Faculty Research Leave Application Michael A. Bryson Associate Professor of Humanities and Sustainability Studies College of Professional Studies Submitted 2 November 2012 / Approved 16 January 2013

Reading the Book of Nature May Theilgaard Watts and the Art of (Teaching)

Project Overview and Major Goals

This project focuses on one of the most influential and remarkable voices in the environmental history of the Region: May Theilgaard Watts (1893-1975), whose writings, environmental education work, public outreach, and conservation advocacy dramatically shaped both the landscape itself as well as human perceptions of urban and suburban environments. A student of pioneering scientist Henry Chandler

Cowles, who led the development of ecology as a scientific discipline with his work on plant community succession in the Indiana Dunes, Watts became an expert at "reading the landscape" through the lenses of ecology and . Possessed of an uncanny and singular ability to explain complex ecological relationships and processes, Watts perfected the art of interpreting stories of environmental change through observation and analysis of physical evidence -- plants, animal tracks, soil, water, rooflines, roads -- within both the natural and built environment.

While she was widely traveled (and published one of her major books about her explorations of Europe), most of Watts' time and energy focused on the Chicago region, where she was the first naturalist-educator at the renowned in Lisle, IL. In this capacity, Watts not only led hundreds of education programs for children, adults, and aspiring naturalists; but also performed ecological research, developed educational materials and

2 curricula, and mentored many fellow educators and nature interpreters who specifically sought out her expertise. After her retirement, in the early 1960s she became the chief advocate for what would be the nation's first rails-to-trails conversion project, the Illinois Prairie Path -- now one of dozens of similar recreational trails in and around Chicago, and a model for open space re- development throughout the US.

Watts' interpretations of the landscape took many forms: drawings, maps, empirical biological surveys, essays, field guides, newspaper and magazine articles, speeches, and even public television programs. The most significant and enduring among these is her landmark book, Reading the Landscape of America, originally published in 1957 and revised by Watts in

1975. This remarkable text combines dozens of original illustrations with engaging prose that despite its explicitly didactic purpose (to teach the art and science of understanding ecological relationships and thus "read" the history and physical character of particular landscapes) is both entertaining and instructive, scientifically rigorous yet rhetorically artful. Long neglected within the critical context of 20th century American nature writing, Reading the Landscape of America is, in fact, a watershed book that utilizes art and science in equal measure; explores the ecological workings of a locale within its environmental and cultural history; recognizes the importance of native plants in the workings of ecosystems and the identity of communities; and considers both the natural and (human) built environments as an integrated whole. Consequently,

Watts' text -- and her multifaceted body of work -- are far ahead of their time, as they articulate many of the ideas and concerns of contemporary urban ecology and sustainable development.

The focused study on May Watts previewed here is a vital part of my longer-term book project, Mapping the Urban Wilderness, which is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account of the shape, character, history, and future of nature within the Chicago metropolitan region.

3 Such a "re-visioning" of Chicago -- one of the most storied, studied, and celebrated cities in the world -- can be realized by figuratively mapping the literature and natural history of the city onto the spatial contours of its geography as well as the temporal axis of its environmental history.

The literature within this topography is an inclusive category of written discourse that encompasses poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction; biography and autobiography; nature writing, scientific reports, and visual art; even planning documents and maps. Defined in this way, the literature of nature in the Chicago region serves as a useful lens through which to view the environmental changes that have occurred since the early days of the city in the 1830s, as well as our shifting attitudes about the character and value of urban nature in more contemporary times. Such an assessment is especially timely with the recent emergence of sustainability as a conceptual tool for improving the environmental quality, economic vitality, and social equity of urban regions. The overarching questions that Mapping the Urban Wilderness addresses include:

• How does the exploration of nature within an urban area expand, challenge, and/or problematize our past and present notions about wilderness? What is at stake in labeling as "wilderness" particular kinds of urban nature, and not others?

• What do past and present literary, artistic, and scientific representations of nature in Chicago tell us about the character of the urban environment and our relationship to it?

