A Natural History of Nature Writing is a penetrating overview of the origins and development of a uniquely American literature. Essayist and poet Frank Stewart describes in rich and compelling prose the lives and works of the most prominent American nature writers of the19th and 20th centuries, including:

• Henry D. Thoreau, the father of American nature writing.
• John Burroughs, a schoolteacher and failed businessman who found his calling as a writer and elevated the nature essay to a loved and respected literary form.
• John Muir, founder of Sierra Club, who celebrated the wilderness of the Far West as few before him had.
• Aldo Leopold, a Forest Service employee and scholar who extended our moral responsibility to include all animals and plants.
• Rachel Carson, a scientist who raised the consciousness of the nation by revealing the catastrophic effects of human intervention on the Earth's living systems.
• Edward Abbey, an outspoken activist who charted the boundaries of ecological responsibility and pushed these boundaries to political extremes.

Frank Stewart is an acclaimed writer and port, winner of the prestigious Whiting Writer's Award, and is a professor of English at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.