Included in these writings are passages from Edgar Allen Poe, Marco Polo, poets from ancient China, Egyptian inscriptions and much more. "An extraordinary and ambitious anthology . . . . In selection after selection, deserts serve to define the limits of humankind--the place where civilization ends and the real wild begins."--"Outside Magazine

An Arizona environmental writer introduces this reprint of an anthology originally published as The Sierra Club Desert Reader (Sierra Club Books, 1995). Essays, folktales, poems, and other writings (1835-1994) speak of the odd appeal of drylands from Antarctica to the Sahara. Well-known authors include John Muir, Edward Abbey, Pablo Neruda, and T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia). Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

First published in 1995 as The Sierra Club Desert Reader, this wide-ranging anthology is now published only by UNM Press. Represented in this global selection are poets from ancient China (translated by Ezra Pound), Egyptian inscriptions, the logs of Captain Cook, and the chilling fantasies of Edgar Allan Poe, as well as the lore of native peoples from around the world. Also included are writings from many genres by, among others, Herodotus, Marco Polo, Shelley, Twain, Saint-Exup???ry, T. E. Lawrence, Chatwin, and Borges.

???An extraordinary and ambitious anthology. . . . In selection after selection, deserts serve to define the limits of humankind???the place where civilization ends and the real wild begins. Indeed three of the book??'s most poignant sections???a Nazi solder??'s account of his struggles for survival in the wastelands of Africa during World War II, Andrei Platonov??'s short story about a disastrous forced relocation of Turkmeni tribespeople during the Stalin era, and Robert Scott??'s final journal entries about Britain??'s tragic 1911 Antarctic expedition???illustrate that not even the great empires can conquer the desert. . . . As this fine anthology makes clear, the desert will always have a place in human society, swirling through our imaginations like a fierce, fiery sirocco.??????Outside Magazine

???A marvelous grab bag of short stories, folk tales, poems, songs and travelogues. . . . a joy to thumb through.??????Los Angeles Times