Frequently compared to Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, and Gary Snyder, John Hay is one of this country鈥檚 greatest nature writers. Originally published in 1969, In Defense of Nature is an eloquent and prescient plea on behalf of the natural world. Devoid of sentimentality yet lyrical and deeply moving in its portrayals of our despoliation of nature, Hay鈥檚 classic work is now available to a new generation of readers.
Wendell Berry has called John Hay a 鈥渃arrier of light and wisdom.鈥 In Defense of Nature reveals why this is true. In it Hay has written an extended meditation on the environment and our place in it. Its lessons never more important, In Defense of Nature eerily presages the tenuous state of our environment and our place in it. As our technical abilities have moved forward, our judgment has not kept pace. 鈥淲hat we call natural resources cannot be limited to gas, oil, pulpwood, or uranium鈥攚e are starving the natural resources in ourselves. The soul needs to stretch; being needs to exercise.鈥
鈥淢any literary natural histories have quotations on the jackets which claim that this or that author is the modern Thoreau. They are invariably wrong, probably because the person quoted either has not read Thoreau or not understood Thoreau. John Hay is not the new Thoreau, but he is the closest thing to it we have. He manages to write descriptions of nature which seem true, and clear, and scientifically correct, and yet at the same time symbolic.鈥濃擲teve Norwick, professor in environmental studies and planning, Sonoma State University
鈥淛ohn Hay is one of the world鈥檚 handful of very great nature writers; I love his books with all my heart.鈥濃擜nnie Dillard, author, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
鈥In Defense of Nature is John Hay鈥檚 strongest work. Here, for the first time, the passionate lyricism of his earlier books is combined with anger and outrage at the carelessness and arrogance with which human beings have been treating the earth. This book is one of the earliest and most powerful expressions of the global environmental dilemma, and for that reason it is even more important today than when it was first published nearly forty years ago.鈥濃擱obert Finch, author, The Iambics of Newfoundland, co-editor, The Norton Book of Nature Writing
