With Every Great Breath

"Master craftsman" and beloved author Rick Bass illustrates ecological, social, and personal landscapes through this collection that brings together his best-loved essays and brand-new pieces (Los Angeles Times)

For acclaimed writer and environmental activist Rick Bass, it can be wearying to dwell relentlessly upon the broken, fragmented, the dead and the dying, and the doomed-to-extinction. Activism is a necessary part of the environmental movement, but so is the time-honored celebration of the beauty that inspires us. 

Spanning his storied career, these new and selected essays attempt to take a brief step to the side, away from lamentation and prescription, and to inhabit, as deeply as possible, the greater depths of beauty in-the-moment. With Every Great Breath ranges from the extremely local—a long-form essay about the community affected by the largest Superfund site in U.S. history, in Libby, Montana—to the farflung: the Galapagos, Namibia, and Alaska. Throughout, Bass offers a portrait of our planet that is always alert to its wonders, even in the face of environmental crisis.