BIRCH BROWSINGS: A John Burroughs Reader ...

BIRCH BROWSINGS: A John Burroughs Reader edited by Bill McKibben (Penguin: $12; 231 pp . , paperback original). During the first two decades of the 20th Century, John Burroughs was considered the equal of John Muir as a nature writer. While Muir exulted in the awesome splendor of the Alaskan glaciers, Burroughs delighted in less dazzling vistas: “Scenery may be too fine or too grand and imposing for one’s daily and hourly view. It tires after a while. It demands a mood that comes to you only at intervals.” McKibben’s well-chosen anthology offers modern readers a sample of the author’s essays (which run to more than 20 volumes), but avoids the repetition and overwriting that weaken them. Burroughs’ enthusiasm for the intimate contact with nature that can be experienced in yards and parks seems doubly welcome at a time when everything appears to be fenced in.