Nature Biography

In May of 1963, Seattle mountaineer Jim Whittaker stepped into world history by becoming the first American to summit Mount Everest. More than 50 years later, he is still regarded as a seminal figure in North American mountaineering, as well as an astute businessman who helped create the outdoor recreation industry. A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond is Jim's courageous, no-punches-pulled autobiography and a look at a peripatetic, sometimes difficult life.

En 1845, Henry David Thoreau part vivre dans une cabane construite de ses propres mains, au bord de l'étang de Walden, dans le Massachusetts. Là, au fond des bois, il mène pendant deux ans une vie frugale et autarcique, qui lui laisse tout le loisir de méditer sur le sens de l'existence, la société et le rapport des êtres humains à la Nature. Une réflexion sereine qui montre qu'il faut s'abstraire du monde et de ses désirs pour devenir réellement soi-même.

On the evening of July 27, 1985, five hikers made a fateful choice to climb Yosemite's fabled Half Dome, even as the sky darkened and thunder rolled. By night's end, two would be dead from a lightning strike, three gravely wounded, and desperate EMTs would be overseeing a harrowing midnight helicopter rescue.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether climbing the highest volcanoes in the world or racing through anthrax-infested Siberia. He came up with a radical vision of nature, that it was a complex and interconnected global force and did not exist for man's use alone. Ironically, his ideas have become so accepted and widespread that he has been nearly forgotten.

The world J.R.R. Tolkien created is one of the most beloved in all of literature, and continues to capture hearts and imaginations around the world. From Oxford to ComiCon, the Middle Earth is analyzed and interpreted through a multitude of perspectives. But one essential facet of Tolkien and his Middle Earth has been overlooked: science.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The incredible untold story of World War II’s greatest secret fighting force, as told by the modern master of wartime intrigue—now an original series on MGM+! “Reads like a mashup of The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape, with a sprinkling of Ocean’s 11...

Three friends, women in their fifties, set out to hike "the most beautiful long-distance trail in the world," the John Muir Trail. From the outset, their adventure is complicated by self-inflicted accidents and ferocious weather, then enriched when they "adopt" a young hiker abandoned by her partner along the trail.

What do you do when your world ends? At 28 years old, Krista Schlyer sold almost everything she owned and packed the rest of it in a station wagon bound for the American wild. Her two best friends joined her - one a grumpy, grieving introvert, the other a feisty dog - and together they sought out every national park, historic site, forest, and wilderness they could get to before their money ran out or their minds gave in.

A masterful and comprehensive chronicle of World War II, by internationally bestselling historian Antony Beevor. Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of WWII. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall...

Wild animals are beautiful creatures, but they can turn dangerous in a heartbeat. Follow along as survivors use their wit, strength, and sheer will to battle these deadly beasts.

When Chick Ferguson made plans to go to the Yukon, he wasn’t planning on taking his newlywed Mary. He definitely was not planning on spending much of the next 18 years in the wilderness. For he was just a photographer with a little studio in a little town in Montana. His business was failing and having heard of the riches of the fur trade he was hoping to spend a year or two trapping, making a stake and returning to his routine life. But he didn’t figure on love....

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be human In Against the Machine, “furiously gifted” (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original—and terrifying—account of...

NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND VOGUE The first biography of Peter Matthiessen, the novelist, naturalist, and Zen roshi, whose trailblazing work championed Native American rights and helped usher in the modern...

This true-life wilderness survival epic recounts 17-year-old Alex Messenger's near-lethal encounter with a grizzly bear during a canoe trip in the Canadian tundra. The story follows Alex and his five companions as they paddle north through harrowing rapids and stunning terrain. Twenty-nine days into the trip, while out hiking alone, Alex is attacked by a barren-ground grizzly. Left for dead, he wakes to find that his summer adventure has become a struggle to stay alive.

Chaque année, des hommes, femmes et enfants disparaissent dans les forêts et espaces naturels américains dans des circonstances inexpliquées, parfois en l'espace d'un instant. Certains sont, heureusement, retrouvés mais ce n'est parfois que le début du mystère, car ils livrent des récits étranges. Mais il y a pire : des personnes portées disparues sont découvertes décédées dans des conditions obscures. Le plus terrifiant concerne la proportion de citoyens américains partis en randonnée ou à la chasse et qu'on ne revoit plus jamais.

In Wild Men, Wild Alaska professional hunting and fishing guide and outfitter Rocky McElveen tells the stories of his own adventures as well as those of some of his well-known clients. The book takes listeners directly into the Alaskan bush, and shares the intense challenges of a majestic wilderness that pushes a man to his limits.

The story of a dog so brave he saved lives and won hearts. This is the true heart-warming story of Stubby, a small, stump-tailed terrier who fought alongside Allied forces on the Western Front during World War I. This brave and clever dog could detect enemy soldiers, impending gas attacks, and even salute higher-ranking officers! But even more, this is the story of the remarkable friendship between an American soldier named Robert Conroy and the stray who adopted him and his unit.

In 1996, Beck Weathers and a climbing team pushed toward the summit of Mount Everest. Then a storm exploded on the mountain, ripping the team to shreds, forcing brave men to scratch and crawl for their lives. In this powerful memoir, Weathers describes not only his escape from hypothermia and the murderous storm that killed eight climbers but the journey of his life. This is the story of a man's route to a dangerous sport and a fateful expedition, as well as the road of recovery he has traveled since.

Entropy is a law of nature, the one predicting that "things fall apart." Spend enough time outdoors and it will eventually happen to you. When it does, who will pick up the pieces? Who will glue them back together? Professional search and rescue volunteers leave work, home, and their cozy beds to rescue people on the worst day of their lives. They buy their own gear, pay their own gas, and ask nothing more than to make a contribution to the lives of strangers who they'll probably never meet again.

An abiding love of nature lies at the root of all of Rabindranath Tagore’s works. Thousands of pages have been written in appreciation of his writings on nature. However, Tagore has not commonly been considered relevant to the current environmental debate. Using the lens of ecocriticism, the author shows us how Tagore brings up important issues regarding the imbalanced relationship between man and nature, decades before the concept had been formally introduced.