Such News of the Land: U.S. Women Nature Writers ed. by Thomas S. Edwards, Elizabeth A. De Wolfe (review)

Bo o k R eviews 135 alone, Maland’s is a great essay, but its effectiveness is heightened by its place­ ment at the end of the book’s first section. Because of what we’ve read before it, we’re much better able to contextualize Maland’s perceptive treatment of Ford’s history. The far shorter second part of John Ford Made Westerns, titled “Dossier,” contains reprints of articles about Ford from magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and Cosmopolitan, printed during his own lifetime. Though more simple in tone than what comes before them, the articles act as a nice coun­ terbalance, letting readers get a greater sense of how Ford was treated in the popular press over the course of his career. Cumulatively, the power of John Ford Made Westerns lies in its breadth. Asked about Ford’s films, director Stanley Kramer said, “There is nothing to be said— his films roar through our times,” while William Friedkin said, “When we have colonized the moon, people will still be watching and loving John Ford’s films” (291). John Ford Made Westerns ultimately achieves the unique result of eloquently disproving Kramer’s claim that there’s nothing to be said while at the same time overwhelmingly supporting Friedkin’s observation about the staying power of Ford’s work. After reading the book, readers will have an incredibly diverse sense of Ford and the major issues of his films. This text provides the widest lens to date through which to view Ford’s Westerns. Such News of the Land: U .S. Women Nature Writers. Ed. Thomas S. Edwards and Elizabeth A. De Wolfe. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2001. 299 pages, $55.00/$24.95. Reviewed by Barney N elson Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas Since wilderness was “no place for a lady” and considered “the province of (often-solitary) men,” the editors argue that “[b]y focusing on those writers (predominately white males) who have found success within this tradition, we have ignored the work of countless women authors” (2). Collected essays in this volume range from investigations of women agricultural scientists and ranchers to gardeners and activists. Each of the three self-explanatory, chrono­ logical divisions— Laying the Foundation, Expanding the Genre, and Nature Writing in the Twentieth Century— begins with a brief annotated overview. Perhaps the most important contribution of the work— the inclusion of ethnic authors and perspectives— is highlighted in the foreword, where Vera Norwood says, “Environmental historians and ecocritics are just beginning to consider how the different nature values of African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics have led people in these groups to question what is meant by nature’s nation, who is denied access to such spaces, and off of whose backs they have been preserved and created” (xii). 136 WAL 37.1 Spring 2002 Karen E. Waldon’s essay on Leslie Marmon Silko emphasizes how Silko’s writing accomplishes what Thoreau and modem nature writers fail to do: “manifest the relationship between the human being and his or her surround­ ings as one of being rather than viewing.” She also suggests that Silko’s work “offers no wilderness concept” (179). Another essay, focusing on Gloria Anzaldua’s work, begins with a thoughtprovoking challenge: “Latina/o voices are strikingly absent from most antholo­ gies on nature writing, a conspicuous void given the abundance of narratives that historically focus on the centrality of geography— from fences to borders to nation states— and of a physical connection to the land, to deserts, fields, and islands” (204). The authors connect Anzaldua’s children’s books to nature through curandismo, the Rio Grande, deserts, outdoor games, collecting fire­ wood, environmental injustice, human-animal relations, and the symbolism of fences. Other essays include references to indigenous gardening traditions, “despite some expert commentary that has claimed that there has been no such thing,” and African American gardeners (166). The book would make an excellent volume in a course featuring women nature writers. One could assign, for instance, Marcia B. Littenberg’s excellent summary of the women’s role in awakening an environmental consciousness, developing the nature essay as a recognizable genre, and struggling...