• How does the quality and geographic distribution of nature within the Chicago region impact individual neighborhoods and localities, as well as people of different classes, races, and ethnicities?

• How can a new conception of urban wilderness provide a framework for addressing ecological problems and stimulate an appreciation for nature that, in turn, leads to the formation of beneficial environmental ideas and policies?

• What are the necessary elements of an urban environmental ethic, and how might a fuller understanding of Chicago's ecological and literary histories contribute to its articulation?

Given the analytic framework embodied in these questions, my research leave agenda thus has two concrete goals -- one short-term, the other ongoing. The first is to research, write,

4 and publish the first significant critical study of the literary work and public education efforts of

May Watts, a task which can be tackled within the timeframe of a one-semester research leave and which forms a key part of the much larger framework of Mapping the Urban Wilderness -- specifically, its chapter entitled "City, Suburb, Farm: Chicago Nature Writing, Past and Present."

Secondly, in conjunction with the research I do for the Watts project, I will continue to gather and analyze materials, revise the organizational framework, and draft sections of Mapping the

Urban Wilderness, since these two research/writing activities are synergistic. The final result will be a first-of-its-kind publishable article on the life and work of May Watts and significant progress on my book-length investigation of the literature and history of urban nature in the

Chicago region.

Significance of the Research

The ideas, leadership, vision, and influence of May Theilgaard Watts made tremendous impacts upon public environmental attitudes and civic policy here in the Chicago region. The area's environmental history has many other such examples -- from legendary botanist Henry

Chandler Cowles and landscape architect Jens Jensen in the early 20th century (both of whom are subjects of recent biographies) to restoration ecologists Bob Betz and Stephen Packard in more recent times. Of the many people who have influenced the direction of the Chicago region's environmental movement, though, few have done so more profoundly than May Watts, who lived, wrote, and taught during an era of rapid suburbanization, ecological degradation, and political change. By devoting her career to developing what we now might call "ecological literacy" among her natural history students as well as the general public during the mid-20th century, and by contributing forcefully to the land conservation and nascent rails-to-trails

5 movements in the 1960s, Watts closely aligned herself with the sweeping transformations in the nation's environmental attitudes and policies during that tumultuous time, as signaled by the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962, the first Earth Day in 1970, and the passage of landmark environmental legislation (such as the Clean Air and Water Acts) in the late 60s and early 70s. Watts thus is a critically important but hitherto unrecognized voice in that transformative movement, and her life's work -- like that of Carson, another pioneering female scientist-writer -- merits both wider recognition and critical scrutiny.

A contemporary assessment of Watts' literary/artistic depictions of ecology and local landscapes forms a significant thread within Mapping the Urban Wilderness and thus greatly contributes to our understanding of urban ecology, especially that of Chicago. The Chicago region is home to eight million people, numerous endangered species and imperiled habitats of both local and global significance, and dozens of environmental and scientific groups (from large institutions to small grass-roots organizations) dedicated to understanding and conserving the local environment. My project is thus a part of the environmental education and advocacy work here in the Chicago area and, by extension, elsewhere -- efforts that include hands-on studies of science and nature in K-12 grades, public outreach programs in wildlife and habitat conservation, research efforts to document the area's biological and ecological diversity, social activism focused upon achieving environmental justice for all citizens regardless of race or location, and literary/artistic representations of urban nature that foster a deeper awareness of our place with the natural environment.

This research agenda also relates directly and positively to my teaching within and directorship of the Sustainability Studies Program here at Roosevelt, and consequently to the university's mission-driven focus on local outreach to and understanding of the greater

6 Chicagoland community. My interest in the sustainability of urban areas has been greatly influenced by readings of naturalists-writers such as Watts, Leonard Dubkin, Jens Jensen, Edwin

Way Teale and others who have taken urban areas as their focus. These authors and others like them cross disciplinary boundaries in fusing art, literature, and science in the study of the natural environment, and all share a desire to connect with the general public as opposed to a narrow, specialized audience. The interdisciplinary approach to urban nature, perhaps nowhere better displayed than in the writings of May Watts, embodies a method and ethos that are explicitly woven into Roosevelt's Sustainability Studies undergraduate curriculum. Consequently, my research will augment the ways in which our program can develop scientific and environmental literacy among my students, stimulate awareness of the ecological problems and environmental impacts of urban life, foster appreciation of how the arts and humanities are just as relevant to building sustainable communities as are science and policy, and emphasize how local environmental concerns connect to global issues and trends.

