The Art of Seeing Things

Rating:
Summary: Burroughs at his best!
Review: This is the anthology readers and scholars of John Burroughs (1837-1921) have been waiting for. Charlotte Walker, a professor of English at the State University of New York at Oneonta, has gathered selections from Burroughs's vast oeuvre and assembled them in a handsome volume. The words are set in modern type, and the subject matter is as fresh and timely as ever. Burroughs is often remembered as a naturalist, but he was much more than that: a perceptive and accessible literary critic, a philosopher, a radical thinker who advocated the overthrow of traditional religions in favor of an open-eyed nature worship steeped in science and wonder. Earlier anthologies of Burroughs's work have tended to ignore or suppress his thorny and provocative side, but Walker gives us the man in all his dimensions. As the author of a concise biography of Burroughs, I was pleased to open this collection and find it crowded with favorites---philosophical essays such as "Faith of a Naturalist," travel pieces such as "A Hunt for the Nightingale," an excerpt from "Our Rural Divinity" (about the dairy cow!), perceptive criticism of Emerson and Thoreau, studies of Catskill farm life, and more. This book makes a fine addition to any library and offers the best intorduction to Burroughs in print. Bravo! Highly recommended!