Anthology of writings about Sierra Nevada
By Sam McManis, Sacramento Bee
If the Sierra Nevada were a character in a book, it would be the tall, dashing stranger who’s easy on the eyes but has a malevolent streak. It would be just as likely to kill you as kiss you, as apt to make you curse its power as worship its looks.
Such a dichotomy is what has made the Sierra – that gorgeous, dangerous wonder running 430 miles down California’s spine – an irresistible subject for storytellers from early American Indians to Gold Rush chroniclers to the beat poets to environmentalists and an array of novelists.
A wide range of poetry and prose about the range has been collected in “The Illuminated Landscape: A Sierra Nevada Anthology” (Heyday Books, $19.95, 447 pages), edited by Gary Noy, director of the Sierra College Center for Sierra Nevada Studies, and Sierra historian Rick Heide.