Outside / In at the San Marcos Public Library: Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

Our Outside / In column features a mission statement about comprehending, protecting, and truly experiencing the outdoors, fueled by three amusing journeys undertaken by actor, humorist, and New York Times bestselling author Nick Offerman.  Find this and other great books about the great outdoors at the San Marcos Public Library.

Visit one of our city’s great INDOOR places — the San Marcos Public Library — to find this inspiring memoir and hundreds of other great nature and travel books

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside

By Nick Offerman
Dutton Books, 2021

SMPL Call Number:  New Book Shelf – 92 OFFERMAN

Nick Offerman has always felt a particular affection for the Land of the Free–not just for the people and their purported ideals but to the actual land itself: the bedrock, the topsoil, and everything in between that generates the health of your local watershed.

In his new book, Nick takes a humorous, inspiring, and elucidating trip to America’s trails, farms, and frontier to examine the people who inhabit the land, what that has meant to them and us, and to the land itself, both historically and currently.

In 2018, Wendell Berry posed a question to Nick, a query that planted the seed of this book, sending Nick on three memorable journeys.

He entertainingly chronicles his travels in the Montana Rockies with two unlikely companions, novelist George Saunders and musician Jeff Tweedy. Their hike along the sheer cliffs of Glacier National Park, prompts the author to meditate on the history and fate of public lands.  Next, he recounts his laugh-inducing travels to England to visit to his friend James Rebanks, the author of The Shepherd’s Life and English Pastoral. He followed that up with an excursion that could only have come about in 2020–Nick and his wife, Megan Mullally, bought an Airstream trailer to drive across the United States.

These three quests inspired some “deep-ish thinking from Nick, about the history and philosophy of our relationship with nature; what we mean when we talk about conservation; and the importance of outdoor recreation.

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Compiled from publisher notes, Kirkus Reviews, & Booklist by Stephanie Langenkamp, SMGA Outreach Committee.