Reading the Book of Nature

and publish the first significant critical study of the literary work and public education efforts of
May Watts, a task which can be tackled within the timeframe of a one-semester research leave
and which forms a key part of the much larger framework of Mapping the Urban Wilderness --
specifically, its chapter entitled "City, Suburb, Farm: Chicago Nature Writing, Past and Present."
Secondly, in conjunction with the research I do for the Watts project, I will continue to gather
and analyze materials, revise the organizational framework, and draft sections of Mapping the
Urban Wilderness, since these two research/writing activities are synergistic. The final result will
be a first-of-its-kind publishable article on the life and work of May Watts and significant
progress on my book-length investigation of the literature and history of urban nature in the
Chicago region.
Significance of the Research
The ideas, leadership, vision, and influence of May Theilgaard Watts made tremendous
impacts upon public environmental attitudes and civic policy here in the Chicago region. The
area's environmental history has many other such examples -- from legendary botanist Henry
Chandler Cowles and landscape architect Jens Jensen in the early 20 th century (both of whom are
subjects of recent biographies) to restoration ecologists Bob Betz and Stephen Packard in more
recent times. Of the many people who have influenced the direction of the Chicago region's
environmental movement, though, few have done so more profoundly than May Watts, who
lived, wrote, and taught during an era of rapid suburbanization, ecological degradation, and
political change. By devoting her career to developing what we now might call "ecological
literacy" among her natural history students as well as the general public during the mid-20 th
century, and by contributing forcefully to the land conservation and nascent rails-to-trails
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