The Woods Stretched for Miles: New Nature Writing from the South

Rating:
Summary: What is nature? Everyone has a different view.
Review: "There is no true wilderness here (in the Smokies), but there is wildness, honest and deep and as much as a man could hope for." Harry Middleton writes in one of the essays in this collection. He hikes up Hazel Creek and is upset because he sees two other anglers. I know the Hazel Creek trail. It is lovely but not wilderness.
Most of the essays acknowledge that they are not talking about
real wilderness. One of my other favorites is "The Making of a Marginal farm" by Wendell Berry. His whole working life is wrapped up in overhauling a farm, while teaching at the University of Kentucky. Even he admits that you can't make a living farming on a small scale. Berry is part of the agrarian tradition. This essay is pushing the definition of nature. He did save the land from developers.
Most of the essays are worth reading, as long as you accept that the authors are dealing with land that has been worked.

Rating:
Summary: Dull and pretentious
Review: Gerald Thurmond is a serious writer, but John Lane's work recalls the worst of the southern "Look at me, I am so deep" agrarians. Lane needs to realize that there is a world out there that is bigger than he is.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: The Woods Stretched for Miles is an excellent anthology of southern nature writing. The editor, Gerald Thurmond, has obviously searched far and wide to bring together a diverse group of writers. All of the selections are well chosen.