Encounters with nature have produced some of the great literature of our age. Darwin's ruminations on the Galapagos Islands, Thoreau's communion with Walden Pond, and Rachel Carson's evocation of the rocky coast of Maine are monuments in the history of writing and thought. No less significant are the searching essays of such contemporary writers as Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Annie Dillard, and Bill McKibben. Nature Writing: The Tradition...