In this collection of exquisite essays, Elizabeth Dodd explores the natural and human history of sites in the American Southwest, the caves of southern France, the Kansas grasslands, and the forests of the Pacific Northwest. In the Mind’s Eye considers the artistic and creative impulses of those who preceded us, making sense of the different ways in which they—and we—express our experiences of landscape in words and images.

 

Hiking to find ancient petroglyphs in the American Southwest, canoeing black-water rivers to reach ancient trees in the coastal Southeast, and considering artists as varied as Georgia O’Keeffe and the poet of Beowulf , Dodd discerns the nature of place as well as our place in nature. Combining lyrical narrative, reflection, history, and science, Dodd invites readers to consider their aesthetic ancestors and connect with the legacies of these landscapes.

Elizabeth Dodd is a professor of English at Kansas State University. She is the author of several books, including Archetypal Light and Prospect: Journeys and Landscapes.

"In these exquisitely rendered essays, Dodd (Archetypal Light) explores the intersections of the arts and the natural world, often coming up with unexpected and insightful conclusions. Dodd serves as an inviting guide to everything from the ancient mammoth cave paintings of Chauvet in France to the joys of owning a wood-stove."—Publishers Weekly

"With her keen observations, her probing intellect, her sheer joy and delight at discovery, Dodd has made a provocative, companionable travel guide over the animate landscape."—Lisa Knopp, author of Interior Places

“Elizabeth Dodd takes herself to where the footprints are, to where the rock art is, to the mighty cypress in the final chapter, and along the way she instructs as she narrates and, with her poetic grasp of language, awes and entertains. She has a curiosity that is infectious and seldom entirely fulfilled. To read her is to be informed while being swept along by the lyricism of the language.”—William Kloefkorn, author of This Death by Drowning