The Best of Outside - (Vintage Departures) by Outside Magazine (Paperback)

About the Book

The editors of the award-winning "Outside" magazine have selected over 30 essays that together compose some of the finest nonfiction gathered anywhere. Authors include Sebastian Junger, Jon Krakauer, E. Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, and Tim Cahill.

Book Synopsis

The man-eating proclivities of Komodo dragons. The complicated art of being a cowgirl. A picaresque ramble with a merry band of tree-cleaners. The big-wave crusaders of the world's best surfers. For the past twenty years, Outside magazine has set the standard for original and engaging reports on travel, adventure, sports, and the environment.

Along the way, many of America's best journalists and storytellers--including such writers as Jon Krakauer, Tim Cahill, E. Annie Proulx, Edward Abbey, Thomas McGuane, David Quammen, and Jane Smiley--have made the magazine a venue for some of their most compelling work. The Best of Outside represents the finest the award-winning magazine has to offer: thirty stories that range from high action to high comedy. Whether it's Jonathan Raban sailing the open sea, Susan Orlean celebrating Spain's first female bullfighter, or Jim Harrison taking the wheel on a cross-country road trip, each piece can be characterized in a word: unforgettable. Commemorating Outside magazine's twentieth anniversary, The Best of Outside is one of the most entertaining and provocative anthologies of the decade.

Review Quotes

"Throughout...[the book], we are forced to focus upon the moment and the way it's constantly moving away from us. The result is a tantalizingly transient piece of Americana and, in fact, the world".
--San Francisco Examiner

"An engagingly satisfying, thoughtful melange for all who ponder life beyond the confines of home and health."
--Alice Joyce, Booklist

About the Author

Outside magazine has been in publication since 1977. It has received six National Magazine Awards, including the award for reporting in 1997 and the award for general excellence in both 1996 and 1997.