An irreverent history of American camping From the Sierras to the Adirondacks and the Everglades, Dan White travels the nation to experience firsthand-and sometimes face first-how the American wilderness transformed from the devil's playground into a source of adventure, relaxation, and renewal. Whether he's camping nude in cougar country, being attacked by wildlife while "glamping," or crashing a girls-only adventure for urban teens, Dan White seeks to animate the evolution of outdoor recreation. In the process, he demonstrates how the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, Roosevelt, and Muir-along with visionaries such as Adirondack Murray, Horace Kephart, and Juliette Gordon Low-helped blaze a trail from Transcendentalism to Leave No Trace. Wide-ranging in research, enthusiasm, and geography, Under the Stars reveals a vast population of nature seekers, a country still in love with its wild places.

Author Biography

Dan White is the author of The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail, an NCIBA bestseller and Los Angeles Times "Discovery" selection. He has taught composition at Columbia University and San Jose State. He is the contributing editor of Catamaran Literary Reader and received his MFA from Columbia University. He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and daughter.