Basin and Range

john mcphee

The first of John McPhee’s works in his series on geology and geologists, Basin and Range is a book of journeys through ancient terrains, always in juxtaposition with travels in the modern world—a history of vanished landscapes, enhanced by the histories of people who bring them to light. The title refers to the physiographic province of the United States that reaches from eastern Utah to eastern California, a silent world of austere beauty, of hundreds of discrete high mountain ranges that are green with junipers and often white with snow. The terrain becomes the setting for a lyrical evocation of the science of geology, with important digressions into the plate-tectonics revolution and the history of the geologic time scale.

Genres nonfictionsciencegeologynaturehistorynatural historytravelgeographyessaysenvironment

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1,1981

Series

Annals of the Former World

Literary awards

pulitzer prize,

This edition

Format: 240 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 1982 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9780374516901
ASIN: 0374516901
Language: English

About the author

john mcphee

John Angus McPhee is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth occasion in 1999 for Annals of the Former World (a collection of five books, including two of his previous Pulitzer finalists). In 2008, he received the George Polk Career Award for his "indelible mark on American journalism during his nearly half-century career". Since 1974, McPhee has been the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.