Preliminary Work in Area

My proposed research project is a natural outgrowth of my past and current work on the relations among scientific discourse, environmental history, urban nature writing, and the sustainability of cities and suburbs. While I have not done extensive research or writing on May

Watts previously, the recent articles I have published on Chicago urban nature writer Leonard

Dubkin and the anthropologist, essayist, and poet Loren Eiseley -- as well as the contextual research I've undertaken for Mapping the Urban Wilderness -- provide a solid conceptual framework for an in-depth critical study of Watts' life and work. (See the Prior Experience section below for more details on these recently completed projects.)

7 In addition to this research and writing, I have presented widely the last five years on topics such as the representation of urban wilderness, the character of nature in cities, urban and suburban sustainability, water in the urban environment, and ecological literacy. All of these concerns have found expression in my scholarly work, popular writings (in newspapers, magazines, and the web), professional talks, and public lectures. I thus approach the life and writings of May Watts and other scientist-writers quite differently than I might've, say, ten or fifteen years ago, when I would've primarily focused on the ways in which her writings fuse literature and science in artful and effective ways. That they do -- but now I'm just as concerned with how writers like Watts educate their readers, challenge our assumptions about science and nature (especially in urban areas), connect with a wide audience, and combine their artistic productions with environmental advocacy and conservation work.

Prior Experience in Carrying Out Related Projects

My research and publication record amply demonstrates my capability in planning, researching, writing, and publishing articles and books similar in scope and approach to the projects discussed in this proposal. Of particular note are my two most recent scholarly essay publications: "Unearthing Urban Nature: Loren Eiseley's Explorations of City and Suburb"

(2012) and "Empty Lots and Secret Places: Leonard Dubkin's Exploration of Urban Nature in

Chicago" (2011). Each of these two ecocritical studies assesses how naturalist-writers grapple with, interpret, and represent the various manifestations of nature in the city; for Eiseley, the well-known essayist on matters anthropological and evolutionary, the setting was usually New

York or Philadelphia and its suburbs; for Dubkin, the now-obscure but once locally notable naturalist and journalist, it was Chicago. The Dubkin project, one I initiated from scratch during

8 my last research leave (in the spring of 2007), is the most natural precursor to and important foundation for this proposed study of May Watts.

Also relevant here is my 2002 book, Visions of the Land: Literature, Science, and the

American Environment from the Era of Exploration to the Age of Ecology, a major scholarly work that was published by the University of Virginia Press as part of a groundbreaking series they developed in 2001 entitled "Under the Sign of Nature: Exploration in Ecocriticism."

Visions of the Land was widely and favorably reviewed in scholarly journals from the areas of literary studies (American Literature, The New England Quarterly, Great Plains Quarterly,

Rocky Mountain Review), environmental studies (Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and

Environment, Environmental History, H-Environment), and science (ISIS, Journal of the ). As literary critic Nina Baym, the Swanland Endowed Chair in English at the

University of Illinois, writes in her review for The New England Quarterly,

The texts discussed in Visions of the Land are not only valuable historical documents but also strong literary performances in their own right. The combination of works is original and compelling, and the book is commendable for expanding the idea of the literary to include a range of genres. Its example may inspire teachers to add Frémont or Powell or, for that matter, Clarence King or Gifford Pinchot . . . to their syllabi. And there can be little doubt that the chronicle of increasing scientific self-awareness and environmental sensitivity Bryson relates is accurate. But, as Bryson comments ruefully in his afterword, the pervasive signs of accelerating global degradation are ‘a humbling reminder of how far we have to go toward effective environmental stewardship’ (p. 177). It is perhaps not too much to say that, in detailing how far we have come, Visions of the Land has nudged us one step closer to that goal. (133)

The book also received a citation by CHOICE as a 2003 Outstanding Academic Title publication in Language and Literature. While not focused on urban areas, contemporary literature, or

Chicago, Visions of the Land outlines and uses an analytic framework, ecocriticism, that characterizes my current research practice.

