The Cincinnati Arch: Learning from Nature in the City

What wilderness lover, asks John Tallmadge, "would ever dream of settling deep in the Rust Belt astride polluted rivers?" The Cincinnati Arch holds the provocative answer to Tallmadge's question, which was prompted by his unplanned relocation from rural Minnesota to urban Ohio. Tallmadge tells of dismaying early encounters with the city's seeming barenness, his growing awareness of its vitality and abundance, and finally his new vision of all nature, from the vacant lots of his neighborhood to our great New England forests and Western deserts.

New to the city, Tallmadge saw only its concrete, glass, smog, and debris. Soon his interest, stirred by the wonder of his children at their surroundings, focused Tallmadge to the "buzzing, flapping, scurrying, chewing, photosynthesizing life forms" around him. More deeply, Tallmadge began to learn from, and not just about, the city. Nature's persistence--within him and wherever he looked--wore away at old notions of wilderness that made no allowances for human culture.

The "arch" of the book's title is richly resonant: as the name of a geologic formation molding the urban landscape Tallmadge comes to love; as an archetypal building form; and, in its parabolic shape, as a metaphor for life's journey. Filled with luminous lessons of mindfulness, attentiveness, and other spiritual practices, this is a hopeful guide to finding nature and balance in unlikely places.

Author: John Tallmadge
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 10/11/2004
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.62lbs
Size: 8.42h x 5.42w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780820326900

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2004 pg. 734
Booklist 10/01/2004 pg. 288

About the Author
John Tallmadge is an environmental writer, speaker, and scholar living in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he maintains an independent practice of literary and educational consulting. For many years he was a professor of literature and environmental studies, teaching at institutions such as the University of Utah, Carleton College, and the Union Institute. He is also the author of "Meeting the Tree of Life" and "Reading Under the Sign of Nature," and his work has appeared in such publications as "Orion," "Audubon," "ISLE," "Whole Terrain," and "Utne Reader."