In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by David Gessner the author of "Quiet Desperation Savage Delight: Sheltering with Thoreau in the Age of Crisis", to talk about the life and lifestyle of Henry David Thoreau, as well as to discuss how his original practices could help save us as we see out the pandemic and face the greater crisis of climate.
David Gessner is the author of Quiet Desperation, Savage Delight: Sheltering with Thoreau in the Age of Crisis and Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness, which Robert Redford called "a rallying cry in the age of climate change," and ten other books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism. These books include the New York Times-bestselling All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner and the American West and the prize-winning The Tarball Chronicles (Association for Study of Literature and the Environment's award for best book of creative writing 2011/ 2012, Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment 2012) about the Gulf oil spill. His other books include Ultimate Glory: Frisbee, Obsession and My Wild Youth, Sick of Nature, My Green Manifesto, and Return of the Osprey, which the Boston Globe called a "classic of American nature writing" and chose as one of their top ten books of the year.
In 2003 Gessner taught Environmental Writing as a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard, and he now serves as Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the prize-winning literary magazine, Ecotone. His own magazine publications include pieces in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Audubon, Orion, and many other magazines, and his prizes include a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay for his essay "Learning to Surf." His television work includes appearances on MSNBC, and a turn as host of the National Geographic Explorer show, "The Call of the Wild."
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