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Tentative Timeline* for Project Research and Write-up

Date Task Before and during Read and take notes on key primary works by Watts Fall 2013 Compile bibliography of relevant primary and secondary works Identify archival information beyond Morton Arboretum papers

January 2014 Finish notes on primary texts Collect and review key sources within secondary literature Begin archival research at the Sterling Morton Library, Morton Arboretum

February Finish notes on secondary literature Begin outlining article, "Reading the Book of Nature" Continue archival research at the Morton Arboretum

March Begin drafting article Continue archival research at the Morton Arboretum Set up interviews of relatives and/or former students of Watts

April Conduct supporting archival research at the Chicago Academy of Science (Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum), Chicago History Museum, and Field Museum of Natural History Conduct interview of relatives and former students/colleagues of Watts

May Finish first draft of article and circulate to colleagues for comments Finish archival research at the Morton Arboretum

June - August Revise draft based on readers' feedback and additional research Send out revised article to journal editor(s) for review

* Based on a Spring 2014 Leave

10 Availability of Data and Resources

My research project on the life and work of May Watts presents a unique opportunity to take advantage of an excellent local archival source: the Sterling Morton Library at the Morton

Arboretum, one of the best natural history libraries in the Midwest, has her personal papers in its archive, as well as a deep collection in ecology, natural history, botany, and local history. These resources are fully available to me as a professional scholar through arrangements I have confirmed with the Morton Library. Also available through Arboretum staff and records is information on former students of Watts, some of whom are still alive and potentially available for interviews for my planned biographical research on Watts.

Relationship of Work to Developments in the Field

Two major areas of research and writing intersect within my proposed project: ecological criticism, or "ecocriticism"; and the history, literature, and natural history of Chicago. Until quite recently, ecocritical scholarship has concentrated largely on writers, literary genres, and themes grounded in remote and rural settings, as opposed to critiquing writers and texts associated with urban themes and city landscapes. (For a brief definition of ecocriticism, see the Research

Design and Analytic Methods section below.) In this fashion, since its inception in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a self-described "green" method of literary and cultural criticism, ecocriticism has displayed a bias against the urban sphere, though more by benign neglect than conscious prejudice. In the process, ecocriticism lent credence to that age-old opposition of nature and culture by implicitly defining wilderness as, among other things, that-which-is-not-urban.

Recently, though, there has been a slight shift in the winds. For example, critic Michael

Bennett argues for an increased emphasis on urban themes and environments in his 2001 essay,

11 "From Wide Open Spaces to Metropolitan Spaces: The Urban Challenge to Ecocriticism," and his co-edited collection (with David Teague) of urban-centered ecocritical studies, The Nature of

Cities (1999), sketches an outline of how ecocriticism could address urban topics, issues, and problems. Several years later, the urban environment has become a sparsely settled but active frontier in ecocriticism. Yet, only a few articles and books have applied ecocriticism to urban subjects (such as John Tallmadge's The Cincinnati Arch); and but for my 2011 publication on

Leonard Dubkin, none take Chicago as its focus. My focus on May Watts as well as the wider context of Chicago's urban nature will continue to help expanding the ecocritical agenda to urban subjects in coming years.

Another relevant area of scholarship is what I've come to call "Chicago Studies" for lack of an official term -- works of literary criticism and biography; history, both political and environmental); sociology and urban studies; and natural history and science. These four sub- areas of Chicago Studies represent but a mere taste of the extraordinary range and depth of research on and writing about the Chicago region. They include literary studies such as Clarence

Andrews' Chicago in Story: A Literary History (1982) that primarily focus on canonical authors and works of Chicago-based fiction and poetry, but pay virtually no attention to nature writing or works with a scientific element. Biographical studies of important environmental figures include

Victor Cassidy's Henry Chandler Cowles: Pioneering Ecologist (2007) and Robert Grese's Jens

Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens (1998).

