Not Man Apart: Photographs of the Big Sur Coast

I don't think that stumbling across this book was my introduction to Robinson Jeffers, but certainly its glorious marriage of image and phrase played a part in my still-ardent infatuation. This is simply a perfect book, from the thoughtful and appreciative introduction by Loren Eisley to the last beautiful page. When I first came upon the photo of stars with the lines that begin, "I have heard the summer dust," I wept, and my eyes barely handle even recalling the resonance Jeffers' words gave to that cold, rich picture. This is truly a "coffeetable book," with beautiful photographs to while away the afternoon, brief passages of text to catch the eye and mind, and a fabric of natural philosophy woven between the photos and Jeffers' words that will draw you into a world very different from our casual days. Jeffers is a voice of consolation for the pessimist, his poems symphonies to the natural world, eternal or not. His human gestures -- Tamar, California, Cawdor, the Thursos and Medea -- are compelling and operatic, but it is when he and the natural world are alone, staring into each other, that he is at his best, and that best is here.

This now out-of-print book from the Sierra Club from 1965 of photos from various Big Sur area photographers and poetry by Robinson Jeffers, is a green earth book so appropriate for us today. It is perhaps part of what got us all more green conscious and ecologically minded. The selection of photos was heavily influenced by Ansel Adams advice to editor Dave Brower, and includes some Adams, Weston, Baer, Crouch, Hyde, and others in color and black and white. The editorial introductions show a history of concerns that only now the rest of us are beginning to pay attention to. If only we had started earlier. This book led me to read more Jeffers and to find other work by, so far, two of the lesser known photographers represented here, Steve Crouch and Morley Baer. Baer's own book "Stones Of The Sur" with more Jeffers poetry shows he is a photographer of the quality of Ansel Adams. Steve Crouch too, had a rare and beautiful vision as I found in his exquisite book of his own writing and photographs "Fog And Sun, Sea And Stone." All highly highly recommended.

Wonderful pictures of BIG SUR. An unusual photo portrait. I love it!