Green Writing Romanticism and Ecology [Paperback]

This book describes the emergence of ecological understanding among the English Romantic poets, arguing that this new holistic paradigm offered a conceptual and ideological basis for American environmentalism. Coleridge, Wordsworth, Blake, John Clare, and Mary Shelley all contributed to the fundamental ideas and core values of the modern environmental movement; their vital influence was openly acknowledged by Emerson, Thoreau, John Muir, and Mary Austin. By revealing hitherto unsuspected links between English and American nature writers, this book elucidates the Romantic origins of American environmentalism.Introduction: Coleridge and the Economy of Nature Wordsworth's Home at Grasmere The Ecological Vision of John Clare The End of Nature: Environmental Apocalypse in William Blake and Mary Shelley Ralph Waldo Emerson: Writing Nature Henry David Thoreau: Life in the Woods John Muir: A Wind-Storm in the Forests Mary Austin: The Land of Little Rain Conclusion: Roads Not TakenJAMES MCKUSICK is?Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA. He is the author of Coleridge's Philosophy of Language and numerous scholarly articles on Coleridge, Byron, and John Clare.