The author was not attempting to be comprehensive about the Appalachian Trail, instead the focus is on some of the people that made the trail what it is; from the early conception to development, then the first hikers, particularly thru-hikers. One of the last chapters focused on Bill Bryson since his book (A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail) made a huge impact for the trail. It was a bestseller and many more people came out to hike the trail for themselves. The very last chapter dealt with the author's own experience hiking along the trail, although not a completion thru-hike.

My only experience with this trail is through Bill Bryson, as I live closer to the Pacific Crest Trail, actually have hiked a very small part of that one. And part of this book is missing some of the physical details of the trail. There are a few, but not many and it didn’t make me actually see the trail. Perhaps there are other books that provide more detail.

At times I felt like there was too much backstory to the person’s biography for the chapter, but this is what the author was attempting, biographies for a few of the important people associated with this trail.

Just as I finished this book I noticed in the news an announcement for the oldest person to hike the trail, M.J. Eberhart, an 83-year-old man. A nice coincidence with the timing.


P.S. another aspect I thought was missing was some info or biographies on the trail angels, those people who help out the thru-hikers. No, this was not a complete book.

I'm finally getting to review this one - thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Mariner Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read it and apologies for the delayed review.

I have no in-person experience of the Appalachian Trail (yet) and my only exposure has been via Bill Bryson's book, some fiction, and TV series so my knowledge was limited.

I found this to be an interesting way to bring the Appalachian Trail to life - it's structured in such a way that it links 12 people who have and association with the Trail, most famously or widely known probably the aforementioned Bill Bryson. I found it an engaging setup but if you were coming to this book expecting to find a linear history of the landmark you might be disappointed, it's really not that.

Be warned if you're reading this as an ebook, especially if you're really enjoying it :), but at about three quarters of the way through it 'finishes' and the remainder is made up of (useful) references/notes/bibliography.

It's only fitting that I read this book on my backpack of the Continental Divide Trail this past weekend. (another trail that goes north to south across the country like the AT). I overall found this book very informative and it taught me a lot - seeming as I've only spent a couple of days ever on the AT. I enjoyed the differening perspectives of individuals from chapter to chapter, although some chapters were definitely more enjoyable than others. Highly recommend if you want to learn more about all the different aspects and what went into making this trail!

I really enjoyed this book. I learned so much about the Appalachian Trail, the history of the AT, and how it came to be connected from GA to ME. I loved the format, organizing the book by those who had large impacts on the AT.

Every new book about hiking and trails will probably be compared to either Cheryl Strayed's Wild, Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, or both. This book focuses on the lives of 12 individuals (including Bryson) who had a connection to the Appalachian Trail, as a way to tell the story of the AT itself. Like many historians, D'Anieri dives deeply into contextual layers, which may not be every reader's cup of tea, but others will adore it. The final chapter is the author's more personal meditation on the experience of hiking the trail and what broader accessibility might mean. It gets to the heart of the AT mythology:

"Conjuring a “wilderness footpath” from Georgia to Maine is in part an exercise in wishful thinking and selective perception. Even in the trail’s earliest days, imagining a pristine alpine realm required not seeing the native history of the Appalachians, or the so-called mountain people eking out an existence deep in the woods, or the logging roads that provided crucial early trail connections. As postwar development pushed deeper into the countryside, threatening to break up the AT forever, the protection effort became more urgent and, by definition, more contrived."

Ultimately, this book makes even the most couch-potato-ey reader want to get a pair of hiking boots and experience the AT firsthand, and I suspect that was the true intent all along.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I have taught and worked with youth for over 20 years. It has saddened me to witness the decline of connection with nature in today’s children. I am shocked each year when I find only one or 2 of my students have ever been camping or hiking. The Appalachian Trail has fascinated me for quite some time. This book was well written, if a little slow and sometimes choppy. I enjoyed the getting to know the twelve that paved the way for the development of this trail. I’d say to truly enjoy this book, you need to have invested interest in the Appalachian Trail. It is a great learning tool for students.

**Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

As an AT and Florida Trail thru-hiker I was quite excited to read this book based on the premise of it being an overarching biography of the Appalachian Trail. And it very nearly does that but with my kindle saying I had 75% of the book read, the book just ends! The remaining 25% is bibliography and resources, which are greatly appreciated, but the last chapter acted as if it was tacked on randomly to create a vision of a tidy ending. There's a huge 20+ years of trail history missing after Bill Bryson. The author attempts to summarize that with his sporadic section hiking and glossing over the recent technology access to the trail but he leaves out a huge section of other folks, primarily the hikers themselves, from the story. Where are the FKTers of the last 20 years, what of Trail Angels and Trail Maintainers of significance, book authors, and even discussion about podcasters and more in depth information about technology on the trail and hiking celebrities? What even of the natural history of the trail? For this, the book fell hugely short. I really appreciated the middle sections of the book, particularly about the evolving protection of the AT during that time period.

I wanted to love it but I ended up merely liking it for the sudden ending of the book.

This is a history of the building and support for the AT (Appalachian Trail) as the first national trail. A lot of the book is explained by the people most responsible for conceiving and creating the trail. At many times the trail was just the side of the road of rail tracks, bridges or country roads, that were poorly marked an invisible in places.

Conceived at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was supported by volunteers up until the last quarter of the century. Much of the trail was privately owned and was allowed to be used by the owners at their forbearance. This caused problems when the Federal Government wanted to buy the land from the owners. Especially in the southern portion, instead of being on the upper ridges of the mountains it ran in the lower valleys so that it had poor visibility of the mountains.

A good portion of the book is a narrative of the life's work of the people who were most important to getting the trail build and protected.

Read if you: Want a succinct and revealing look at the creation of the Appalachian Trail, including threats to its existence, its rise in popularity, and the current issues facing the trail.

I was particularly taken with the sections on Emma "Grandma" Gatewood and Bill Bryson, as well as the creation of the National Trails System Act (and the controversy surrounding it).

Shenandoah National Park (and parts of the AT) are within a short driving distance for our patrons, so I'm looking forward to sharing this with patrons.

Librarians/booksellers: Although there are quite a few books written by people who have hiked the AT (the author of the most famous one, Bill Bryson, is profiled), this is a unique take on 10 individuals who have had significant impact on the AT.

Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book has twelve chapters with each devoted to an individual who had some impact on the development of the Appalachian Trail. Some of the chapters were well done and engaging while others were borderline boring making this a very uneven read. It is informative for those who have an interest in the Appalachian Trail, but have not read much about it.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook page.

This is an oddly structured book, intending to tell a “biography” (the author acknowledges it is not a thorough history or a hiking book) of the Appalachian Trail through chapters of short biographies of people associated with the trail. Some of the early chapters/people had very little to do with the trail, and even when the trail was a big part of someone’s life, I didn’t care about the other aspects of the person’s life, so the construct didn’t really work for me. The one exception was Benton MacKaye, credited with the idea of the trail—I’d be interested in reading a full biography of him. Well, I didn’t like Bill Bryson’s related bestseller either.

In the final chapter, the author offers some of his own thoughts about the trail, the relationship between nature and civilization, and the intrusion of technology into experiencing the natural world. When I lived and worked in a national park for several years, I spent a lot of time bemoaning people’s increasing dependence on cell phones. I also disagree with his desire to make the trail more accessible to more people. In a comparison of trails and roads, he points out that trails do damage also—while this is certainly true, it seems a bit like comparing apples to universes considering the far greater habitat fragmentation caused by roads or the unmentioned wildlife killed by vehicles.

The book would have been much more interesting to me if he had expanded on these topics and left all the other people out of it.

Thanks to HMH and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

Less a biography of the Appalachian trail than a collection of short character led stories about folks with ties to the trail. Not as cohesive as I would have liked.

Written as a biography of the Appalachian Trail, this book delves into the backgrounds of individuals who had a profound affect on the AT and the public's view of it. It is often difficult to tell the history of an object or place in this style and while this book makes a good attempt at it, I wasn't as taken by it as I thought I might be. The chapters meander a lot and don't always blend together well. I would have been interested in a chapter about how Indigenous regarded the mountains and how it factored into their cultures. Overall, a good idea but bad execution.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

While the premise of the book appears interesting -- the stories of 12 individuals who were instrumental in bringing the vision of a interstate wilderness trail to fruition -- the execution is choppy. Some of the chapters, notably those of Benton Mackaye and Myron Avery (arch rivals) are excellent. However, the story of these two men was told extensively in Jeff Ryan's book, "Blazing Ahead: Benton MacKaye, Myron Avery, and the Rivalry That Built the Appalachian Trail." The initial chapters, prior to that of Mackaye (Chapter 4), were fairly dry, not particularly engaging, and at times I wondered what the significance of the individuals was to the overall story. It was as if D'Anieri hadn't quite decided exactly what he wanted his book to be. This was particularly true in his Introduction where he provides long descriptions of the geological history of the Appalachian mountains.

