At Home on This Earth

Two Centuries of U.S. Women's Nature Writing

Edited by Lorraine Anderson and Thomas S. Edwards

University Press of New England Hanover and London Contents

Acknowledgments xi Introduction: The Great Chorus of Woman and Nature i Lorraine Anderson i

Caroline Kirkland 13 Chapters 5 and 16 from Forest Life 13

Margaret Fuller 20 The Prairies of Illinois 20

Harriet Beecher Stowe 28 Picknicking up Julington 28

Susan Fenimore Cooper 34 Otsego Leaves I: Birds Then and Now 34

Elizabeth C.Wright 41 Into the Woods 41

Olive Thorne Miller 54 Camping in Colorado 54 In the Cottonwoods 58

Celia Laighton Thaxter 65 Selections from An Island Garden 65

Charlotte Forten Grimke 72 Journal Excerpts, 1854-1863 72

Sarah Orne Jewett 81 A Winter Drive 81

Edith M.Thomas 91 Nature and the Native 91 Grass: A Rumination - 94 The Solitary Bee 98

vii viii • Contents

Anna Botsford Comstock 101 Trees at Leisure 101 A Little Nomad 107

Mabel Osgood Wright no Feathered Philosophers no Nature's Calm 117

Gene Stratton Porter 123 The Last Passenger Pigeon 123

Florence Merriam Bailey 133 Selections from Birds Through an Opera Glass 133

Mary Hunter Austin 144 The Land of Little Rain 145 The Walking Woman 149

Mabel Dodge Luhan 156 Chapter 31 from Edge of Taos Desert 156

Florence Page Jaques 169 Birds Across the Sky 169

Marjory Stoneman Douglas 179 The Grass 179

I Fabiola Cabeza de Baca 183 I The Night It Rained 183

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 188 The Magnolia Tree 188

Sally Carrighar 196 The Weasel 196 The Wilderness Code 199

Meridel Le Sueur 204 The Ancient People and the Newly Come 204

Rachel Carson 214 The Shape of Ancient Seas 215 Contents • ix

Josephine Johnson 223 June 223

Virginia Eifert 229 Winter River 229

Maxine Kumin 237 Getting into the Register 237

Ann Zwinger 241 The Lake Rock 242

Ursula K. Le Guin 245 She Unnames Them 245

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston 248 Rock Garden 248

Sue Hubbell 255 Selections from A Country Year 255

Marilou Awiakta 260 How the Corn-Mother Became a Teacher of Wisdom 261 Selu Sings for Survival 265

Anne LaBastille 270 Sauntering Around Lilypad Lake 270

Susan Griffin 277 Selections from Woman and Nature 278

Linda Hasselstrom 284 Rock Lover 284

Alice Walker 291 My Heart Has Reopened to You 292

Annie Dillard 295 Seeing 295

Gretel Ehrlich 303 Landscape 303 x • Contents ITerri de la Pena 309 Pajaritos 309 Linda Hogan 316 Dwellings 316

Ellen Meloy 322 Phantom Limb 322

Leslie Marmon Silko 333 Fifth World: The Return of Ma ah shra true ee, the Giant Serpent 334

I Denise Chavez 341 ^Crossing Bitter Creek: Meditations on the Colorado River 341

Brenda Peterson 347 Killing Our Elders 347

Diana Kappel-Smith 352 In the Green Room 352

bell hooks 360 Touching the Earth 360

Sharman Apt Russell 365 Gila Wilderness 365

Louise Erdrich 375 Big Grass 375

Evelyn C. White 380 Dancing: A Grand Canyon Saga 380

Terry Tempest Williams 383 Winter Solstice at the Moab Slough 383

Pam Houston 386 A Buzzard Under Blue Sky 386

Julia Butterfly Hill 391 Climbing to the Top 391

Bibliography and Further Reading 395 Index of Authors and Titles 403