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Ken Lamberton with a foreword by Richard Shelton |
WILDERNESS AND RAZOR WIRE A Naturalist's Observations from Prison |
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WILDERNESS
AND RAZOR WIRE
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WINNER, 2002 JOHN BURROUGHS MEDAL for distinguished natural history writing
“Wilderness and Razor Wire is what nature writing can be, at its finest: a courageous and eloquent exploration of what nature can teach us about how to be human.”
“That one of the strongest new voices in American writing would emerge from behind prison walls is a bright surprise. Wilderness and Razor Wire is a shimmering manifesto of hope and the saving tonic of the wild wherever it can be found.”
“Nothing is more grand and resilient than the human spirit, and this astonishing testament to the coexistence of beauty and brutality illuminates the presence of grace in tragedy.”
“In the face of the stultifying emotional barriers that prison life erects, Ken Lamberton trains his naturalist’s eye on the beauty and complexity of the weather, insects, toads, and nesting swallows that violate the borders of his confinement. This is a moving and troubling book that redefines ‘sense of place’ as a way of seeing and valuing where one is, rather than as coordinates on a green map. This book relocates the province of nature writing from the preserves of privilege to the backlots of human fallibility and social inequity, and even here-perhaps especially here-nature opens a window to the greater forces of earthly order that nurture the human soul. A remarkable and significant work.”
“Lamberton’s measured and exemplary prose follows the interactions among the prisoners, their built environments, and the birds and plants they encounter there, tracing connections disturbing and consoling, ecological and metaphorical. [A] strange and compelling debut.” WILDERNESS AND RAZOR WIRE includes 60 illustrations by Ken Lamberton.
This publication was made possible thanks to a generous grant by The Lannan Foundation.
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KEN LAMBERTON began writing after his incarceration in 1987. Since then he has published more than one hundred articles in numerous journals. This is his first book. He was released from prison on Monday, September 25, 2000. On April 1, 2002, Ken was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished natural history writing at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
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