For me, the book became more interesting beginning with Chapter 6 and the story of Earl Shaffer, the first acknowledged thru hiker of the AT (1948) and the following year, Emma Gatewood. It was interesting, as well, to read about the various strong opinions the hikers held as to what exactly counted as a "thru-hike."

Chapter 7 is the story of Senator Gaylord Nelson, who introduced legislation in 1964 to provide federal protection for the AT. Nelson, neither outdoorsman nor hiker, was emblematic of a new environmentalism that was taking root in American politics. He worked to preserve the wilderness nature of the trail and prevent further encroachment of postwar development. In addition to his efforts to protect the AT, Nelson is also remembered for having organized the first Earth Day in April 1970. Chapter 8 is similarly involved with telling more of the history of the AT and federal legislation as well as its interface with the National Park Service.

Chapter 9 tells the story of Bill Bryson -- but to truly appreciate Bill Bryson one must read Bryson's own account as related in "A Walk in the Woods." Bryson is hilariously, laugh-out-loud funny.

Chapter 10 seems to be a discourse on the author's opinions concerning the purpose of the trail. Is it for short-distance hikes? Long-distance hiking? At one point in the chapter, the author comments on three young men with Mountain Dew and cigarettes getting ready to hike, "They provided a sharp and, to my eyes, welcome contrast to the typical REI-adorned denizens of the trail." This is the same author, who, in the Introduction, sets off on a 5-6 hour up and back hike up a smallish mountain on a Georgia portion of the trail with no water. Seriously? What kind of idiot does that??? No wonder he takes a liking to the cigarette smoking "hikers." In fact, the author goes on to argue, in Chapter 10, in favor of a accessible trail noting that a more remote experience requires specialized gear, knowledge of what you're doing, etc. He decries the predominant "whiteness" of the Skyline Drive in Virginia. Again, is he writing a book about the history of the AT or a book about race and the great outdoors? He needs to make up his mind.

The last several pages of the book provide the author's take on the effect of the internet on the AT. Again, this could be a complete book all to itself. The author speaks of the ability to move knowledge quickly from reliable maps to informing others of one's progress on the trail. The second relates to those on the trail broadcasting back to civilization, producing a public performance so to speak. And the third is the blurring of the line between wilderness and civilization.

All in all, there were enjoyable parts of the book. But it didn't hang together as a whole book with a discernable beginning through to a cogent end. Although the book does seem to fill a void, in that most books about the AT tend to tell the story of the hiking experience, it could have been better done.

This book is advertised as a "biography of the Appalachian trail." As a fan of the Appalachian Trail (AT) and someone who has spent many hours hiking the AT, I was very excited about this book. The book consists of chapters of people who were instrumental in the creation and promotion of the AT. This book is basically a series of mini-biographies of these individuals. This was an interesting technique, however, I found that the author would include more about these individuals than I was interested in reading, especially when their biography strayed too far from the AT history. The author also included his own impressions of the AT, some of which were very insightful and relatable. Overall, I learned a few new things about the AT. However, I felt the book could benefit from some more editing to keep it more streamlined and engaging. This book may be of interest to people who want a brief introduction to the people who shaped the AT. People who are looking for hiking tips won’t find much here to interest them.

I have loved the AT since my first hike on the Presidential Trail in the White Mountains when I was twelve years old with my best friend and our fathers. This iconic trail that stretches from Georgia to Maine holds many fascinating stories, from the hilarious hijinks of Bill Bryson, in his book, A Walk in the Woods, to the intriguing tales of through-hikers. D’Anieri’s book traces the history of the conception of the idea of the AT in the 19th century to its finalization as recently as the 1990’s. I couldn’t put this one down!

“Entering the wilderness was not just an unusual thing to do in early America—economically useless, physically dangerous—it was morally suspect as well. Popular thinking held that the farther away people traveled from Christian civilization, the more they opened their inner selves to the heathen nature of the dark woods. It made no sense at all to plunge into the wild on its own terms; there was nothing to gain, and everything to lose.”

