Landscapes of Genius and the Transatlantic Origins of Environmentalism

During the nineteenth century, the idea of 'genius' became associated with natural landscapes on both sides of the Atlantic. Scott D. Hess explores how those associations defined the modern significance of nature and precipitated the emergence of National Parks and the environmental movement. William Wordsworth's identification with the English Lake District, Henry David Thoreau's with Walden, and John Muir's with Yosemite established the paradigm of the 'landscape of genius,' through which authors and landscapes entered the nature-writing canon and national high culture. The book also explores the significance of race, gender, and class for such landscapes, as evidenced in writings by African American author Frederick Douglass; American woman writer, Susan Fenimore Cooper; and British laboring-class poets Robert Burns, John Clare, and Ann Yearsley. Fundamentally reshaping how we understand nineteenth-century transatlantic cultures of nature, Hess reveals the ongoing legacy of the landscape of genius for environmental politics today.