"Forest Beatniks" and "Urban Thoreaus"

The Beat Movement, which first rose to attention in 1955, has often been viewed by critics as an urban phenomenon -the product of a postwar-youth culture with roots in the cities of New York and San Francisco. This study examines another side of the Beat Movement: its strong desire for a reconnection with nature. Although each took a different path in attaining this goal, the writers considered here-Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Lew Welch, and Michael McClure-sought a new and closer connection to the natural world. These four writers, along with many of their counterparts in the Beat era, provided a crucial spark that helped to ignite the environmental movement of the 1970s and provided the foundation for the development of the current "Deep Ecology" worldview.

Rod Phillips is Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing at Michigan State University's James Madison College. He earned his Ph.D. in American Studies at Michigan State and is widely published as a critic, poet, and journalist. He has written numerous articles for professional journals in the field of American literature, including essays on Herman Melville, Tennessee Williams, Jack Kerouac, Lew Welch, and Kathy Acker.