The Literary Art and Activism of Rick Bass

In his controversial 1998 book Fiber, Rick Bass introduced a troubling dilemma of the literary artist and activist: How can any nature writer engage in celebration of the natural world in the face of environmental degradation? Perhaps, Bass speculated, the "activist is the artist's ashes," the identity that emerges finally from charred remains of a "pure" devotion to the art of nature writing. In The Literary Art and Activism of Rick Bass, the first comprehensive collection of l…