Story Line: Exploring the Literature of the Appalachian Trail

by Ian Marshall

Book Overview

Many hikers on the Appalachian Trail take books as companions, in spite of the extra weight in their packs, but Ian Marshall carries the habit to new literary, ecological, and spiritual heights. In the more than twenty years he's been hiking the trail, Marshall, known on the AT as Evergreen, has practiced what he likes to call "an ecology of reading," exploring America's past, its landscape and national experience, through literature inspired by...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813917980
• ISBN13: 9780813917986
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Literature meets the great outdoors

One of my favorite pasttimes is hiking, and I have always wanted to try the whole Appalachian Trail . . . I also have a degree in English from Penn State, so when I heard that a PSU professor had written a book on my two favorite subjects, I just had to have it. Anybody who has hiked the old mountains of the mid-atlantic can appreciate the vivid descriptions and thoughtful insights that Story Line offers. One of my favorite parts of the book postulates a meeting between Thoreau and Melville, noting how the shapes of the mountain near Melville's home looked like a whale, noting similarities of otherworks, and knowing that the two men did, indeed, hike the same path. If you like the outdoors and have a passion for literature, this is money well spent!