ENVS 159/S. RABKIN
NATURE LITERATURE
WINTER 2010
Excerpt from syllabus for
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 159: NATURE LITERATURE
Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, Mary Oliver
Winter Quarter, 2010 • T/Th 12:00-1:45 • Room 455, ISB
Designed & taught by Sarah Rabkin, Environmental Studies Writing Instructor, University of California, Santa Cruz
This excerpt provides an overview of the course—including a list of required and recommended
texts and the introductory weeks’ topics—as well as a detailed look at the course segment devoted
to Aldo Leopold. The last time I taught the course was in early 2010. If I have an opportunity to
offer it again, it will be with an updated syllabus reflecting recent scholarship, texts & materials,
including the film Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and the Land Ethic in the 21st Century.
Course Overview
ENVS 159 focuses on five writers whose works have influenced United States citizens’ relationships with the natural
world. We read selections from the authors’ writing, examine their lives and legacies, and seek the lessons they teach.
In so doing, we explore the literary roots and tendrils of the U.S. environmental movement—and we make, in the words
of Thomas J. Lyon, “a halting journey toward understanding the world, and ourselves in it, as one system.”
This is primarily a reading and discussion course. You will need to set aside a substantial amount of time for reading,
taking notes, and completing the frequent short writing assignments designed to enhance your reading. The more
energetically you attend to these tasks and their deadlines, the more you will get out of the course, and the more fruitful
our discussions can be.
Required Texts (all books, and reader, available at the Bay Tree Bookstore):
• Henry David Thoreau, Walking. HarperSanFrancisco, 1994
• Henry David Thoreau, The Heart of Thoreau’s Journals. (Odell Shepard, editor.) Dover, 1961
• Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac. Ballantine, 1986
• Aldo Leopold, For the Health of the Land (J. Baird Callicott and Eric T. Freyfogle, editors),
Island Press/Shearwater Books, 1999
• Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 40th Anniversary Edition
• Rachel Carson, Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson. (Linda Lear, editor.) Beacon Press, 1999
• Edward Abbey, The Best of Edward Abbey. Sierra Club Books (2nd edition), 2005
• Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2000
• Edward Abbey, Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey,
1951-1989. (David Petersen, editor.) Johnson Books, 2003
• Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Volume One. Beacon Press
• Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook. Harcourt, January 1995
• A course reader
Recommended Further Reading
• Bill McKibben, editor, American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau
• Cheryl Glotfelty & Harold Fromm, editors, The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology
• Daniel J. Philippon, Conserving Words: How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement
• David Peterson, Writing Naturally: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Nature Writing
• Walter Harding, The Days of Henry Thoreau
• Robert Richardson, Jr., Thoreau: A Life of the Mind
• Henry David Thoreau, Meditations of Henry David Thoreau: A Light in the Woods
• Henry David Thoreau and Bradley P. Dean, Letters to a Spiritual Seeker
• J. Baird Callicott, editor, A Companion to A Sand County Almanac: Interpretive and Critical Essays;
also In Defense of the Land Ethic and Beyond the Land Ethic
• Susan L. Flader, Thinking Like a Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude…
• Aldo Leopold, Game Management
• Aldo Leopold (Luna Bergere Leopold, editor), Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold
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ENVS 159/S. RABKIN
NATURE LITERATURE
WINTER 2010
• Curt Meine, Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work
• Curt Meine, Correction Lines: Essays on Land, Leopold, and Conservation
• Julia Lutz Newton, Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey: Rediscovering the Author of A Sand County Almanac
• Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
• Martha Freeman, editor, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952-1964
• Priscilla Coit Murphy, What a Book Can Do: The Publication and Reception of Silent Spring
• Peter Matthiessen, editor, Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson
• Mark Hamilton Lytle, The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement
• Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
• Jack Loeffler, Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey
• James Cahalan, Edward Abbey: A Life
• James Hepworth and Greg McNamee, editors, Resist Much, Obey Little: Remembering Edward Abbey
• Edward Abbey (David Petersen, editor), Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast
• Edward Abbey (John Macrae, editor), The Serpents of Paradise: a reader
• Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures and many other books of poetry and essays
Writing Exercises and Portfolio
Each set of readings is paired with at least one writing exercise. You will find the prompt for each exercise in the
course calendar next to the phrase “Writing Due.” Type each exercise—at least one page, one-and-a-half spaced—
and include your name, the date, and a summary of the prompt at the top of the page.
I will collect and read your portfolio twice during the quarter.
If you find yourself uninspired by a given writing option(s), you may substitute a relevant one of your own. Please type
out your personalized prompt at the top of the page, so I know what you’re writing about.
Calendar of Readings, Assignments, and Discussion Topics
Reading forms the bulk of the work for this course. Some reading sets are considerably longer than others. Keep track
of upcoming assignments, and allow plenty of time to complete the longer ones by the deadline.
Tuesday, January 5: Course overview and logistics
Assignment Due: Before leaving class, turn in your questionnaire.
