Signs & Seasons

John Burroughs's timeless meditations on the natural world, reimagined for a new generation. This 1981 paperback pairs the 19th-century naturalist's keenest observations with contemporary illustrations by Ann Zwinger, herself a distinguished nature writer and artist. Burroughs, who influenced everyone from Theodore Roosevelt to John Muir, possessed the rare ability to make phenology - nature's calendar - into literature. His essays track the subtle signals of seasonal change: the first robin, the last snow, the particular slant of autumn light.

Zwinger's detailed botanical illustrations create a dialogue across a century, proving Burroughs's relevance to the emerging environmental movement of the 1980s. This Harper Colophon edition represents the moment when nature writing found renewed urgency as ecological awareness entered mainstream consciousness. For those who treasure Thoreau or Annie Dillard, Burroughs is the essential precursor - the American naturalist who made close observation a spiritual practice.