Personal Information
Date of Birth: March 22, 1947; place of birth: Louisville, KY
Married: Rita Lenore Pinkston; children: Rachel, Matthew, Caleb
Education
Ph.D., Yale University, 1973, English; Danforth Graduate Fellowship, 1969-1973
Dissertation: “Towards a New Objectivity: Essays on the Body and Nature in Faulkner, Lawrence, and Mann,” Professor Charles Feidelson, Jr., Advisor.
B.A., Pomona College, 1969, English; National Merit Scholarship, 1965-1969
Honors and Awards
John C. Elder Chair in Environmental Studies established at Middlebury College, 2010
James Bruce Engle Award from Vermont Coverts, for promoting Coverts mission of forest stewardship in the public arena, 2009
Vermont Land Trust Award for contributions to conservation at the statewide level, 2009
Vermont Campus Compact Excellence in Community-Based Teaching Award, 2009
Vermont Professor of the Year, Carnegie Foundation and Center for the Advancement and Support of Education “U. S. Professors of the Year” Program, 2008
Guggenheim Fellowship, 2005
Eco-Spirit Award, Spirit in Nature Foundation, 2001
Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship for Italy, 2000-2001
Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa, from Green Mountain College, May 16, 1998
Robert Frost Chair at the Bread Loaf School of English, 1989 and 2003
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers, 1981-82
Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, 1970-71
Employment at Middlebury College
College Professor Emeritus, June, 2010-
College Professor (non-departmental), 2006-10
Philip Battell Stewart and Sarah Frances Cowles Stewart Professor of English and Environmental Studies, 1995-2006
Chair, Department of English, 2001-2004
Professor of English and Environmental Studies, 1991-95
Director, Environmental Studies Program, 1991-94
Bread Loaf School of English: faculty member, 1982-2012; Director, Bread Loaf at Juneau, 1998-99; at Santa Fe, 1991-92
Professor of English, Middlebury College, 1987-91; Associate Professor of English, Middlebury College, 1982-87; Assistant Professor, 1973-77, 1979-81
Other Employment
Series Editor, The Concord Library (published by Beacon Press), 1988-2000
Executive Director, Thomas J. Watson Foundation, 1977-79
Boards
Treleven Educational Foundation, 2010-
Sterling College, 2008-
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, 1993-; President, 2004
Center for Whole Communities, 2005-2010; Co-Chair, 2008-2010
Vermont Family Forests, 2000-
Vermont Land Trust, 1996-2006
Vermont Council on the Humanities, 1990-92
Green Corps, 1992-1996
Orion Society Board of Directors, 1997-2000; Advisory Board, 1992-1996, 2000-;
The Watershed Center, 1995-2000
The Mountain School Advisory Board, 1996-2000
Selected Publications
Books and Edited Volumes
Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa: From Vermont to Italy in the Footsteps of George Perkins Marsh (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, “Under the Sign of Nature” Series, 2006; softcover, 2008)
The Frog Run (Minneapolis: Milkweed Press, 2002)
The Return of the Wolf: Reflections on the Future of Wolves in the Northeast (Hanover: University Press of New England, 2000), Editor
Reading the Mountains of Home (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998; softcover, 1999)
American Nature Writers (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1996), Executive Editor
The Family of Earth and Sky: Indigenous Tales of Nature from Around the World (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994), co-edited with Hertha Wong
Following the Brush (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993; reprinted by Akadine Press, 1999), essays about personal encounters with classic Japanese culture.
Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment is a Religious Issue (Boston: Beacon Press,1992), co-edited with Steven Rockefeller
The Norton Book of Nature Writing (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1990), co-edited with Robert Finch; Expanded Second Edition, 2002
Imagining the Earth: Poetry and the Vision of Nature (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1985); Second Edition, softcover, University of Georgia Press, 1996
Libretti
“River of the Trunk,” in collaboration with composer Su Lian Tan. Commissioned by the Cabrini Quartet; included in CD The Music of Su Lian Tan, 2010
“Time’s Topography,” in Sam Guarnaccia’s Emergent Universe oratorio, premiere at Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont, September 15, 2013
Essays and Articles
“A Place in Mind,” Northern Woodlands, Spring, 2013
“Foregone Hillsides,” Archipelago, November, 2012
“Learning to Let Go,” in Pathways to Excellence in Teaching, ed., Ernest Williams, Hamilton College, in cooperation with the Christian A. Johnson Foundation, 2011.
