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Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping

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Wide-ranging in research, enthusiasm, and geography, Dan White's Under the Stars reveals a vast population of nature seekers, a country still in love with its wild places.

“The definitive book on camping in America. . . . A passionate, witty, and deeply engaging examination of why humans venture into the wild.”—Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

From the Sierras to the Adirondacks and the Everglades, Dan White travels the nation to experience firsthand—and sometimes face first—how the American wilderness transformed from the devil’s playground into a source of adventure, relaxation, and renewal.

Whether he’s camping nude in cougar country, being attacked by wildlife while “glamping,” or crashing a girls-only adventure for urban teens, Dan White seeks to animate the evolution of outdoor recreation. In the process, he demonstrates how the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, Roosevelt, and Muir—along with visionaries such as Adirondack Murray, Horace Kephart, and Juliette Gordon Low—helped blaze a trail from Transcendentalism to Leave No Trace.

ISBN-13: 9781250134974

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Publication Date: 06-06-2017

Pages: 416

Product Dimensions: 5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

Dan White is the author of The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail, an NCIBA bestseller and Los Angeles Times "Discovery" selection. He has taught composition at Columbia University and San Jose State. He is the contributing editor of Catamaran Literary Reader and received his MFA from Columbia University. He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and daughter.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Under the Stars 1

1 Help Me, Henry 5

2 Exploring the Sewards with Zippy 26

3 Camping the Crazy Away 56

Hero of Camping: George Washington Sears 80

4 Acts of Transmission 84

5 Clash of the Neckerchiefs 98

Hero of Camping: The S'more 120

6 Wild Victorian Ladies 126

7 Gator Girls 143

8 Nine Mile Pond 159

9 The Odd Couple 179

Hero of Camping: Estwick Evans 198

10 Night at Badger Spring 200

11 How's the Road? 231

12 The Haunted Duffel Bag 252

Hero of Camping: Edward Abbey 269

13 The Immaculator 273

14 Kovu's Brother 296

15 Hell on Wheels 311

Epilogue: A Dose of Enchantment 343

Notes 353

Bibliography 381

Acknowledgments 387

Illustration Credits 391

Index 393