Nonfiction
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PUBLISHED
©2026
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440 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 22 cm
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NOTES
"First published in hardcover in Great Britain by William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., London, in 2026." -- Title page verso
Crossing the threshhold: Wilderness as waypoint -- Forty days and nights: Wilderness as site of spiritual revelation -- Natural and supernatural: Wilderness as a place of wild beasts -- The king will ride: Wilderness as hunting ground -- A state of nature: Wilderness as the home of savage man -- Sublimation: Wilderness as aesthetic experience -- The Yellowstone model: Wilderness as protected area -- Fortress conservation: Wilderness as exclusion zone -- The ice inviolate: Wilderness as cartographic conceit -- Mare incognitum: Wilderness as uncharted territory -- Gods of the high ground: Wilderness as sacred land -- The known unknown: Wilderness as homeland -- Acknowledgements -- List of illustrations -- Endnotes -- Index
"From the blacksand beaches of Iceland, to river crossings deep in the Amazon jungle, to the barren beauty of Antarctica, wildernesses make up some of the world's more alluring natural landscapes. But what is a wilderness, really? It is a powerful, ancient concept, lying at the intersection of landscape, philosophy, and ecology. And for thousands of years, people have sought out uncontrolled, unknown, or uncharted nature in search of religious epiphany, self-actualization, and an escape from modern life. More recently these "pristine" places have been seen as the subject of a last effort to repair a planet imperiled by humans. But as award-winning writer Cal Flyn traverses the most forbidding, untamed and inhospitable wild lands--the supposedly uninhabited wilds of the world--she finds that such truly untouched lands don't exist: Nearly every wilderness has been or is actively inhabited by humans. Here we meet ascetics in search of theophany in the desert; lonely shepherds running off wolves under the stars; missionaries preaching from shacks deep in the jungle; wise lamas meditating under lofty mountain peaks. The Savage Landscape takes us into these breathtaking wilds--deep into dark forests, to thetops of mountains, and into the hearts of deserts--asking provocative questions about the nature of wilderness, its preservation, and its meaning."--