“Catchments,” Archipelago, November, 2011
“Back in a time made simple”: Afterword to An Environmental History of New England, edited by Richard Judd and Blake Harrison, MIT Press, 2011.
Introduction to Out of the Earth, edited by Christine Cusick, Cork Unversity Press, 2011
“Tasting the Bedrock,” in a special issue on “Terroir” published by CuiZine, an online journal from McGill University, Spring, 2010
“A Teacher on the Long Trail,” in On Location: Adventures in Place-Based Teaching, ed., Laird Christensen and Hal Crimmel, Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2007
“Withered Sedge and Yellow Wood: Poetry in Silent Spring,” in Courage for the Earth, ed., Peter Matthiessen, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007)
“Robert Frost’s Ecosystem of Meanings in ‘Spring Pools,’” with Glenn Adelson, ISLE, Summer, 2006
“Ego in the Driver’s Seat” (an interview with Stephanie Kaza), Tricycle, February, 2006
“Into the Wood,” Middlebury Magazine, Winter, 2006
“After Olive Picking,” Orion, Fall, 2003
“Nature Writing,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, ed., Jay Parini, 2003
“A Dust of Snow: Awakening to Conservation,” Tricycle, Fall, 2003
“Unfolding the Map: The Champion Lands and the Future of Vermont,” Vermont Life, Autumn, 2003
“George Perkins Marsh and the Headwaters of Conservation, Wild Earth, Winter, 2003
“Darkness and Memory,” Wild Earth, Fall, 2002
“Connecting with Human and Natural Communities at Middlebury College,” with Christopher McGrory Klyza, Jim Northup, and Stephen Trombulak, in Acting Locally: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Environmental Studies, ed., Harold Ward (Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education,1999)
“The Poetry of Experience,” New Literary History (special issue on Ecocriticism), Summer, 1999; reprinted in Beyond Nature Writing, Kathleen R. Wallace and Karla Armbrustere, Eds., University of Virginia Press, 2000.
“A Conversation at the Edge of Wilderness,” Wild Earth, Winter, 1998/1999
“Fragments of Vanished Lives,” Whole Terrain, Winter, 1998/1999
“Teaching at the Edge,” Orion Afield, Winter, 1997/98
“Education in a Time of Environmental Crisis,” in Population and Environment, ed.,
Barbara Baudot and William Moomaw (Basingstoke, England: Macmillan, 1997)
“Climbing the Crests: An Environmental Approach to Literature,” Associated Departments of English Bulletin, Fall, 1997
“Inheriting Mt. Tom,” Orion, Spring, 1997
“Hiking by Flashlight,” Writing Nature, Summer, 1996
“A Wilderness of Scars,” Wild Earth, Summer, 1995
“Development and a Candle,” Ethical and Spiritual Dimensions of Social Progress (New
York: United Nations Publication, 1995)
“The Turtle in the Leaves,” Orion, Winter, 1994
“Mary Oliver’s Question,” American Nature Writing Newsletter, Special Issue on Nature Poetry, Fall, 1993
“‘Brightened for the Passage’: Nature’s Refrain in American Poetry,” Columbia History of American Poetry, ed., Jay Parini and Brett Millier (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)
“Following the Brush,” New England Review, Spring, 1992
“Hiking Off the Trail: One Teacher’s Approach to Nature Writing,” College English Association Critic (Special Issue on the Literature of Nature), Fall, 1991
“Sauntering Toward the Holy Land,” introductory essay in illustrated edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, and Henry David Thoreau, “Walking.” (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991; paperback edition, 1994)
“Gyres Over North Mountain,” Vermont Life, Autumn, 1991; reprinted in Orion, Summer, 1992. Award of Merit as Outstanding Essay by Association of Regional Magazine Publishers
“Computer Networks and the Social Context of Writing” (with Kathleen Skubikowski), in Computers and Community, ed., Carolyn Handa (Boston: Heinemann/Boynton-Cook, 1990)
“Wildness and Walls,”Orion, Fall, 1989; reprinted in Finding Home, ed., Peter Sauer, Beacon Press, 1992
