In Praise of Walking and Other Essays

August Derleth had a deep and abiding sympathy with the natural world. Beginning as early as the 1930s, he wrote essays extolling the wonders of nature in and around his native Sauk City, Wisconsin. He found fascination with both flora (trees, wildflowers, purling streams) and fauna (hawks, owls, fish of all sorts). With the passing of decades, Derleth became an ardent environmentalist, condemning the needless destruction of nature for human development. He also extolled the moral and aesthetic virtues of walking through nature or just "idling" the self-contemplation that is generated in a natural setting can result in a profound understanding of our connection with the world around us. In this volume, dozens of Derleth's essays on nature, as well as poems inspired by natural phenomena and other work, are gathered for the first time, revealing a sensitive soul ever attuned to the smallest elements of natural life.