John Tallmadge
Encyclopedia
John Tallmadge Ph.D., is an author
and essay
ist on issues related to nature
and culture
. He is currently in private practice as an educational and literary consultant after thirty year career in higher education, most recently as a core professor of Literature
and Environmental Studies
at Union Institute and University
(TUI) in Cincinnati, Ohio. He served as president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
(A.S.L.E.) and director of the Orion Society
. He is a U.S. Army
veteran
.
. He credits his urban upbringing with instilling in him "a childhood longing for lakes and forests". He increasingly experienced the natural world at Dartmouth College
and visiting Big Sur
and the High Sierra while in the Army. Those experiences encouraged him to explore nature writers like Thoreau
and John Muir
. The outdoors complimented the academic work that he was pursuing and he applied his graduate
studies in comparative literature
to his passion for the outdoors.
Patricia Hassler stated in a Booklist
review that as a young idealist "Tallmadge sought the authenticity, power, and possibility of the wilderness by following the intellectual and physical trails blazed by Henry Thoreau and John Muir... he takes us along on his hikes to the High Sierra, Katahdin, and the Deeps and Canyonlands where, like some knight-errant, he proves himself over and over. If his teaching tenure is denied, Tallmadge realizes he has learned nature's lessons: just as water overcomes through nonresistance and the jack pine needs fire to release its seeds, man endures through spirit and faith."
His studies in nature writing
fall under the genre of ecocriticism
, a term coined by William Rueckert in 1978, and focus on the works of Thoreau, John Muir
, Edward Abbey
, and Aldo Leopold
, to name just a few.
Tallmadge is married. He lives with his family in Cincinnati.
in 1969 summa cum laude before, as noted on Tallmadge's website, the "Army preempted grad school." He received his PhD from Yale University
in 1977 in comparative literature
. He proceeded to teach at Yale, the University of Utah
, Carleton College
, the Associated Colleges of the Midwest
, and Dartmouth College, before settling at TUI. He served as a dean there from 1987 to 1992.
In addition to his academic work at TUI, Tallmadge worked as a consultant
in developing curricula at Green Mountain College
, University of Kentucky
, and Antioch University New England
. He consulted at Concordia College
, Chatham College
, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Science. He offers workshop
s on the themes of nature
and human values, spirituality
, and writing
, as well as seminars on personal and professional development for college faculty. He also reads and lectures widely on college and university campuses.
Besides his books Tallmadge has been published in the Utne Reader
, Orion magazine
, Audubon Magazine, Whole Terrain
, the Michigan Quarterly Review
, the Interdisciplinary Studies in
Literature and Environment (ISLE
), the North Dakota Quarterly
, the Emerson Society Quarterly, and Witness
, among others.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
ist on issues related to nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
. He is currently in private practice as an educational and literary consultant after thirty year career in higher education, most recently as a core professor of Literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and Environmental Studies
Environmental studies
Environmental studies is the academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. It is a broad interdisciplinary field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them...
at Union Institute and University
Union Institute & University
Union Institute & University is a non-profit private college, specializing in limited residence and distance learning programs. With the main campus in Cincinnati, Union Institute & University operates -from Ohio- "satellite campuses" located in Montpelier, Vermont; Brattleboro, Vermont; North...
(TUI) in Cincinnati, Ohio. He served as president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment is the principal professional association for American and international scholars of ecocriticism...
(A.S.L.E.) and director of the Orion Society
Orion Society
The Orion Society is a United States non-profit organization that engages environmental and cultural issues through publication of books, magazines, and educational materials, and facilitation of informational networks. It was founded in 1992 and is based in Great Barrington, Massachusetts...
. He is a U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
.
Biography
John Tallmadge grew up in northern New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. He credits his urban upbringing with instilling in him "a childhood longing for lakes and forests". He increasingly experienced the natural world at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
and visiting Big Sur
Big Sur
Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...
and the High Sierra while in the Army. Those experiences encouraged him to explore nature writers like Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
and John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
. The outdoors complimented the academic work that he was pursuing and he applied his graduate
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
studies in comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
to his passion for the outdoors.
Patricia Hassler stated in a Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
review that as a young idealist "Tallmadge sought the authenticity, power, and possibility of the wilderness by following the intellectual and physical trails blazed by Henry Thoreau and John Muir... he takes us along on his hikes to the High Sierra, Katahdin, and the Deeps and Canyonlands where, like some knight-errant, he proves himself over and over. If his teaching tenure is denied, Tallmadge realizes he has learned nature's lessons: just as water overcomes through nonresistance and the jack pine needs fire to release its seeds, man endures through spirit and faith."
His studies in nature writing
Nature writing
Nature writing is generally defined as nonfiction prose writing about the natural environment. Nature writing often draws heavily on scientific information and facts about the natural world; at the same time, it is frequently written in the first person and incorporates personal observations of and...
fall under the genre of ecocriticism
Ecocriticism
Ecocriticism is the study of literature and environment from an interdisciplinary point of view where all sciences come together to analyze the environment and brainstorm possible solutions for the correction of the contemporary environmental situation...
, a term coined by William Rueckert in 1978, and focus on the works of Thoreau, John Muir
John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
, Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey
Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental...
, and Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold was an American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac , which has sold over two million copies...
, to name just a few.
Tallmadge is married. He lives with his family in Cincinnati.