“The Plane at South Mountain,” Bread Loaf Anthology of Essays (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989); reprinted in Being in the World: An Environmental Reader for Writers, ed., Scott Slovic and Terrell Dixon (New York: Macmillan, 1992)
“Word Processing in a Community of Writers” (with Kathleen Skubikowski), College Composition and Communication, May, 1987
“Hunting in Sand County,” Orion, Fall, 1986
“John Muir, Ansel Adams, and the Range of Light,” Orion, Winter, 1985
“Vermonters and Wilderness,” Vermont Life, Fall, 1984
“Mary Austin’s Desert” (essay-review), Orion, Fall, 1983
“Seeing Through the Fire: Writers in the Nuclear Age,” New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly, Summer, 1983; reprinted in Writing in the Nuclear Age (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1984)
“The Natural History of American Culture” (essay-review), New England Review, Autumn, 1983
“John Muir and the Literature of the Wilderness,” Massachusetts Review, Summer, 1981; reprinted in Orion, Spring, 1983
“Winter Without Snow” (on Transcendentalist vision and the New England landscape), New England Review, Winter 1981
Lectures, Papers and Readings
“The Once and Future Northern Forest,” Northern Woodlands Conference on Environmental Writing, Fairlee, VT, October 18, 2014
“Solas/Dolas in Tim Robinson’s Connemara Trilogy,” Conference on “Text, Transmission, and Cultural Exchange,” Moore Institute, National University of Ireland at Galway and Claregalway Castle, September 28, 2013
“The Poet as Naturalist,” Robert Frost Stone House Museum, East Shaftesbury, VT, August 25, 2013
“Together at the Table,” Keynote Address, Conference on Food-Justice, Sustainability, and Religion at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, February 22, 2013
“Frost in the Forest,” Boise State University, Boise, ID, February 14, 2013
“Community-Based Conservation and Climate Change,” annual meeting of Stowe Land Trust, Stowe, Vermont, November 4, 2012
“The Grace of the World,” All Souls Interfaith Gathering, Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, VT, September 16, 2012
“Green Mountain Mardi Gras,” University of Montevallo, Montevallo, AL, February 15, 2012; Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL, February 29, 2012
Plenary Address, Celebration of Tim Robinson’s writing, Moore Institute, National University of Ireland at Galway, September 9, 2011
Guest Speaker, Annual Meeting, Vermont chapter of American Pen Women, Chittenden, VT, August 24, 2011
Convocation Address, New Century Honors College, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, May 18, 2011
“Ecological and Cultural Sustainability in a Working Woodland,” annual meeting of the Kennebec Land Trust, Readville, ME, April 12, 2011
“Sugaring, Climate Change, and Sustainable Forestry,” Colby College, Waterville, ME, April 11, 2011
“Learning to Let Go,” concluding lecture in Christian A. Johnson Foundation Symposium on Excellence in Undergraduate Education, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, April 2, 2011
“Stewardship and Community,” Annual Lecture, November 16, 2010, along with visits as Scholar in Residence, November 16, 2010, February 2, 2011, and April 14, 2011, Moses Brown School, Providence, RI,
“Literature as a Path into Nature,” Greens Farms Academy, Westport, CT, November 2, 2010
“John Burroughs and the Future of Nature Writing,” keynote address at conference on John Burroughs sponsored by the State University of New York and the Burroughs Society, Oneonta, NY, June 10, 2010
“Letting Go,” 2010 Margolin Lecture in Environmental Studies, Middlebury College, April 22, 2010
“Teaching the Local in an Age of Globalization,” panel at Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire, November 5, 2009
“Wonder, Compassion, and Community: Education for Sustainability,” Edwin Way Teale Lecture on Nature and the Environment, University of Connecticut, October 22, 2009
“The Role of Land Trusts in a Local Food Movement,” keynote address, annual meeting of Northern Rivers Land Trust, June 14, 2009, Hardwick, Vermont