Thursday, January 7: Why Nature Literature?
Reading Due::
• In the reader: “Why So Many Nature Writers?” by Rick Bass, from Orion, Autumn 2000
• In the reader: “We Are Shaped by the Sound of Wind, the Slant of Sunlight,” by Barry Lopez, from High Country
News, September 14, 1998
• In Lost Woods: Rachel Carson’s “Design for Nature Writing”
Writing Due: What is nature literature? Why do people create it? Why should people read it? Who benefits from it?
Whom (and/or what) does it leave out? Is “nature literature” a useful category? Does this literature make a difference to
the landscapes, ecosystems, and phenomena that constitute its subjects? What is its relationship to literature that
focuses on social, ethical, political, historical, psychological, philosophical, or cultural concerns? What are your goals in
studying this subject? Tackle one or more of these questions, following your own interests. If you’re so inclined,
question the questions themselves. There are no right or wrong answers. Explore your thoughts on paper. Do some of
this writing before you read the Bass, Lopez, and Carson essays; maybe some during, and some after. Come up with a
couple of questions or ideas you would like to bring to the next class discussion.
Other Preparation Due: Obtain the required course texts, including the reader. Bring to class all texts containing
current assigned readings.
Tuesday, January 12: Nature Literature in Historical and Cultural Context
Reading Due:
• In the reader: “Introduction as Conversation,” by Alison H. Deming and Lauret E. Savoy. This is the
introduction to The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World, edited by Alison H. Deming and
Lauret E. Savoy, Milkweed editions, 2002
• In the reader: Prologue to A Natural History of Nature Writing, by Frank Stewart, Shearwater/Island Press, 1995
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ENVS 159/S. RABKIN
NATURE LITERATURE
WINTER 2010
• In the reader: Table of Contents, Foreword (by Al Gore), Introduction, and Chronology from American Earth:
Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, edited by Bill McKibben
Writing Due: Bill McKibben writes that the notion of “community” has recently emerged alongside the concept of the
“wild”—and perhaps even supplanted it—as a “compelling source of motive energy for the environmental movement.”
Summarize his argument, and explore your own thoughts in response. OR: Study the chronology of relevant events
from American Earth. Write about something you encounter there that you find especially surprising, intriguing, or
edifying.
Other Preparation Due: Come to class prepared to describe and give directions to a good local place for walking. This
could be, for example, a favorite beach; a quiet neighborhood; a local city, state or county park; a relatively
undeveloped part of the UCSC campus. Type up a brief description of the place and how to get to it. Include a
usable hand-drawn or photocopied map, and information about access via public transportation if appropriate.
Put your name, phone number (optional) and e-mail address on this, and be prepared to turn it in during class.
…
Tuesday, January 26: Leopold
Reading Due:
• In the reader: “The River of the Mother of God” and “The Role of Wildlife in a Liberal Education,” from The River of
the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold, edited by Susan L. Flader and J. Baird Callicott, University of
Wisconsin Press, 1991
Writing Due: Rough out a syllabus for a college course, appropriate to UCSC in 2006, which takes into account the
principles presented in “The Role of Wildlife in a Liberal Education.” Make it a course you would want to take, or teach.
It can be a one-quarter course, a semester course, a summer-school course, or a year-long course. Include some
specific readings, assignments, and field trips as well as topics to be covered. Explain your rationale for the way you
have set up your course and your goals for student learning.
Thursday, January 28: Leopold
Reading Due:
• In A Sand County Almanac: “ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO” and “Part III: The Upshot.” This may include re-reading
for some of you, since some of these essays have been assigned in ENVS 100 in previous years. If so, what is it like to
revisit these pieces?
• Also in A Sand County Almanac: Three or more essays of your choosing.
Writing Due: Write a letter to a family member or good friend who has not read Aldo Leopold. Tell them about this
book and your reactions to it. Be specific about what Leopold has to say and why you think it matters. (If you actually
send a copy of the letter, let me know.)
OR: Bill McKibben writes in his introduction to American Earth that it’s no surprise Aldo Leopold died helping neighbors
fight a wildfire that threatened their home. “’Neighbors’—of all types—mattered profoundly” to Leopold, writes
McKibben. How so?
Tuesday, February 2: Leopold
Reading Due:
• In the reader: “The Legacy of Aldo Leopold,” by Wallace Stegner, from J. Baird Callicott, Companion to A Sand
County Almanac, University of Wisconsin Press, 1987
Writing Due: In his essay on Leopold’s legacy, Stegner writes that “Many Americans will discount poets and mistrust
barefoot Nature lovers… but they find it harder to shrug off what they think of as the ‘practical’ evidence of scientists.”
What role do “poets and barefoot Nature lovers” have to play in the environmental movement? What about scientists?
How does Leopold fit into this scheme of science vs. poetry? How do you want to fit in?
Other Preparation Due: Test on Leopold readings today
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