A Beginner's Faith in Things Unseen

Praise

“A Beginner’s Faith in Things Unseen provides a sort of retrospective introduction to the mind of a man who has gained a quiet reputation as the elder statesman of American nature writing.”
—Amanda Heller, Boston Sunday Globe

“After a lifetime of study, [Hay] retains the humility and passion of a beginner.”
—David Miller, Sewanee Review

“[Hay] believes that we must return to the kind of direct, open, and intuitive relationship with nature that children have….[He] infects his readers with the same sense of wonder and grace.”
—Miles Harvey, Outside

“Dispatches from a lifelong pilgrimage of faith in the endurance and overarching power of the natural world….This is among the finest nature writing you’ll ever encounter.”
—Barbara A. Genco, School Library Journal

“John Hay is one of our very best essayists on the natural world.”
—Peter Matthiessen

“John Hay has been in a running dialogue with the birds of light and fish of darkness for many decades. His writings have enriched our literature, and yet he does not rest on his laurels. Instead, he swims ahead, humbled as ever by the mysteries swarming around him.”
—Gary Paul Nabhan

“No one writes so movingly about the real world as John Hay.”
—Jake Page