“Portrait of a Vermont Town: a Service-Learning Approach to Environmental Studies,” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment biennial meeting, Victoria, British Columbia, June 4, 2009
“A Party in the Woods: Sugaring, Community, and Celebration under a Changing Sky,” keynote address, annual meeting of Center for Research on Vermont, May 1, 2009, University of Vermont; Keynote for Maple Week, Bailey-Howe Library at UVM, March 31, 2010
“Green Mountain Mardi Gras,” Brattleboro Literary Festival, October 5, 2008
Orion Institute on Environmental Education in a Changing Climate, Unity, Maine, July 30, 2009
“Katrina Heads North,” Adirondack Center for Writing at Sagamore Lodge, Raquette Lake, NY, August 21, 2008
“The Forest of Change,” the Spring Creek Project, Corvallis, OR, May 14, 2008; NEW- CUE conference on Rachel Carson and nature writing, Boothbay Harbor, ME, June 11, 2008
“The Future of Environmental Writing,” Fulbright Association 30th Annual Conference, “People and the Planet,” Washington, D.C., November 3, 2007
“Celebration and Loss in a Time of Climate Change,” Keynote Address at Solarfest, Poultney, VT, July 15, 2007
“The Campus and the Curriculum,” paper for panel on developing programs in Environmental Studies, ASLE conference, June 13, 2007
“Narrative Criticism,” Pre-Conference Workshop for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC, June 12, 2007
“The Watershed of Sustainability,” Keynote Address for Lamoille Farm and Forest Initiative, Hyde Park, VT, June 9, 2007
“Pilgrimage and Activism,” Reading and Discussion with Greg Delanty for the St. Michael’s College Symposium on Spirituality and the Natural World, Echo Center, Burlington, VT, April 20, 2007
“Climate Change and the Destiny of Vermont,” Keynote Address for Step It Up Day, Middlebury, VT, April 14, 2007
“Terroir and the Taste of Maple Syrup,” Annual Meeting of The Watershed Center, Bristol, VT, March 25, 2007
Plenary address, Vermont Humanities Conference, Killington, Vermont, November 4, 2006
“Ecological Insight in the Poetry of Robert Frost,” Keynote Address at Symposium on “Responding to Nature,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, April 7, 2006
“Ansel Adams and the Range of Light,” Vero Beach Museum, Vero Beach, Florida, March 9, 2006
“Frost and the Green Mountains,” Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, August 21, 2006
Reading from Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa: New England Booksellers’ Association, Providence, Rhode Island, September 14, 2006
“Stories in the Forest,” Address at Conference on “The Town Forest Project,” Sponsored by the Northern Forest Alliance, Blueberry Hill Inn, Goshen, Vermont, October 29, 2005
“After Olive Picking,” on the place of olives in Italian culture and food, Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont, October 11, 2005
“’A Certain Slant of Light’: Ansel Adams and the Luminist Tradition in American Literature,” Plenary Address at “Landscapes in the American West” symposium at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas in Austin, October 5, 2005; Vero Beach Art Museum, Vero Beach, Florida, March 8, 2006
“Poetry of Attentiveness,” Ericksen Lecture at Linfield College, Oregon, October 4, 2005
“Darkness at the Edge of Spring,” a dialogue on Frost’s poem “Spring Pools” with Glenn Adelson of Harvard University’s Biology Department, presented at the biennial conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Eugene, Oregon, June 24, 2005
“Nature Writing and Cultural Renewal,” Plenary Address at “Ecoliteratura,” an international conference sponsored by the Catalonian Ministry of Culture and Una Sola Terra, Barcelona, June 4, 2005
Readings and residency at Hamilton College, March 1-3, 2005
“Disaster and Insight in Conservation History,” Keynote Address, National Association of Conservation Districts,” Burlington, VT, August 2, 2004
“George Perkins Marsh and the White Mountains,” Plenary Address, Association for Literature and Environment Conference on the Northern Forest, Highland Center, Crawford Notch State Park, New Hampshire, June 4, 2004
