Ghosts of an Old Forest - by Deborah Fleming (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In the Ohio counties of the Allegheny Plateau, 19th-century barns hewn from old-growth wood rest near remnant forests, reminders of the state's deep agricultural roots and rich ecological past. Through 14 linked, meditative essays, Deborah Fleming, author of the award-winning Resurrection of the Wild: Meditations on Ohio's Natural Landscape, persuasively and passionately argues for protecting these vestiges of the region's natural and rural history. Fleming describes domesticated and wild nature on her farm, delves into Ohio's rich history of agriculture, tackles the issues of litter and pollution, decries the practice of hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking"), and reflects on changes in communities bordering rivers, which are often the most exploited by extraction industries. The result is an evocative collection, which traces Ohio's natural and cultural history-and serves as an urgent call to preserve its splendor"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

In the Ohio counties of the Alleghany Plateau, 19th-century barns hewn from old-growth wood rest near remnant forests, reminders of the state's deep agricultural roots and rich ecological past. Through fourteen linked, meditative essays, Deborah Fleming, author of the award-winning Resurrection of the Wild: Meditations on Ohio's Natural Landscape, persuasively and passionately argues for protecting these vestiges of the region's natural and rural history.

Fleming describes domesticated and wild nature on her farm; delves into Ohio's rich history of agriculture; tackles the issues of litter and pollution; decries the practice of hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking"); and reflects on changes in communities bordering rivers, which are often the most exploited by extraction industries.

The result is an evocative collection, which traces Ohio's natural and cultural history--and serves as an urgent call to preserve its splendor.

Review Quotes

"Meticulously researched and lovingly written, Deborah Fleming's Ghosts of an Old Forest is a meditative tribute to the native ecosystems of rural Ohio. Written in conversation with Thoreau's Walden, Fleming describes--with a poet's ear--the grave necessity for humans to caretake these magnificent resources. The end result is a book that, while a call to action, remains full of hope, wonder, and solace."--Kelly Sundberg, author of Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival and the forthcoming The Answer Is in the Wound: Trauma, Rage, and Alchemy

"Natural historian David Attenborough warns that healing our planet will require rewilding one third of the land and sea. By walking us past the ghosts of midwestern woods and farms, into the company of Aldo Leopold and Louis Bromfield, Deborah Fleming shows that step one is the rewilding of us."--Karen Schubert, founding director of Lit Youngstown and author of The Compost Reader and I Left My Wings on a Chair

"Literate, thoughtful excursions that emphasize both the local and particular in her part of Ohio, as well as the wider world of discourse bearing on her topics."--Indiana Magazine of History

About the Author

Deborah Fleming is the author of Resurrection of the Wild: Meditations on Ohio's Natural Landscape, which won the PEN-America Diamonstein/Spielvogel Art of the Essay Award for 2020. She has also published five collections of poetry, a novel, and four volumes of scholarship. Previously a professor of English at Ashland University and winner of the Faculty Research Award, she served for many years as director and editor of the Ashland Poetry Press.