Beloved author Rick Bass illustrates ecological, social, and personal landscapes through this collection that brings together his best-loved essays and brand-new pieces.
For acclaimed writer and environmental activist Rick Bass, it can be wearying to dwell relentlessly upon the broken, fragmented, the dead and the dying, and the doomed-to-extinction. Activism is a necessary part of the environmental movement, but so is the time-honored celebration of the beauty that inspires us.
Spanning his storied career, these new and selected essays attempt to take a brief step to the side, away from lamentation and prescription, and to inhabit, as deeply as possible, the greater depths of beauty in-the-moment. With “Every Great Breath” ranges from the extremely local-a long-form essay about the community affected by the largest Superfund site in U.S. history, in Libby, Montana-to the farflung: the Galapagos, Namibia, and Alaska. Throughout, Bass offers a portrait of our planet that is always alert to its wonders, even in the face of environmental crisis.
