Conserving Words: How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement

by Daniel J. Philippon

Conserving Words looks at five authors of seminal works of nature writing who also founded or revitalized important environmental organizations: Theodore Roosevelt and the Boone and Crockett Club, Mabel Osgood Wright and the National Audubon Society, John Muir and the Sierra Club, Aldo Leopold and the Wilderness Society, and Edward Abbey and Earth First! These writers used powerfully evocative and galvanizing metaphors for nature, metaphors that Daniel J. Philippon calls “conserving” words: frontier (Roosevelt), garden (Wright), park (Muir), wilderness (Leopold), and utopia (Abbey). Integrating literature, history, biography, and philosophy, this ambitious study explores how “conserving” words enabled narratives to convey environmental values as they explained how human beings should interact with the nonhuman world.

391 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2003

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stresses the importance of the metaphors that we use to define and conceptualize our relationship with 'nature', and how those have changed w/ shifts in culture and shifts in the writing of environmental leaders. Main metaphors addressed are frontier (Theodore Roosevelt), garden (Mabel Osgood Wright), park (John Muir), wilderness (Aldo Leopold), utopia (Edward Abbey), and island (island biogeography/discussion contemporary to publication).

[sdw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daniel Philippon in Conserving Words examines five writers who directly contributed to and participated in the conservation and environmental movements. His book is divided into two halves. The first half looks at writers who contributed to the conservation movement: Theodore Roosevelt (Boone & Crockett Club), Mabel Osgood Wright (CT Audubon Society), and John Muir (Sierra Club). The second half examines writers whose work can be seen as part of the modern environmental movement: Aldo Leopold (The Wilderness Society) and Edward Abbey (Earth First!). Philippon is particularly interested in “the problem of language.” He examines the major metaphor each writer uses to understand nature – conquering the frontier, cultivating the garden, visiting the park, studying the wilderness, and creating utopia, respectively (see helpful chart, page 7). Philippon’s work on each author actively avoids repeating analysis previously done. For example, he does not talk about Leopold’s land ethic.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy the thrust of this book. That nature writers had a profound effect on environmental movements points to a lesson that environmentalists should pay attention to: it ain't all about science and policy! I wish the book was a bit more accessible, so more folks would read it. Also, I would probably have enjoyed the text more if I wasn't a grad student. The books I enjoy most these days are escapes from academic drudgery. Nevertheless, the message is great, and it's the kind of book you can pick up and just read one chapter (my fav is the Edward Abbey/Earth First! one).