

									March
9, 1998
									Contact:
Rebecca Arrington
										   (804)
924-7189


	NEW BOOK BRINGS TOGETHER FOR FIRST TIME FOUR CENTURIES OF NATURE
WRITING ABOUT VIRGINIA'S WESTERN REGION

	"The height of our mountains has not yet been estimated with any
degree of exactness," wrote Thomas Jefferson in his "Notes on the State
of Virginia" in 1785.
	Some 200 years later, two environmental literature specialists,
including a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Virginia,
have taken the full measure of the Virginia mountain-and-valley region's
remarkably rich natural and literary landscape in a sweeping anthology
of nature writing covering nearly four centuries.
	The book,"The Height of Our Mountains: Nature Writing from
Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley," is co-edited by
U.Va.'s Daniel J. Philippon and Michael P. Branch, associate professor
of literature and environment at the University of Nevada, Reno.
	Just published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, the
anthology is the first to provide a comprehensive examination of western
Virginia's important place in American natural history writing.
Beginning with Captain John Smith's eager gaze westward in search of
gold and ending with contemporary essayist John Daniel's transformative
look inward in search of wilderness, "The Height of Our Mountains"
collects the work of 70 of the nation's finest writers on nature since
1607.
	"I see this book as a service to the community," says Philippon,
who will be joining the Department of Rhetoric at the University of
Minnesota, Twin Cities, this fall as assistant professor of science,
technology and ethics. "By bringing together such a wide variety of
texts from so many different historical periods, we hope to provide our
readers with a new perspective on this landscape, one informed not only
by aesthetics, but also by history, science, and especially ethics."
	Illustrated with historical paintings, drawings, engravings and
maps, the survey includes such varied works as colonial narratives by
William Byrd and George Washington; natural history writing by John
James Audubon; travel narratives by King Louis Philippe of France;
diaries and memoirs by Walt Whitman and John Burroughs; fiction by
William Gilmore Simms, Ellen Glasgow and Willa Cather; speeches by James
Madison, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt; 
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and contemporary nature essays by Donald Culross Peattie, Annie Dillard
and Jake Page. The book also includes a foreword by John Elder,
co-editor of "The Norton Book of Nature Writing" and professor of
English and environmental studies at Middlebury College.
	"'The Height of Our Mountains' will without a doubt be an
extraordinary resource for the residents of the Blue Ridge and
Shenandoah Valley, but because of its remarkable inclusiveness and the
vividness of its selections, it will also be invaluable for the rest of
us, who -- as teachers, writers, citizens, family members and
naturalists -- are striving to identify ourselves more knowingly,
joyfully and faithfully with our own homes in nature," Elder says.
	"This wonderful book is as subtle, varied and inspiring as the
landscape it chronicles," comments Edward L. Ayers, U.Va. professor of
history and author of "The Promise of the New South." "Every page,
unfolding the deep changes brought by 400 years of destruction and
rebirth, reveals a new perspective on the mountains and valleys of
Virginia. Branch and Philippon weave these words and images together
with just the right measure of expertise and passion; we could not ask
for better guides."

 # # #
 
	NOTE TO BOOK EDITORS AND REPORTERS: If you have not received an
advance copy of the book, contact Michael Teret, publicist at the Johns
Hopkins University Press at mteret@mail.press.jhu.edu or at (410)
516-6889.

Dan Philippon may be reached at danp@virginia.edu or at (804) 979-9365.

Television reporters should call our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.


U.Va. news online: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews

Readings and Book Signings


Sat., 3/14, 3 p.m.
the State Arboretum of Virginia
U.S. Highway 50, 9 miles east of Winchester
 
Mon., 3/16, 12:30 p.m.
Georgetown University Leavey Center Bookshop
37th & "O" Streets, N.W.
Washington, D.C.
with Napier Shelton, author of "The Nature of Shenandoah," excerpted in
"The Height of Our Mountains"
 
Wed., 3/18, noon
Gulliver's
55 E. Main St.
Luray
with Eileen Lambert, author of "A Walk in the Forest Primeval," in "The
Height of Our Mountains"
 
Wed., 3/18, 7:30 p.m.
Little Professor Book Center, Spotswood Valley Square
1790-144 E. Market St.
Harrisonburg
 
Thurs., 3/19, 7:30 p.m.
Ръ ty
ПХol 221
Lexington
sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program and the Outing Club
 
Fri., 3/20, 3 p.m.
Volume Two Bookstore, Virginia Tech
801 University City Blvd.
Blacksburg
 
Fri., 3/20, 7:30 p.m.
King's Grant Retirement Center
350 King's Way Road
Martinsville
organized by the Virginia Museum of Natural History
 
Sat., 3/21, 2 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
4478 Electric Road, S.W.
Roanoke
with Frank Levering, coauthor of "Simple Living," excerpted in "The
Height
of Our Mountains"

Sun., 3/22, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
The Virginia Festival of the Book
University of Virginia
Minor Hall Aud.
Charlottesville
with Sue Hubbell, author of "A Country Year" and "A Book of Bees"
and Chris Camuto, author of "Another Country" and "A Fly Fisherman's
Blue
Ridge," excerpted in "The Height of Our Mountains"
 
Mon., 3/23, 7:30 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
1532 Parham Road
Richmond
with Lynn Dickerson, professor of English at the University of Richmond
and
author of "The Fine Art of Tree Farming," in "The Height of Our
Mountains"
 
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