Chicago has inspired a wealth of influential historical studies, from Milo Milton Quaife's and Bessie Louise Pierce's comprehensive histories published in the early decades of the 20th century, to more recent works such as William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the

Great West (1991), Donald Miller's City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of

12 America (1996), and the magisterial Encyclopedia of Chicago (2004). With the notable exception of Cronon's work, though, none of these portray the natural environment as a central character in the historical drama, highlighting instead the various political, social, and economic forces that have shaped Chicago's development and identity.

Scholars working in the interdisciplinary field of urban studies -- who draw insights from sociology, political science, history, cultural geography, and other fields -- have produced a wide range of Chicago-based work. Recent examples include Sylvia Washington's Packing Them

In: An Archeaology of Environmental Racism in Chicago, 1865-1954 (2005), which takes a comprehensive look from an environmental policy and social justice perspective at the impact of industrialization, pollution, and hazardous waste on immigrant groups and minority populations in the city; John Hudson's recent geographic synthesis Chicago: A Geography of the City and Its

Region (2006); and Larry Bennett's assessment of Chicago's emergent identity as a post- industrial, global metropolis in the process of redefining what it means to be a modern city, The

Third City: Chicago and American Urbanism (2010).

Finally, relevant works of natural history and science focused on the Chicago region include Joel Greenberg's remarkable environmental history, A Natural History of the Chicago

Region (2003) and his edited anthology of nature writing, Of Prairie, Woods, and Water (2008);

Libby Hill's The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History (2000); the Chicago

Wilderness Atlas of Biodiversity, now in its 2nd edition (2011); and Floyd Swink's and Gerould

Wilhelm's botanical classic Plants of the Chicago Region (4th edition, 1994).

My proposed research project is unique and timely because it applies an ecocritical perspective to an urban subject -- in this case, an important, influential, and heretofore critically- neglected writer and naturalist, May Watts; situates the study of Watt's literary and artistic

13 productions within the context of Chicago's environmental history and future sustainability; and builds upon and extends current ecocritical scholarship by synthesizing environmental history, science and natural history, and literary studies. The larger project of which the Watts study is a part -- namely, Mapping the Urban Wilderness -- integrates what has been up to now separate areas of Chicago Studies, while at the same time pushing the work of ecocriticism in an exciting and fruitful new direction.

Research Design and Analytical Methods

As an interdisciplinary-minded literary critic, my research approach is unabashedly qualitative. I emphasize the close reading and analysis of individual texts, their relationships with one another, and their place in the broad contexts of popular scientific discourse, nature writing, environmental history, and sustainability. I complement this textual approach by firmly grounding my analyses in the appropriate historical context and by situating my interpretations within the relevant secondary literature. My work differs from traditional literary scholarship is its focus upon non-canonical texts and authors as well as its use of insights and theories from fields such as ecocriticism, the cultural study of science, and environmental history.

In this project, I strive to bring an "ecologically critical" -- or ecocritical -- perspective to bear upon the life, literary/artistic achievements, public education efforts, and conservation work of May Watts. Ecocriticism is a specific approach within the broad area of humanistic interpretation, an environmentally-informed method of analyzing texts, artworks, and other cultural products. As ecocritic Cheryl Glotfelty explains in her essay, "What Is Ecocriticism?":

Ecocritics and theorists ask questions like the following: How is nature represented in this sonnet? What role does the physical setting play in the plot of this novel? Are the values expressed in this play consistent with ecological wisdom? How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it? How

14 can we characterize nature writing as a genre? . . . How has the concept of wilderness changed over time? In what ways and to what effect is the environmental crisis seeping into contemporary literature and popular culture? What view of nature informs U.S. government reports, and what rhetoric enforces this view? What bearing might the science of ecology have on literary studies? How is science itself open to literary analysis? What cross-fertilization is possible between literary studies and environmental discourse in related disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology, art history, and ethics?

