The Pine Barrens Author:John McPhee Most people think of New Jersey as the suburban industrial corridor that runs between New York and Philadelphia. Yet in the low center of the state is a region of vast forests and sandy soil known as the Pine Barrens, whose inhabitants, the "Pineys," are little known and often misunderstood. "Using his fine eye, great ear and good heart" (Newsda... more »y), McPhee "tells how this geographic anomaly has come to be, describes its people and their distinctive folklore, and captures something of the dreamlike quality of this incredibly quiet land in the midst of the noisy clutter of mechanical civilization" (Kansas City Start). "It will be a long time before another book appears to equal the literary quality and human compassion of this one. Among books of its type, it could be a classic" (The New York Times).« less
This is a fascinating book about New Jersey's Pine Barrens. You would never think that such a large area of undeveloped land would exist in New Jersey.
McPhee is a classic nature writer and this is one of his better books. From the Ballentine Walden Edition Library it was released about the same time as Diet for a Small Planet, Malabar Farm, and Sand County Almanac. A lost treasure of the early environmental literature of our nation.