Outside Magazine Anthologies

Outside 25: Classic Tales and New Voices...  

True stories of wild places and extreme endeavors from the magazine that invented adventure  

writing as we know it.

Ian Frazier goes to the woods—to do nothing; Mark Jenkins wrestles with adventure mortality; Bill Vaughn skates home backward; Paul Theroux reveals the allure of islands; Alison Wright recalls her near-death experience in deepest Laos; Peter Maass endures free-fire zones in Sudan and Somalia; Kate Wheeler braves an ancient, violent-unto-death Bolivian ritual; Bill McKibben predicts the end of the world's fisheries; Mark Hertsgaard bicycles to the source of the Nile; David Rakoff survives survival school; David Quammen tracks large mammals in Romania.

Here the editors of Outside bring together over thirty essays that comprise some of the finest nonfiction writing gathered anywhere, writing that takes us to remote corners of the world and into distant realms of the imagination. By turns comical and sobering, whimsical and nerve-racking, the stories in this collection embody Outside's ability to hone the cutting edge, publishing the innovative, exhilarating, zany, wise voices of adventure.

The most hilarious, whimsical moments captured on film, from twenty-five years of living Outside.

Short of near disaster or the sublime, what are our most memorable outdoor moments made of? The totally surprising, sometimes bizarre oddball moments that catch our psyches off guard and strike our funny bones to the core. Call it the wild side factor.

The editors of Outside proudly present outstanding images gleaned from 300 issues of their back-page "Parting Shots" photo feature. It's their way of celebrating the pratfalls and singular coincidences of an outdoor life—the comic circumstances of relatively tame mammals (us) spending more and more time closer and closer to large, wild animals. These images are a rare chance to look into the wide world outside and laugh at both ourselves and that infinitely wondrous, entertaining three-ring circus we call the universe. 67 four-color photographs.

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.

TIN CAHILL
E. JEAN CARROLL
PHIL GARLINGTON
JIM HARRISON
DONALD KATZ
WILLIAM KITTREDGE
JON KRAKAUER
BARRY LOPEZ
THOMAS MCGUANE
BILL MCKIBBEN
MICHAEL MCRAE
PETER MATTHIESSEN
PETER NELSON
GEOFFREY NORMAN
DAVID QUAMMEN
BOB REISS
DAVID ROBERTS
ROB SCHULTHEIS
BOB SHACOCHIS
LAURENCE SHAMES
GRANT SINS
ANNICK SMITH
RICK TELANDER
BILL VAUGHN
CRAIG VETTER
RANDY WAYNE WHITE
ED ZUCKERMAN

Whether you're an armchair adventurer or a true-life trekker, you'll be at once entranced and exhilarated as you go Out of the Noösphere.

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