Glotfelty's free-ranging list of critical questions point out, among other things, the interdisciplinary nature as well as the activist orientation of ecocriticism. This critical approach is politically and methodologically heterogeneous, but starts from the premises that the physical environment is a worthy and important object of study; that natural resources are imperiled and therefore in need of protection and conservation; and that humanistic inquiry about the myriad relationships between humanity and nature can foster, in the long run, ecological awareness and environmental progress.

15 Appendix A: Outcome of Previous Research Leaves

I. "Uniting Nature, Science, and Literature: Contemporary Environmental Science

Writers and the Inheritance of Rachel Carson and Loren Eiseley" (spring 2001) -- The major goals of this study were to analyze contemporary environmental science writers in light of the nature writing and popular science of Rachel Carson and Loren Eiseley; to assess the development of a new mode of environmental science writing which combines elements of natural history, travel literature, popular science, biography, and/or autobiography; and to examine how this discourse (1) vigorously critiques our environmental values and practices, (2) fosters scientific and environmental literacy among the general public, and (3) reflects and/or revises gendered representations of both nature and science.

My work during that 2001 research leave resulted in a peer-reviewed journal article entitled "It's Worth the Risk: Science and Autobiography in Sandra Steingraber's Living

Downstream" published in Women's Studies Quarterly (2001) -- the first scholarly study of

Steingraber, who in subsequent years has become one of the most important scientist-writers / environmental activists in the US, as evidenced by her string of critically-acclaimed books and artful journalism. More importantly, I completed the final revisions of a book manuscript,

Visions of the Land: Literature, Science, and the American Environment, which had been submitted for review to the University of Virginia Press in the fall of 2000. The book was formally awarded a contract based on my spring 2001 revisions, and was published in 2002 as the 9th book in their new environmental studies series, "Under the Sign of Nature." (I should also note that in the summer of 1997, a $500 Roosevelt Summer Research Grant supported my early efforts to reconceptualize and conduct additional research on my PhD dissertation, which in turn

16 provided the foundation for Visions of the Land a few years later.) Thirdly, the additional research I conducted on Rachel Carson and Loren Eiseley during that leave produced a scholarly article focused on their scientific rhetoric in a 2003 issue of Technical Communication

Quarterly.

II. Mapping the Urban Wilderness: An Ecological and Literary Topography of Chicago

(spring 2007) -- My second research leave provided me with an exceptional opportunity to change directions in my research agenda significantly, from a wide-ranging emphasis on science- and-literature studies to a new focus on the urban environment (particularly Chicago) and city- based nature writing. The goals of this study were to lay the initial groundwork for a book tentatively entitled Mapping the Urban Wilderness: An Ecological and Literary Topography of

Chicago, discussed earlier in this proposal, as well as to write and publish a scholarly essay (of

30-40 manuscript pages) based on that research that would be suitable for publication as a stand- alone article in a notable environmental studies / interdisciplinary journal.

This leave period also was fruitful on multiple fronts. Notably, in the course of my research for Mapping the Urban Wilderness, I unearthed some fascinating information on the

Chicago-based urban nature writer Leonard Dubkin, a self-taught naturalist and journalist who published a string of singular and otherwise remarkable books from the mid-1940s to the early

1970s about observing nature in Chicago. When I made contact with Dubkin's daughter, who lives in Chicago and gave me unfettered access to many of her personal papers, I knew I had an extraordinary chance to research and write about a forgotten author, with access to drafts, letters, and other papers. I was able to capitalize on this work by publishing the first scholarly treatment of Dubkin's work in the leading journal of ecocriticism, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature

17 and Environment. Secondly, during what became an intensely focused period of Dubkin research, I made substantial progress in creating the bibliographic and conceptual foundation for the Mapping the Urban Wilderness book.

But an unexpected, yet perhaps most important outcome, of the shift in research focus enabled by my 2007 leave was the inspiration it provided me to offer an experimental course in urban sustainability in the spring semester of 2009. This innovative Chicago-focused interdisciplinary seminar not only led to another peer-reviewed publication (Bryson and Zimring,

"Creating the Sustainable City") but also provided the foundation of the new Sustainability

Studies undergraduate major at RU in the 2009-2010 academic year -- a program at the forefront of the university's overall sustainability efforts and now home to 55+ majors.

