Outdoor literature is a
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
genre about or involving the outdoors. Outdoor literature encompasses several different
subgenres including exploration literature, adventure literature, mountain literature and
nature writing. Another subgenre is the
guide book, an early example of which was
Thomas West's guide to the
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or '' fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
published in 1778. The genres can include activities such as exploration, survival,
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...
,
hiking
Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...
,
mountaineering
Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, ...
,
whitewater
Whitewater forms in a rapid context, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque and ...
boating,
geocaching or
kayaking
Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits faci ...
, or writing about nature and the environment.
Travel literature is similar to outdoor literature but differs in that it does not always deal with the out-of-doors, but there is a considerable overlap between these genres, in particular with regard to long journeys.
History
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and h ...
's ''
Walden
''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
'' (1854) is an early and influential work. Although not entirely an outdoor work (he lived in a cabin close to civilization) he expressed the ideas of why people go out into the wilderness to camp, backpack and hike: to get away from the rush of modern society and simplify life. This was a new perspective for the time and thus ''Walden'' has had a lasting influence on most outdoor authors.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
's ''
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
''Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'' (1879) is one of Robert Louis Stevenson's earliest published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature.
Background
Stevenson was in his late 20s and still dependent on his par ...
'' (1879), about his travels in
Cévennes (France), is among the first popular books to present hiking and camping as recreational activities, and tells of commissioning one of the first
sleeping bags.
In the world of sailing
Joshua Slocum
Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 – on or shortly after November 14, 1909) was the first person to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian-born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wr ...
's ''
Sailing Alone Around the World'' (1900) is a classic of outdoor literature. In April 1895, Joshua Slocum set sail from
Boston, Massachusetts and in ''Sailing Alone Around the World'',
[Slocum (1899), ''Sailing Alone Around the World''] he described his departure:
More than three years later, on June 27, 1898, he returned to
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
, having
circumnavigated
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the ...
the world, a distance of more than 46,000 miles (74,000 km).
The
National Outdoor Book Award was established in 1997 as a
US-based non-profit program which each year honours the best in outdoor writing and publishing.
[National Outdoor Book Awards Official sit]
Outdoor classics
* 19th century
**
John MacGregor (sportsman), John MacGregor (1866). ''A Thousand Miles in a Rob Roy Canoe''. Considered the first documentation of recreational canoeing.
**
Edward Whymper
Edward Whymper FRSE (27 April 184016 September 1911) was an English mountaineer, explorer, illustrator, and author best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Four members of his climbing party were killed during the descent. W ...
(1871). ''Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860–1869''.
**
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...
(1872). ''
Roughing It
''Roughing It'' is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature by Mark Twain. It was written in 1870–71 and published in 1872, as a prequel to his first travel book ''The Innocents Abroad'' (1869). ''Roughing It'' is dedicated to Twai ...
''. Part real part fiction, classic account of life in the American
Old West.
**
Walter Weston
Walter Weston (25 December 1861 – 27 March 1940), was an English clergyman and Anglican missionary who helped popularise recreational mountaineering in Japan at the turn of the 20th century.
Background and early life
Weston was born 25 Dec ...
(1896). ''Mountaineering and Exploration in the Japanese Alps''.
* 20th century
**
John Muir
John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologis ...
, (1911). ''My First Summer in the Sierra''.
**
Grey Owl (1935). ''Pilgrims of the Wild''. About Grey Owl's life in the wilds of Canada.
**
Gontran de Poncins
Jean-Pierre Gontran de Montaigne, vicomte de Poncins, known as Gontran De Poncins (August 19, 1900 – September 1, 1962), was a French writer and adventurer.
Life and works
Gontran de Poncins (a descendant of Michel de Montaigne) was the son of ...
(1939). ''
Kabloona
''Kabloona'' is a book by French adventurer Gontran de Poncins, written in collaboration with Lewis Galantiere.Henry Seidel Canby"Kabloona"in March 1941 edition of ''Book-of-the-Month Club News''. It was first published in the United States in 1 ...
''. French adventurer living with Eskimos in the late 1930s.