Keynote Address to Vermont Land Conservation Conference, Northfield, VT, November 1, 2003
Residency and Readings at Penn State, co-sponsored by Department of English and Program in Landscape Architecture, October 18-21, 2003
“Forestry, Community, and Economy,” Keynote Speaker, Annual Meeting of Vermont Woodnet, Lincoln Vermont, September 27, 2003
“A Dust of Snow: Buddhism and Conservation,” Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, June 18, 2003
“The Seasons of Wholeness,” Champlain Valley Greenbelt Alliance, Charlotte, May 18, 2003
“Land Trusts and the Wilderness Movement,” Annual Meeting of the Wildlands Project Board, Goshen, VT, May 2, 2003
“Restoration and the Stories of Home,” Keynote Address at Conference on Ethical and Social Dimensions of Landscape Restoration, University of Vermont, April 25, 2003
Reading and Discussion of The Frog Run, Green Mountain College, November 7, 2002; SUNY Brockport, November 14, 2002; Lyndon State College, March 25, 2003; Sterling College, April 11, 2003; Environmental Writers’ Institute, Teller Wildlife Refuge, Missoula, Montana, May 30, 2003
“Vermont’s Changing Landscape,” Vermont Forum on Sprawl,” Stowe, October 3, 2002
“A Model of Stewardship for the Third Millennium,” St. Michael’s College, September 28, 2002
“The Legacy of John Burroughs,” Keynote Address at John Burroughs Days, Woodchuck Lodge, Roxbury, NY, June 20, 2002
“Landscape and Imagination in the Southwest,” Santa Fe Art Institute, May 26, 2002
“The Evolution of Conservation Thought,” Conference on “Reconstructing Conservation: History, Values, and Practice,” University of Vermont, November 2, 2001
“New Voices and Recollected Ancestors in American Nature Writing,” Conference on Natural History Writing, New England Aquarium, Boston, September 30, 2001
“Poetry and Memory,” European University Institute, Fiesole, Italy, November 25, 2000
“The Legacy of George Perkins Marsh,” Conference on “National Parks in the Third Millennium,” Sponsored by Italian National Park System, Abruzzo National Park, Italy, October 6, 2000
“Conservation and Social Justice,” Keynote Address for Vermont Housing and Conservation Board Annual Meeting, Montpelier, VT, June 13, 2000
“Following the Brush: A Glimpse of Japan’s Living Traditions,” Keynote Address, Toyota International Teacher Program, Redondo Beach, CA, June 9, 2000
“Connecting Students with Their Watershed,” Keynote Address for “Summit 2000,” the Annual Meeting of the Lake Champlain Basin Program, Basin Harbor, VT, May 18, 2000
Plank Memorial Lecture, Milton Academy, April 5, 2000
“Thoreau and the Environmental Legacy in New England’s Literature,” Keynote Address, Annual Meeting of the Thoreau Society, Concord, MA, January 21, 2000
“Education and Stewardship,” Plenary Address at Orion Society’s “Fire and Grit”Millennial Conference, Fish and Wildlife Service Conference Center, West Virginia, June 22, 1999
“Education, Ethics, and the Environment,” Keynote Address at Conference on Environmental Education, The Mountain School, Vershire, VT, June 18, 1999
Plenary Address and Reading, Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, Kalamazoo, MI, June 3, 1999
“An Experiment in Narrative Criticism,” Grunfeld Lecture at Bryn Mawr College, April 8, 1999; Smith College, April 25, 1999
“Frost’s ‘Directive’ and the Environmental History of Vermont,” Fairbanks Museum, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, January 25, 1999
“Frost’s Spider and Oliver’s Turtle,” Panel on Eco-Poetry, Modern Language Association, San Francisco, December 27, 1998
“Literature and the New England Landscape,” Keynote Address at Monadnock Center Conference on Literature and the Sense of Place,” Rindge, New Hampshire, November 7, 1998
“Stories in the Land: the Promise of Place-Based Education,” Keynote Address at Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Conference for Teachers in the New Jersey Highlands, October 24, 1998
Keynote Address, Opening Ceremony at the Marsh-Billings National Historical Park, Woodstock, VT, June 5, 1998
