Originally published in 1969, "In Defense of Nature" is an eloquent and prescient plea on behalf of the natural world. Devoid of sentimentality yet lyrical and deeply moving in its portrayals of our despoliation of nature, Hay's classic work is now available to a new generation of readers.
John Hay is the author of more than sixteen books, including The Great Beach, which won the John Burroughs Medal in 1964. He is a former professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College. A longtime resident of Cape Cod, he now lives in Bremen, Maine.
"Many literary natural histories have quotations on the jackets which claim that this or that author is the modern Thoreau. They are invariably wrong, probably because the person quoted either has not read Thoreau or not understood Thoreau. John Hay is not the new Thoreau, but he is the closest thing to it we have. He manages to write descriptions of nature which seem true, and clear, and scientifically correct, and yet at the same time symbolic."
– Steve Norwick, professor in environmental studies and planning, Sonoma State University