This volume of seven essays and a late lecture by Henry David Thoreau makes available important material written both before and after Walden. First appearing in the 1840s through the 1860s, the essays were written during a time of great change in Thoreau's environs, as the Massachusetts of his childhood became increasingly urbanized and industrialized. William Rossi's introduction puts the essays in the context of Thoreau's other major works, both chronologically and intellectually. Rossi also shows how these writings relate to Thoreau's life and career as both writer and naturalist: his readings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Darwin; his failed bid for commercial acceptance of his work; and his pivotal encounter with the utter wildness of the Maine woods. In the essays themselves, readers will see how Thoreau melded conventions of natural history writing with elements of two popular literary forms - travel writing and landscape writing -to explore concerns ranging from America's westward expansion to the figural dimensions of scientific facts and phenomena. Thoreau the thinker, observer, wanderer, and inquiring naturalist - all emerge in this distinctive composite picture of the economic, natural, and spiritual communities that left their marks on one of our most important early environmentalists.

Reading the essays of Craig Nagel is like enjoying a good, unhurried visit with a good friend, one who is thoughtful, insightful and articulate-the welcome companion who's good to have around and to be around. He's fun. Nagel simply exudes charm and common sense-and he writes so well. (He's a gentle philosopher of the commonplace.) He's also organized. His brief sketches flow so nicely together. Just perusing his preface-well, there's none like it -will convince all thinking readers they're in for a real treat. And they are: he's that good. Dr. Art Lee Prof. of History (ret.) Bemidji State University

It is a time of awakening. In our fields, hedgerows and woodlands, our beaches, cities and parks, an almost imperceptible shift soon becomes a riot of sound and colour: winter ends, and life surges forth once more. Whether in town or country, we all share in this natural rhythm, in the joy and anticipation of the changing year. In prose and poetry both old and new, Spring mirrors the unfolding of the season, inviting us to see what's around us with new eyes. Featuring original writing by Rob Cowen, Miriam Darlington and Stephen Moss, classic extracts from the work of George Orwell, Clare Leighton and H. E. Bates, and fresh new voices from across the UK, this is an original and inspiring collection of nature writing that brings the British springtime to life in all its vivid glory.

Crazy Horse was the 'mystic Lakota warrior' who inspired his braves by his daring leadership, but he was not brutal or cruel. He was always in command of himself, a practiced trait that was essential to his code of honor and spirituality. To find the real Crazy Horse it is necessary to focus on his spiritual nature as well as his skills on the battlefield...

He will be remembered now in the mountain sculpture by Korczak Ziolkowski in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the largest monument we have in America, and by the elegant line of the poet, Stephen Spender: "Born of the sun he traveled a short while towards the sun and left the vivid air signed with his honor."