A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds

I bought this book, along with the poetry collection, No Nature, to gain an insight into the work of Gary Snyder, someone I had often seen quoted, but had never read at first hand. Snyder is perhaps best known as a west coast 'nature' poet, a fellow traveller of the 'beat generation', but he is also a prominent Buddhist, bioregional visionary and literary scholar. To judge from this book he is, moreover, an accomplished and eloquent essayist. The essays presented here, articles, reviews, talks and what might loosely be called manifestos, come mainly from the 70s to the 90s and span the breadth of Snyder's interests. Arranged in three sections, Ethics, Aesthetics and Watersheds, Snyder's writing manages to be poetic, religious, political and compelling at all times. Having read this book I feel inspired to read more, I'll try The Practice of the Wild next (more prose), followed by Turtle Island (poetry for which Snyder won the Pulitzer Prize). For anyone concerned to cultivate a humane relationship with the more-than-human world, Snyder is a surefooted guide.