The environmental imagination does not stop short at the edge of the woods. Nor should our understanding of it, as Lawrence Buell makes powerfully clear in this book that aims to reshape the field of literature and environmental studies. Emphasizing the influence of the physical environment on individual and collective perception, Writing for an Endangered World thus provides the theoretical underpinnings for an ecocriticism now reaching full power, and does so in remarkably clear and concrete ways. "With his characteristic impressive learning and graceful prose, Buell ranges across the intellectual and literary map ... Without question, this book should become essential reading for anyone intrigued by the recent turn toward environmentally informed literary study." --Adam Sweeting, American Literature "Buell here shows how an ecocritical approach can be brought to bear on the literature of built environments as well as natural ones." --Richard Grusin, Journal of American History
