#125: Natural History Reading List #9: 'Home Ground'

Home Ground has an American focus, but would provide a rather fine basis for producing an illustrated glossary of UK specific Natural History terms in the same vein.

I am sure that many of the terms are also relevant to the UK's diverse landscapes.

The book was compiled and edited by the late great Barry Lopez and his partner Debra Gwartney.

Around 100 pages of the book can be read on Google Books here.

The book has definitions of landscape terms - some of which will perhaps be unfamiliar to non-geographers, and not all of which can be found in the UK.

This is a rather wonderful book.
It is a 'dictionary' of features which make up the landscape of the United States.

Many of the landscape terms are illustrated and accompanied by short essays from a range of contributors along with quotes. This is much better than the typical A-Z because of the eclectic nature of the articles and essays and the quality of the writing and illustrations.

Published in America, but available from Amazon.

My copy was published by Trinity University Press in 2006
Hardback, 450pp
ISBN: 1 - 59534 - 024 - 6

Contributors include: Jeffery Renard Allen, Kim Barnes, Conger Beasley, Jr., Franklin Burroughs, Lan Samantha Chang, Michael Collier, Elizabeth Cox, John Daniel, Jan DeBlieu, William deBuys, Gretel Ehrlich, Charles Frazier, Pamela Frierson, Patricia Hampl, Robert Hass, Emily Hiestand, Linda Hogan, Stephen Graham Jones, John Keeble, Barbara Kingsolver, William Kittredge, Jon Krakauer, Gretchen Legler, Arturo Longoria, Bill McKibben, Ellen Meloy, Robert Morgan, Susan Brind Morrow, Antonya Nelson, Robert Michael Pyle, Pattiann Rogers, Scott Russell Sanders, Eva Saulitis, Donna Seaman, Carolyn Servid, Kim Stafford, Mary Swander, Arthur Sze, Mike Tidwell, Luis Alberto Urrea, Luis Verano, D. J. Waldie, Joy Williams, Terry Tempest Williams, and Larry Woiwode.