tempest Williams, Elizabeth C. Wright, Mabel Osgood Wright, Ann Zwinger