Pilgrim at Tinker Creek [B1513]

1988 PB reprint, with minor wear. Winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize. "The book is a form of meditation, written with headlong urgency, about seeing. . . . There is an ambition about [Dillard's] book that I like. . . . It is the ambition to feel." - Eudora Welty, New York Times Book Review. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Roanoke Valley, where Annie Dillard set out to chronicle incidents of "beauty tangled in a rapture with violence." Dillard's personal narrative highlights one year's exploration on foot in the Virginia region through which Tinker Creek runs. In the summer, she stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and examines it under a microscope. She unties a snake skin, witnesses a flood, and plays King of the Meadow with a field of grasshoppers. The result is an exhilarating tale of nature and its seasons.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "A masterclass in creative nonfiction writing. I'm inspired to spend a year away from the city, to simply be in nature and observe. The world is so big and so small."; "By the end I found myself morphed into someone who pauses longer in observation of nature. Thank you Ms. Dillard."; "One of the most intense books I'd read. I often felt that I was not reading carefully enough to fully appreciate it."; "'60s and '70s nature-writers had such an elevated way of encountering scientific phenomena. This one was incredible. Reminded me of Edward Abbey and Farley Mowatt... Even had some hints on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in there. 10/10 would recommend, especially of you like nature writing in general."