Professional overview
Tallmadge graduated from Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in 1969 summa cum laude before, as noted on Tallmadge's website, the "Army preempted grad school." He received his PhD from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1977 in comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
. He proceeded to teach at Yale, the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
, Carleton College
Carleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
, the Associated Colleges of the Midwest
Associated Colleges of the Midwest
Associated Colleges of the Midwest is a consortium of 14 private liberal arts colleges, primarily in the Midwestern United States. The 14 colleges are located in five states . The ACM was established in 1958 and is headquartered in Chicago...
, and Dartmouth College, before settling at TUI. He served as a dean there from 1987 to 1992.
In addition to his academic work at TUI, Tallmadge worked as a consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
in developing curricula at Green Mountain College
Green Mountain College
Green Mountain College is a coeducational private environmental liberal arts college located in Poultney, Vermont, in the USA.Green Mountain is located in the Vermont countryside, at the foot of the Taconic Mountains between the Green Mountains and Adirondacks.The College has a core set of courses...
, University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
, and Antioch University New England
Antioch University New England
Antioch University New England is a private graduate school located in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the Antioch University system that includes campuses in Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; Santa Barbara, California; and Yellow Springs, Ohio.- History :In 1964, Antioch College...
. He consulted at Concordia College
Concordia College, Moorhead
Concordia College is a private liberal arts school located in Moorhead, Minnesota, United States. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and offers bachelors' degrees in the arts and music, as well as a master's degree in education. The college was founded by Norwegian...
, Chatham College
Chatham College
Chatham University is an American university with a women's undergraduate college and coeducational graduate programs through the doctoral level, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Shadyside neighborhood. The campus population of approximately 2,300 includes undergraduate women and graduate...
, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Science. He offers workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
s on the themes of nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
and human values, spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
, and writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, as well as seminars on personal and professional development for college faculty. He also reads and lectures widely on college and university campuses.
Besides his books Tallmadge has been published in the Utne Reader
Utne Reader
Utne Reader is an American bimonthly magazine. The magazine collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment from generally alternative media sources, including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music and DVDs...
, Orion magazine
Orion (magazine)
Orion is a bimonthly, advertisement-free, magazine focused on nature, the environment, and culture, addressing environmental and societal issues....
, Audubon Magazine, Whole Terrain
Whole Terrain
Whole Terrain: Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice is an environmentally-themed literary journal that's published approximately once a year by Antioch University New England . Each volume explores emerging ecological and social issues from the perspectives of practitioners working in the...
, the Michigan Quarterly Review
Michigan Quarterly Review
The Michigan Quarterly Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1962 and published at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.The quarterly publishes art, essays, interviews, memoirs, fiction, poetry, and book reviews as well as writing "in a wide variety of research areas", according to...
, the Interdisciplinary Studies in
Literature and Environment (ISLE
Isle
Isle may refer to:* An island, land surrounded by water* Isle, Haute-Vienne, a commune of the Haute-Vienne département in France* Isle, Minnesota, a small city in the United States* Isle , a river in France* River Isle, a river in England...
), the North Dakota Quarterly
North Dakota Quarterly
North Dakota Quarterly is a quarterly literary journal published by the University of North Dakota. NQR publishes poetry, fiction, interview, and literary non-fiction. First published in-Contributors:...
, the Emerson Society Quarterly, and Witness
Witness (magazine)
Witness is a literary and issue-oriented magazine published by the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV. Each issue includes fiction, poetry, memoir, and literary essays. The magazine has been honored with ten grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and writings from the journal have been...
, among others.
Works
- Leslie, Clare Walker, John Tallmadge, and Tom WesselsTom WesselsTom Wessels is a terrestrial ecologist and a professor at Antioch University New England in the Department of Environmental Studies, where he founded a master's program in conservation biology...
. Into the Field: A Guide to Locally Focused Learning (Orion Society, 2005). ISBN 0-913098-52-3 - Tallmadge, John. Meeting the Tree of Life: A Teacher's Path (University of Utah Press, 1997). ISBN 0874805317
- Tallmadge, John, and Harry Harrington, eds. Reading Under the Sign of Nature: New Essays in Ecocriticism (University of Utah Press, 2000). ISBN 0874806488
- Tallmadge, John. The Cincinnati Arch: Learning from Nature in the City (University of Georgia Press, 2004). ISBN 0820326763
Articles available online
- A Matter of Scale
- Deerslayer with a Degree
- Meeting the Tree of Life
- Narrative Ecocriticism
- The Nature of Terror
- The Wild Within
- Toward a Natural History of Reading
External links
- A.S.L.E.
- I.S.L.E.
- Orion Society
- Whole Terrain link to Tallmadge's articles published in Whole TerrainWhole TerrainWhole Terrain: Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice is an environmentally-themed literary journal that's published approximately once a year by Antioch University New England . Each volume explores emerging ecological and social issues from the perspectives of practitioners working in the...
- Whole TerrainWhole TerrainWhole Terrain: Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice is an environmentally-themed literary journal that's published approximately once a year by Antioch University New England . Each volume explores emerging ecological and social issues from the perspectives of practitioners working in the...
podcasts on nature and nature writing 1. Thoreau, 2. Where is Nature?, 3. On Nature Writing - Grand Rapids Community College Sustainability Series podcasts. 1. Creative Sustainability lecture, 2. Reading from The Cincinnati Arch
- Guest on *Anyplace Wild TV Show, Season 3, Episode 3: Chasing Thoreau's Ghost: Canoeing and Hiking in Maine
- Blog: The Staying Alive Project for faculty development