About this item
When longtime author Robert Root moves to a small town in southeast Wisconsin, he gets to know his new home by walking the same terrain traveled by three Wisconsin luminaries who were deeply rooted in place - John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and August Derleth. Root walks with Muir at John Muir State Natural Area, with Leopold at the Shack, and with Derleth in Sac Prairie; closer to home, he traverses the Ice Age Trail, often guided by such figures as pioneering scientist Increase Lapham. Along the way, Root investigates the changes to the natural landscape over nearly two centuries, and he chronicles his own transition from someone on unfamiliar terrain to someone secure on his home ground.In prose that is at turns introspective and haunting, Walking Home Ground inspires us to see history's echo all around us: the parking lot that once was forest; the city that once was glacier.
About the Author
Robert Root was born in Lockport, New York, the setting for his memoir, "Happenstance." He attended the State University College at Geneseo and taught high school English in Wilson, New York, before getting his MA and PhD at the University of Iowa. After twenty-eight years teaching courses in composition, literature and film, creative nonfiction, and the teaching of writing at Central Michigan University, he began teaching creative nonfiction in the low-residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Ashland University. He has also taught at the Loft Literary Center and the Lighthouse Writers Workshop. He has spoken on composition and creative nonfiction at national and regional conferences and been a visiting writer in college writing programs, as well as an artist-in-residence at Isle Royale, Rocky Mountain, and Acadia National Parks. He was Interview/Roundtable Editor for the journal "Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction."In addition to articles and essays on teaching and writing, he has published several books on writing, including the composing study "E. B. White: The Emergence of an Essayist" and "The Nonfictionist's Guide: On Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction" and he was co-editor with Michael Steinberg through six editions of "The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers of/on Creative Nonfiction," a popular anthology. He edited the anthology "Landscapes With Figures: The Nonfiction of Place" and has written several works of creative nonfiction, including the essay collection "Postscripts: Retrospections on Time and Place," the collection of radio essays "Limited Sight Distance: Essays for Airwaves," and two historical travel books, "Recovering Ruth: A Biographer's Tale" and "Following Isabella: Travels in Colorado Then and Now." He and his wife live in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