Commencement Address, Green Mountain College, Poultney, VT, May 16, 1998
Keynote Lecturer and Seminar Leader, University of Vermont’s John Dewey Honors Program, April 7-9, 1998; theme for 1998 program, “Nature and Poetry”
Readings from Reading the Mountains of Home: Warren Wilson College, October 17,997; University of Vermont, April 9, 1998; Deer Leap Bookstore, Bristol, VT, April 17, 1998; Bear Pond Books, Montpelier, VT, April 22, 1998; Northshire Books, Manchester, VT April 24, 1998; Book King, Rutland, VT, May 5, 1998; Northern Lights Bookstore, St. Johnsbury, VT, May 20, 1998
“The Literature of Attentiveness to Nature,” University of Toronto, October 16, 1996
“On the Path with Bashō,” Featured Address at Conference on Multicultural Perspectives on Environmental Literature, State University of New York at Oneonta, June 23, 1996
“The Grace of Falling Water,” Keynote Speaker, Annual Meeting of the River WatchNetwork, Marsh-Billings Farm, Woodstock, Vermont, June 15, 1996
“Outdoor Reading,” Program in Nature and Culture, University of California at Davis, May 20, 1996
“Literature and the Sense of Place,” Watershed Conference, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., April 10, 1996
“Liberal Education in a Time of Environmental Crisis,” Swarthmore College, February 14, 1996; Holy Cross College and St. Anselm College, April 10, 1996; Vassar College, November 20, 1996
“Beyond Nature Writing,” Featured Address, Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, June 9, 1995
“National Parks in American Culture,” Symposium Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Japan’s National Parks, Matsumoto, Japan, December 3, 1994
“Seasons of American Nature Writing,” Japan Environmental Education Forum, Kiyosato, Japan, November 28, 1994
“Hiking by Flashlight,” Forgotten Language Tour Reading, Tufts University, Medford, Novermber 1, 1994
“A Wilderness of Scars,” Reflections on Nature Series, University of Vermont/Wild Earth, Burlington, Vermont, October 18, 1994
“‘Directive’: The Poem of Vermont Wilderness,” Third Interdisciplinary Wilderness Conference, Ogden, Utah, November 12, 1993
“‘Stay Together/Learn the Flowers/Go Light’: Education in a Time of Environmental Crisis,” the Joseph J. Napolitano Memorial Lecture, Adelphi University, April 28, 1993
“‘More Day to Dawn’: Bashō’s Connection with American Nature Writing,” panel on nature writing, College English Association meeting in Pittsburgh, March 28, 1992
“Sauntering Toward the Holy Land,” lecture at Swarthmore College on Emerson, Thoreau, and the Voice of American Nature Writing, March 29, 1991
“The Naturalist Tradition in American Literature,” conference on Views of Nature East and West, Chang Mai, Thailand, June 5, 1990
“The Genius of American Nature Writing,” keynote address at statewide conference on “Reading Nature,” sponsored by Vermont Council on the Humanities and Public Issues, Lake Morey, Vermont, November 11, 1989
“The Idea of Wilderness,” panel on John Muir at Smith College, September 21, 1989
“Nature Writing: the Heart of Nonfiction,” colloquium on Nonfiction, Modern Language Association Convention, New Orleans, December 28, 1988
“Nature’s Voice in Poetry,” Boston University Conference on Philosophy and the Environment, April 27, 1988
“Writing the Landscape,” Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, August 23, 1984
“Pastoral Science: Natural History and the Literary Tradition,” Smith College, March 6, 1984
“Vermonters and Wilderness,” opening lecture in series on Vermont landscape, sponsored by Vermont Council on the Humanities, Whiting Library, Chester, Vermont, September 27, 1983
“Pilgrimage to the Mountains: the Life of John Muir,” Colby College, April 21, 1983
“John Muir, Ansel Adams, and the Range of Light,” colloquium on Photography and American Literature, Modern LanguageAssociation Convention, Los Angeles, December 28, 1982; expanded version delivered at Dartmouth College, February 6, 1984; Marlboro College, November 13, 1989