This eclectic volume on the varied constructions of `wilderness' reveals the recent controversies that surround those conceptions, and the gulf between those who argue for wilderness `preservation' and those who argue for `wise use'. Thirty-nine selected essays by such well-known authors as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold provide an historical context, and other contemporary writers including conservation biologists, cultural geographers, and environmental activists.