Reviewers and Readers Say:
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SELECTED WORKSComing Out of the Woods: The Solitary Life of a Maverick Naturalist
Some of America’s best writers and readers pair Kaufman with Thoreau, find his story full of fresh insight into human ideals and natural mystery, deeply moving, often hilarious, and true to the word ‘maverick.’ "Coming Out of the Woods is a much needed corrective to unexamined Thoreauvianism, deliciously skewering the sanctimonious pieties that afflict too much of today's environmental and nature writing. Wallace Kaufman is a splendid storyteller and a thoughtful social critic--wise, honest, and consistently funny." (Robert Finch, author of Death of a Hornet and Outlands: Journeys to the Outer Edges of Cape Cod) "An absorbing, unflinching, and surprisingly comic account of how one man--a devoted father--withdrew from the world and gradually returned. It's as wise and instructive as it is compelling." Novelist and essayist Reynolds Price "Wallace Kaufman's thought-provoking book, Coming Out Of The Woods is . . . convincing and beautifully written. His personal experience in the woods is recounted with humor and intelligence." Jeanne McDonald, Metro Pulse, Nov. 3, 2000, Knoxville, TN “. . . both a powerful respect for all things wild and a keen understanding of the complexity of the simple life.” Graig Cox, Utne Reader, Jan-Feb. 2001. Here is a writer who conveys the complexity and beauty of nature without putting on rose colored glasses. Coming Out of the Woods inspires, entertains, informs and tells a page-turner story that reveals how all human interaction with nature demands tradeoffs. Think of it as an update of Thoreau's Walden, but with a strong story line and conclusions appropriate for our time. I recommend it highly for introductory environmental studies courses, American literature courses, or courses on literature and the environment. Orrin Pilkey, James B. Duke Professor of Geology emeritus Duke University Essayist and physicist Chet Raymo in the Boston Globe calls it a “wise and funny book” and says, “How refreshing, then, to have a book called “Coming Out of the Woods,” by an environmentalist who doesn’t look at the wild through rose colored glasses.” The Beaches Are Moving: The Drowning of the American Shoreline
Wallace Kaufman joined coastal geologist, Dr. Orrin H. Pilkey to write this first comprehensive history of America's ocean and Gulf Coast beaches. In it he explains the human fascination with the ocean beaches and how our efforts to "save the beaches" has most often been the cause of their destruction. This is a basic book for anyone who wants to understand the dynamic environment of open water beaches and what their history suggests for government policy and those who would like to live on the coast. No Turning Back: Dismantling the Fantasies of Environmental Thinking
No book so thoroughly traces the ideological roots of the modern environmental movement back to their origins among English Romantics and American transcendentalists and explains how this movement differs from America's earlier but ongoing conservation movement that is based on science and practical economics as opposed to a naive faith in nature and personal revelation. Beginning with former Vice President Al Gore, Kaufman shows how the movement has largely displaced the more practical conservation movement with generally unfortunate results. Finding Hidden Values In Your Home
In a book full of interesting and often amusing anecdotes about homeowners, banks, appraisers, and builders, the author guides the reader through each line of a standard appraisal report,revealing how each feature affects the value of a home. El Kanil: Man of Lightning
Victor Montejo, now Minister of Peace in Guatemala, first gathered the pieces of this legend of his Jacaltecan Mayan village in 1982 when he and the translator worked in the difficult and often dangerous atmosphere of guerilla and death squad conflicts in Guatemala. Montejo was then a rural school teacher. After the first publication of this book he went on to study in the US and became an associate professor of anthropology in the University of California at Davis. The University of Arizona Press brought out the latest trilingual edition of this work. Invasive Plants
Unlike many field guides, Invasive Plants, written by Wallace Kaufman and his daughter Dr. Sylvan Ramsey Kaufman, not only helps readers identify what they see, but it provides interesting narratives of how these plants came to North America and the role they are playing in natural areas and the economy. see www.invasiveplantguide.com |
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