The Mountain World: A Literary Journey

The Story

This extraordinary collection of mountain writing spans five continents, 2,500 years, and numerous genres -- including poetry, myth, folk tales, and short stories.In this compelling new anthology, editor Gregory McNamee has gathered mountain-inspired literature from sources as varied and far-flung as the peaks themselves. The writings include folktales of the Ashanti and myths of the Aborigines; essays; journals and travelogues of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travelers; poetry of both ancient and modern times. We hear from familiar voices -- Whitman, Muir, Dickens, Checkhov, Conan Doyle -- and from those not so familiar but equally fascinating. The mountain experiences described in the book are enormously varied, as well -- ranging from the powerful altitude-induced vision of Simon Bolivar atop Mount Chimborazo to a pleasure trip in the Alps, as recounted by Mrs. H.W. Cole, to V.K. Arseniev's tale of survival and rescue in a Siberian mountain storm. Yet, whether they speak of profoundspiritual journeys, easy pleasure trips, or face-to-face encounters with death, all these voices are raised in collective celebration of the beauties and terrors of the most awe-inspiring of earth's treasures -- the mountains.