The Hour of Land
Terry Tempest Williams
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
<p>America's national parks are breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadilydisappearing, which is why more than 300 millionpeople visit the parks each year. Now TerryTempest Williams, the author of the environmentalclassic <i>Refuge </i>and the beloved memoir <i>When</i><i>Women Were Birds</i>, returns with <i>The Hour of Land</i>, aliterary celebration of our national parks, an explorationof what they mean to us and what we meanto them.</p><p>From the Grand Tetons in Wyoming to Acadia in Maine to Big Bend in Texas and more, Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history, and part social critique, <i>The Hour of Land </i>is a meditation and a manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America.</p>