18 Bibliography

Andrews, Clarence A. Chicago in Story: A Literary History. Iowa City, Iowa: Midwest Heritage Publishing Co., 1982.

Baym, Nina. "Review of Visions of the Land." The New England Quarterly (March 2003): 130- 3.

Bennett, Larry. The Third City: Chicago and American Urbanism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Bennett, Michael. "From Wide Open Spaces to Metropolitan Places: The Urban Challenge to Ecocriticism." Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 8.1 (Winter 2001): 31-52.

Bennett, Michael, and David W. Teague, eds. The Nature of Cities: Ecocriticism and Urban Environments. Tucson: University of Press, 1999.

Bryson, Michael A. "Empty Lots and Secret Places: Leonard Dubkin's Exploration of Urban Nature in Chicago." Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and Environment 18.1 (Winter 2011): 47-66.

-----. "Unearthing Urban Nature: Loren Eiseley's Explorations of City and Suburb." In Artifacts and Illuminations: Critical Essays on Loren Eiseley, eds. Tom Lynch and Susan Maher. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012. 77-98.

-----. Visions of the Land: Literature, Science, and the American Environment from the Era of Exploration to the Age of Ecology. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2002.

Bryson, Michael A. and Carl Zimring. "Creating the Sustainable City: Developing an Interdisciplinary Introduction to Urban Environmental Studies for a General Education Curriculum." Metropolitan Universities Journal 20.2 (July 2010): 105-116. Special issue: "The Green Revolution of Metropolitan Universities," edited by Roger Munger.

Burnham, Daniel H. and Edward H. Bennett. Plan of Chicago. 1909. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970.

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1962.

Cassidy, Victor. Henry Chandler Cowles: Pioneering Ecologist. Seattle: Kedzie Press, 2007.

Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.

-----. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: Norton, 1991.

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Dixon, Terrell, ed. City Wilds: Essays and Stories about Urban Nature. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002.

Dubkin, Leonard. My Secret Places: One Man's Love Affair with Nature in the City. New York: David McKay, Inc., 1972.

Glotfelty, Cheryl. "What Is Ecocriticism?" Defining Ecocritical Thought and Practice: Position Papers from the 1994 Western Literature Association Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, 6 October 1994. Online. Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. 1994. Accessed Nov. 2005. .

Greenberg, Joel. A Natural History of the Chicago Region. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

-----, ed. Of Prairie, Woods, and Water: Two Centuries of Chicago Nature Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Grese, Robert. Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Grossman, James R., Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff, eds. The Encyclopedia of Chicago. Michael P. Conzen, cartographic editor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Hill, Libby. The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 2000.

Miller, Donald L. City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

Pellow, David Naguib. Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002.

Pierce, Bessie Louise, ed. As Others See Chicago: Impressions of Visitors, 1673-1933. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1933.

Quaife, Milo Milton. Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835: A Study of the Evolution of the Northwestern Frontier, Together with a History of Fort Dearborn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1913.

-----. Chicago's Highways Old and New: From Indian Trail to Motor Road. Chicago: D. F. Keller and Co., 1923.

Sullivan, Jerry. An Atlas of Biodiversity, revised edition. Chicago: Chicago Wildernes, 2011.

20 -----. Hunting for Frogs on Elston, and Other Tales from Field and Street. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Swink, Floyd and Gerould Wilhelm. Plants of the Chicago Region. 4th edition. Indianapolis: Indiana Academy of Science, 1994.

Tallmadge, John. The Cincinnati Arch: Learning from Nature in the City. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004.

Washington, Sylvia. Packing Them In: An Archaeology of Environmental Racism in Chicago, 1865-1954. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2005.

Watts, May T. Reading the Landscape of America. 1957. New York: Macmillan, 1975 (2nd edition).

-----. Reading the Landscape of Europe. New York: Harper and Row, 1971.

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