Encounters with the Archdruid
John McPhee. Encounters with the Archdruid
creative non-fiction
creative non-fiction
In the early 1970’s the fate of Cumberland Island, Georgia’s southernmost barrier island, was in the lurch. Would the island remain an ecological enclave enjoyed by only a few select landowners? Or would a bridge be built to the island, making way for vast development along the lines of Hilton Head Island to the north?
In this story, McPhee, a master of creative non-fiction, recounts his travel to the island with two nemeses: David Brower, one of the leading environmentalists of the late 20th century, the “archdruid”; and Charles Frazier, the Southeast’s most famous coastal real estate developer. McPhee documents the conversations and arguments of these two unlikely traveling companions as they walk, explore, and camp on the island together. In the hands of McPhee this story unfolds in an engaging—even engrossing—way. The questions and conversations that spawn from this book are rich: To what degree are humans part of nature? When is it proper to hold land in a preserve, protected from human impact? Who decides? Are there ways to develop land that creatively integrates the human and the ecological? ~ C. Bryan
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