Customer Reviews (1)

Lovely little biographical sketch.
John Burroughs was an American essayist. Wikipedia describes him as a "literary naturalist". He met Walt Whitman during the Civil War, and this little book serves two purposes. It is a meditation on Leaves of Grass as well as a memoir of that friendship. Amazon tells me that it was the first biographical sketch of the author. I can't substantiate that, but it seems likely to be true.

Whitman has long been one of my great literary loves, and this book was a pleasure to read simply for reminding me how much I love Leaves of Grass. My copy is so fragile (1872 second edition, in poor shape) that I didn't dare linger over the pages, but have gladly bookmarked online text versions so that I can spend more time with it later. There are obviously more complete biographical texts, but it is fascinating to read a personal sketch from someone who knew him personally and who was a good friend. The closeness to the man adds its own touch as reading experience.

Recommended for anyone who loves Whitman, and doesn't mind spending a little time on something unusual. ... Read more

Product Description
SHARP EYES: JOHN BURROUGHS AND AMERICAN NATURE WRITING is the first full collection of essays and scholarship about John Burroughs, who was one of America's greatest and most influential nature writers of the 19th and early 20th century. Long overdue, this book marks a resurgence of interest in Burroughs, who was an immensely popular figure in his own time, a friend of such disparate well known figures as Walt Whitman, John Muir, Henry Ford, and Theodore Roosevelt.SHARP EYES includes essays on Burroughs's influence on the nature essay itself, his relationships, literary or personal, with his contemporaries (Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau, Muir), his engagement with issues such as conservation, science, and religion, and his influence on nature education.Readers of this collection will find a companion volume in THE ART OF SEEING THINGS, a collection of essays by Burroughs which includes many of the essays discussed by scholars in SHARP EYES. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Burroughs anthology at last, and a superb one!
Charlotte Walker, a professor of English at the State University of New York at Oneonta, has assembled the first anthology of critical essays on the naturalist, literary critic, poet, and philosopher John Burroughs (1837-1921). This is an extraordinary collection. Walker includes a wide array of voices, many of them (including my own) from outside academia. All have important things to say about Burroughs, who once towered above the American literary landscape but whose reputation has been eroded by time. A renewal of interest in the work of the Catskill-born Burroughs is underway, and this book is both a product of that movement and a light to lead the way. As the author of a concise biography and appreciation of John Burroughs ("The World of John Burroughs," published by Sierra Club Books), I congratulate Walker on a job brilliantly done. ... Read more