Edge Effects

Contents

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Foreword

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pp. ix-xiv

Buying his dream house on the fringe of Corvallis, Oregon, several years ago, essayist Chris Anderson hoped to find in the forest there what eighteenth-century urban writers called "the joys of rural retirement." ...

To the Reader

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pp. xv-xix

The essays that make up this book describe the first few years of my life on the edge of McDonald-Dunn Forest, a 12,000-acre research forest outside Corvallis, Oregon. The house we live in is an ordinary house, pleasant neighbors each acre and a half, Timberhill Mall only minutes away. ...

Forest of Voices

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pp. 1-31

It was a fine October day, the sun was shining, and walking into the open house I had the impression of trees all around, of a forest and of sunlight coming through a forest. What surprises me now is how big a decision we based on my first foolish gladness at the sight of those trees. ...

Life on the Edge

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pp. 33-74

"Cultivate simplicity, Coleridge," Charles Lamb wrote his romantic friend in 1794. "Or rather, banish elaborateness; for simplicity springs spontaneous from the heart, and carries into daylight its own modest buds and genuine, sweet, and clear flowers of expression." ...

Excursions

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pp. 75-106

It was Fourth of July, and hot, when my brother and I watched the man drown. I was home for a vacation, and Ted and I decided to go bike-riding in Riverside State Park along the banks of the Spokane River just outside the city. ...

Deeper in the Forest

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pp. 107-153

When I first completed my study of the research harvest and the profile of McDonald Forest, I thought I'd go on to write a local history. It would begin with the history of my own house and piece of land, radiate outward to the Willamette Valley, Oregon, and the West, and include all the stories...

Life and the Essay Compared to a Forest

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pp. 155-185

People who believe in the New Forestry talk about forests the way essayists talk about essays. They celebrate the same chaos and complexity. ...