The Book
Her newest work invites readers into a profound meditation on observation, history, and the natural world.
Essays on nature, science, and the history of attention
From the field notebooks of nineteenth-century botanists to a modern dawn chorus in Vermont, The Slow Disciplines gathers a decade of essays on nature, history, and the quiet science of paying attention. A literary essay collection in the finest tradition — patient, exact, and steadily illuminating — from one of the essay form's most admired living practitioners.
Praise
Praise for Harper Whitfield's work suggests a singular voice in contemporary letters.
“Whitfield is our finest living essayist on the natural world. This collection belongs on the shelf beside Dillard and Berry.”
“A model of the literary essay: patient, exact, and quietly radical in its defense of attention itself.”
“Reading Whitfield feels like being handed a longer, better century.”