215 pages
English language
Published Jan. 4, 1990 by Noonday Press.
From the blog View From The Blue House - "John McPhee is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. In 1978 he started a set of journeys across America with geologists that turned into a series of five books published over twenty years. Basin and Range is the first book in the series and mostly concerns the geological landscape from eastern Utah to eastern California. Rather than produce a straight science narrative about the geology of the region, or a conventional history of the science of geology, McPhee instead travels with geologists to explore and write about the landscape. The result is a rather eclectic set of stories and observations about the science of geology, the rocks visible in the landscape and hidden underground, the nature of time and the history of the geologic time scale, the unfolding of the theory of plate tectonics, and the work of geologists. …
From the blog View From The Blue House - "John McPhee is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. In 1978 he started a set of journeys across America with geologists that turned into a series of five books published over twenty years. Basin and Range is the first book in the series and mostly concerns the geological landscape from eastern Utah to eastern California. Rather than produce a straight science narrative about the geology of the region, or a conventional history of the science of geology, McPhee instead travels with geologists to explore and write about the landscape. The result is a rather eclectic set of stories and observations about the science of geology, the rocks visible in the landscape and hidden underground, the nature of time and the history of the geologic time scale, the unfolding of the theory of plate tectonics, and the work of geologists. In this sense, it seeks to create a discussion of geology that might appeal to the non-geologist and geologist alike; to create a kind of geo-prose that ruminates on the long history of the development of the Earth’s surface. "
Geology. What we know about the earth's crust, mountains and rocks, and the history of the field - what it meant to come to terms with geologic timescales, and written shortly after the discovery of plate tectonics. Wonderful writing, I only didn't need some of the relatable-human-interest interludes, though the relatable-topography-examples of mostly the western US were perfect for me now.
The first reading resonated so deeply with me that I immediately read it again to soak in the details. I must be at just the right moment in my life to appreciate a geological perspective of my landscape. John McPhee delivers this with great artistry.
