Encompassing Nature: A Sourcebook

Robert Torrance, a literary scholar, gathers nature writing from all times and locales, ranging from the creation stories of Native American people to the lyrics of the Chinese T'ang dynasty poet Li Bai, from the letters of the ancient Roman poet Epicurus to the travel memoirs of the colonial American naturalist William Bartram. Torrance accompanies each selection with a headnote addressing such matters as the natural-symbolic representation of love in the Song of Solomon and the asceticism of the ancient Japanese poet Betsugen Enshi. The result is a literary reference work of the first order, one that should become a standard textbook for many years to come. --Gregory McNamee