NONFICTION | AVAILABLE NOW
THE STORY OF MY HEART
by RICHARD JEFFERIES as rediscovered by BROOKE WILLIAMS and TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS
“The Williamses anchor Jefferies’ profound inquiry to our churning world and illuminate their own passionate quests for truth and understanding.”
—BOOKLIST starred review
Originally published in 1883, The Story of My Heart explores the existence of a “soul-life” as British nature writer Richard Jefferies experienced while wandering in England. With an introduction by Terry Tempest Williams and essays by Brooke Williams alongside Jefferies’ original work, these two beloved writers and environmentalists contemplate dilemmas of modernity, the intrinsic need for wildness, and what it means to be human in the 21st century. Scott Slovic, editor of ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, provides the afterword.
November 2014 | Nonfiction | 9781937226411 | 234 pp | $21.95
“Outstanding...a first-rate tribute to an author who now has been rescued from obscurity.”
—THE UTAH REVIEW
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JOHN RICHARD JEFFERIES (1848 – 1887) was a British novelist and essayist who helped pioneer the field of modern nature writing. Jefferies described the English countryside with an intimate vividness and expansive passion that inspired both his contemporaries and later writers.
TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS is the author of fourteen books including Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; and most recently, The Hour of Land. She is the recipient of John Simon Guggenheim and Lannan Literary Fellowships in creative nonfiction. Her work has been anthologized and translated worldwide.
BROOKE WILLIAMS has spent thirty years advocating for wildness, most recently with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and as the Executive Director of the Murie Center in Moose, Wyoming. He holds an MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute and a Biology degree from the University of Utah. He’s written four books including Halflives: Reconciling Work and Wildness, and dozens of articles. He is involved in The Great West Institute, a think tank exploring expansion and innovation in the conservation movement and is currently working on a book about ground-truthing. Read Brooke’s post, "Richard Jefferies and the Role of the Dead," on the Huffington Post Books blog.
Terry and Brooke have been married since 1975. They live with their dogs in Jackson, Wyoming, and Castle Valley, Utah.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
DESERT CABAL: A New Season in the Wilderness
As Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness turns fifty, its iconic author, who has inspired generations of rebel-rousing advocacy on behalf of the American West, is due for a tribute as well as a talking to. In Desert Cabal: A New Season in the Wilderness, Amy Irvine admires the man who influenced her life and work while challenging all that is dated—offensive, even—between the covers of Abbey’s environmental classic. From Abbey’s quiet notion of solitude to Irvine’s roaring cabal, the desert just got hotter, and its defenders more nuanced and numerous.
"Spirited, fast-paced, passionate, at once humorous and provocative, and all rendered in gorgeous prose...a celebration of public lands and a heartfelt work of resistance..."
—HIGH DESERT JOURNAL
PRAISE FOR THE STORY OF MY HEART
“Terry and Brooke’s quest to understand Jefferies’ ideas of a ‘soul-life’ has brought the British writer’s ideas alive.”
—THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
“Outstanding...a first-rate tribute to an author who now has been rescued from obscurity.”
—THE UTAH REVIEW
“A small volume that packs a punch.”
—THE DURANGO HERALD
"Jefferies' prescient call for solitude in nature has proven itself worth fresh consideration."
—ALBUQUERQUE WEEKLY ALIBI
"What makes The Story of My Heart such an enjoyable find is the context that Terry and Brooke provide with their own commentary."
—JACKSON HOLE NEWS & GUIDE
“The Williamses anchor Jefferies’ profound inquiry to our churning world and illuminate their own passionate quests for truth and understanding.”
—BOOKLIST, starred review
“Brooke and Terry give a sense of cohesion to Jefferies’s writing, and leave readers with much to ponder about our own chaotic, fast–paced, work–obsessed world.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
