This superb anthology brings together some of the most powerful and compelling writing about the Grand Canyon—stories, essays, and poems written across five centuries by people inhabiting, surviving, and attempting to understand what one explorer called the "Great Unknown." The Grand Canyon Reader includes traditional stories from native tribes, reports by explorers, journals by early tourists, and contemporary essays and stories by such beloved writers as John McPhee, Ann Zwinger, Edward Abbey, Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez, Linda Hogan, and Craig Childs. Lively tales written by unschooled river runners, unabashedly popular fiction, and memoirs stand alongside finely crafted literary works to represent full range of human experience in this wild, daunting, and inspiring landscape.
The Grand Canyon Reader
About the Book
Reviews
“The stories tell of the delight and wonder that is the Grand Canyon. . . . The timelessness of the canyon means that the excitement continues . . . and ‘The Grand Canyon Reader’ takes us along for the ride.”—Julie Cart Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Word of warning: Reading the essays in this book will make you want to drop everything and traverse the Grand Canyon, rim-to-rim, if only to avoid the tourists hovering. But, with offerings from the likes of John McPhee, Barry Lopez, Wallace Stegner and that curmudgeon Edward Abbey, it also makes you think.”—Sam McManis Sacramento Bee
“A great new compilation of short stories, essays, and poetry regaling the Grand Canyon. . . . Mr. Newman has pulled together in one book a rich collection of stories that bring to life the river and its surrounding canyon, and keeps it alive.”—Kurt Repanshek National Parks Traveler
“As soon as I began reading the Introduction to The Grand Canyon Reader, I knew I was going to like this book. . . . [Newman is] the ideal editor to put together an anthology of canyon poetry and prose. . . . I recommend The Grand Canyon Reader quite enthusiastically.”—Ann Ronald University of Nevada, Reno Interdisciplinary Studies In Literature And Environment
"Wondrous accounts by some of the most famous enviromentalists and nature writers of recent times."—Rain Taxi
“To really understand the wonders of the Grand Canyon, we need to see it through the eyes of others. In this reader, Lance Newman opens that world to us. The Grand Canyon of Craig Childs is a long way from that of Colin Fletcher, not to mention John Muir or Joseph Ives, but Newman guides us confidently through all these perspectives and many more. He has selected well, and we are the richer for it. Read this book.” —William C. Tweed, author of Uncertain Path: A Search for the Future of National Parks
“These are the Canyon’s literary ‘greatest hits’ alongside lesser known but extremely interesting accounts. Demonstrating an impressively refreshing range of perspectives and experiences, this is a remarkable anthology of 500 years of human interaction with the Canyon.” —Michael Branch, co-author of The Height of Our Mountains: Nature Writing from Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mounts and Shenandoah Valley
Table of Contents
Introduction: Stories of the Great Unknown
The Rim
Amil Quayle, Grand Canyon
Craig Childs, Fear of God
Ann Zwinger, Bright Angel Trail
Edward Abbey, Havasu
Colin Fletcher, The Man Who Walked through Time
Joseph Wood Krutch, Where Solitude Is Easy to Find
Theodore Roosevelt, A Cougar Hunt on the Rim of the Grand Canyon
John Muir, The Grand Cañon of the Colorado
Harriet Monroe, The Grand Cañon of the Colorado
The River
Sharlot Hall, The Song of the Colorado
Patricia McCairen, Canyon Solitude
Terry Tempest Williams, Stone Creek Woman
Barry Lopez, Gone Back into the Earth
John McPhee, A River
Bill Beer, Lava Falls
Bert Loper, Three Boys and an Old Man
George Flavell, The Log of the Panthon
John Wesley Powell, The Grand Cañon of the Colorado
The People
Michael Kabotie, Grand Canyon National Park
Linda Hogan, Plant Journey
Wallace Stegner, Packhorse Paradise
Joseph C. Ives, Mojave Valley to Big Canyon
Francisco Garcés, Mojave Crossing to Oraibe Pueblo
Pedro de Castañeda, The Hopi Mesas and the Colorado River
G.{ths}M. Mullett, The Story of Tiyo
Hualapai, Tudjupa Creates the People
Ramson Lomatewama, They Told Stories
Further Reading
Credits