The divide between nature and society has always interested me, especially since the rapid urbanization of everyday life over the past two hundred years that created this divide in the first place. How people could ever consider themselves separately from their environment is impossible to answer sensibly--but many of us can think of good reasons of how and why we are separate from "the environment," the non-urban natural world that always remains out there, beyond the walls of civilization.

Nowhere is this natural space better typified than our natural parks, of which the Appalachian Trail is one. In his lively biography of the 2,100-mile natural corridor, Philip D'Anieri presents twelve characters who helped sculpt the AT into the shape it has taken in our culture today.

It may be a downside of the book that the abridged lives that brought the AT into being were not given more pages, or that the cast of characters were not so homogenous--nevertheless, the author has succeeded in presenting a thorough and well-researched history of a national conservation project that has captivated the time, attention, and resources of America's white middle-class over the past one hundred years.

Like many environmental histories of America, Thoreau's influence plays an indelible role, but here it is only to begin a more nuanced conversation: in the pursuit of "a better home," Thoreau sought both to abandon the city for a time without losing his sense of community and his sense of self. Finding a place that was the best of both worlds turned out to be, in contemporary times, living within a day's drive to a national park, where one can enjoy a day of exertion and return to their cars and their homes. This seems to be the route we have gone in modern times, but it was by no means--much like the AT itself--a straight path.

Philip D'Anieri does an excellent job tracing the contours of the numerous figures responsible for conceiving of the AT. Some key figures and their bona fides: Arnold Guyot's scientific discovery that the Appalachian mountains are a unified mountain chain; Horace Kephart's development of the "back to nature" movement in rebellion of turn-of-the-century urbanism; and Benton MacKaye's philosophy of conservation and forestry that dovetailed with Myron Avery's practical skills for charting and blazing the trail itself. These are the "founding fathers" of the AT, and debates over the welcome presence of society within the sacredness of nature was constant throughout these formative years.

Then there was the beginning of the environmental movement as we know it today. Earl Shaffer's recognized, and Emma Greenwood's unsung, accomplishments as the trail's first thru-hikers; Gaylord Nelson's political victories in ushering in legislation for the New Conservation movement; Dave Ritchie, Pam Underhill, and Dave Startzell's tireless fighting to achieve recognition of the AT as a national park; and Bill Bryson's wildly successful novel, "A Walk in the Woods," that has skyrocketed the AT's popularity and disgruntled the in-crowd of the AT's most authentic and die-hard admirers. Each of these figures is explored in depth and with scholarly grace that conveys a vivid picture of how this celebrated trail came to be.

The author's own experience as a thru-hiker bookends this biography, in which he contributes valuable insights into the ethos that inspired the AT's initial development and the final product we have today. Published just in time for the Appalachian Trail's 100th anniversary, Philip D'Anieri's biography of this national treasure is not to be missed; it is meant to be shared.

**My sincere thanks to the good folks at HMH and NetGalley for providing this advance reader's copy.**

This book was so well done. A perfect blend of history and stories from one of the greatest trails in the US. If you have a love for hiking and history this book is for you.

THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL: A BIOGRAPHY is a series of biographical sketches about the people who were instrumental in the growth of the trail, from the Princeton geologist who first started exploring it, to Bill Bryson, who memorialized it the popular imagination in A WALK IN THE WOODS. Author Philip D'Anieri manages to spin a coherent narrative out of all this, but the thread of the narrative is the journey from romance to bureaucracy. This is a familiar enough story. I used to work at a startup, and one of the fun things about working at a startup is telling people who come along later, "You have <i>no idea</i> what it was like when I first started." Over time, the romantic aspects (or, in reality, the romantic-in-retrospect aspects) of the project give way to the bureaucratic realities of managing a project that has grown far beyond its original scope.

This is exactly what has happened to the Appalachian Trail; it started out as an ideal, and then an idea, and wound up as a tiny part of a larger federal bureaucracy. (And along the way it became something of a pop-culture phenomenon, but that's only part of the story.) D'Anieri's book traces the story of how a vast trackless wilderness became a beloved national institution. But in doing so, the story narrows from grand vistas to squalid little fights over how much development is allowed to back up to the trail. The history of the trail is detailed, and well done, and it's certainly worth your time if you have any interest in the subject whatsoever.

This was an interesting comprehensive history of how the Appalachian Trail came to be. The first half I found to be really dull. It felt like a monotonous lecture. I found the second half to be much more engaging and very interesting. The author inserted more personal details on his own experiences on the trail in this part. I enjoyed how much I learned from this book!