**
Maurice Herzog
Maurice André Raymond Herzog (15 January 191913 December 2012) was a French mountaineer and administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the 1950 French Annapurna expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and ...
(1951). ''
Annapurna
Annapurna (; ne, अन्नपूर्ण) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the diffic ...
: Conquest of the First 8000-metre Peak''. Probably the most influential mountaineering expedition book.
**
Wallace Stegner
Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Boo ...
(1954). ''Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West''.
**
Alfred Lansing
Alfred Mark Lansing (July 21, 1921 – August 27, 1975) was an American journalist and writer, best known for his book '' Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage'' (1959), an account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic explorations.
Life
Lansi ...
(1959). ''
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage''.
**
John Hillaby, ''Journey to the Jade Sea'' (1964); ''Journey through Britain''; ''Journey through Europe''; ''Journey to the Gods'' (1991). Accounts of various long distance walks.
**
Edward Abbey (1968) ''
Desert Solitaire''
**
Colin Fletcher
Colin Fletcher (14 March 1922 – 12 June 2007) was a pioneering backpacker and writer.
In 1963, Fletcher walked the length of that portion of Grand Canyon contained within the 1963 boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Although hi ...
(1968) ''
The Complete Walker''
**
Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard (born April 30, 1945) is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 19 ...
, (1974) ''
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek''
**
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's great ...
, ''
A Time of Gifts'' (1977); ''
Between the Woods and the Water
''Between the Woods and the Water'' is a travel book by British author Patrick Leigh Fermor, the second in a series of three books narrating the author's journey on foot across Europe from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1933/34.
The f ...
'' (1986); ''
The Broken Road'' (2013). A trilogy describing a walk across Europe.
**
Nan Shepherd
Anna "Nan" Shepherd (11 February 1893 – 27 February 1981) was a Scottish Modernist writer and poet, best known for her seminal mountain memoir, ''The Living Mountain'', based on experiences of hill walking in the Cairngorms. This is noted as a ...
, (1977). ''The Living Mountain''.
**
Jon Krakauer (1990s). ''
Into the Wild'', ''
Into Thin Air
''Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster'' is a 1997 bestselling nonfiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It details Krakauer's experience in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and sev ...
''.
**
Joe Simpson, ''
Touching the Void'' (1988). Mountain climbing in the Andes.
* 21st century
**
Jim Perrin, ''Spirits of Place'' (1997); ''The Climbing Essays'' (2006); ''West: A Journey through the Landscapes of Loss'' (2010). A rock climber and travel writer.
**
Bill McKibben
William Ernest McKibben (born December 8, 1960)"Bill Ernest McKibben." ''Environmental Encyclopedia''. Edited by Deirdre S. Blanchfield. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, December 31, 2017. is a ...
(2005) ''Wandering Home''. Also: ''
The End of Nature'' (1989)
**
Rory Stewart, ''
The Places in Between
''The Places in Between'' is a travel narrative by Rory Stewart, a British writer and former diplomat, and future member of Parliament, detailing his solo walk across north-central Afghanistan in 2002.
Synopsis
Stewart arrives in Afghanistan ...
'' (2006). A walk across
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...
in 2002, after the Russians had left.
**
Cheryl Strayed, ''
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail'' (2013). Describes the grueling life of the long-distance hiker, the perils of the PCT, and its peculiar community of wanderers.
**
Robert Macfarlane, ''Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination''; ''The Wild Places''; ''The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot'' (2012). He is one of a number of recent British writers who have provoked a new critical and popular interest in writing about landscape.
See also
*
*
*
*
*
Banff Mountain Book Festival The Banff Mountain Book Festival is an annual book festival held at the Banff Centre in Banff, Canada.
Grand Prize
* 1994: Chris Bonington and Audrey Saukeld (editors), ''Heroic Climbs''
* 1995: Thomas Wharton, ''Icefields''
* 1996: Stephen Ve ...
References
External links
National Outdoor Book AwardsAmerican Journeys collection of primary exploration accounts of the Americas.
{{Authority control
Literature
Non-fiction genres
Non-fiction outdoors writers
*Outdoor literature