Sierra Nevada lit

The Illuminated Landscape: A Sierra Nevada Anthology, edited by Gary Noy and Rick Heide, collects significant, chronological Sierra writings in a single volume. Heyday Books, with co-publishers Sierra College Press and Santa Clara University, present pivotal works by Mark Twain, Bret Harte, John Muir and Horace Greeley, along with the moderns: Wallace Stegner, Kenneth Rexroth, David Brower and many others. As a primer, reference or call to preservation, depending on the reader’s perspective, The Illuminated Landscape delivers up history with a look ahead to a future Sierra, with ecological writing in its final chapter like the work of Tom Knudsen and Gary Snyder. Documenting the exceptional history, magnificent beauty and restorative qualities of the Sierra Nevada was only part of the editors’ goals; “[W]e also hope that that this collection will serve as a reminder that the Sierra Nevada is a living organism that is constantly beset by environmental challenges.”