The genre of American nature writing has become a rich and robust medium for literary expression of all kinds. Since Thoreau first began keeping track of the materials and supplies needed to create his cabin on the edge of Walden Pond, numerous American authors have been drawn to the nonhuman world as a subject for description, analysis, and reflection. British and other European writers had often discussed the natural world as part of work in other genres: natural history, the novel, short fiction, and poetry; but, it was left to American authors to develop an entire genre that linked the personal essay to autobiography and to experience of the natural world.
[When this page goes on line (c. May 2009), click on the desired name for a research project on each of these figures.]
AMERICAN NATURE WRITERS (1791-2009)