Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Encyclopedia
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a 1974 nonfiction narrative book by American author Annie Dillard
. It won the Pulitzer Prize
in 1975, and has continued to receive acclaim from both critics and writers. In 1999 it was listed in Modern Library
' 100 Best Nonfiction Books.
The book is about Dillard's experiences at Tinker Creek in Virginia
's Blue Ridge Mountains
, near Roanoke
. In the book, Dillard records observations and thoughts on solitude, writing, religion, and the flora and fauna. Dillard has described it as a "book of theology". It is analogous in design and genre to Henry David Thoreau
's Walden
, which was based on his observations in a Massachusetts
forest.
; in painstaking detail, it instructed one on the study and collection of plants and insects. While studying at Hollins College, where she received both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in English, she wrote a thesis on Henry David Thoreau
's Walden
. After graduating in 1968, she continued to live in Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two years later she began keeping a journal, in which she recorded her daily walks around Tinker Creek. In 1971, after she suffered a near-fatal bout of pneumonia
, she decided to write a full-length book dedicated to her nature writings.
Although the book is often compared with Henry David Thoreau
's Walden
, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek does not comment upon the social world; rather, it is completely rooted in observations of the natural world, and unlike Thoreau, Dillard does not make connections between the history of social and natural aspects. In her review for The New York Times
, Eudora Welty
noted Pilgrims narrator being "the only person in [Dillard's] book, substantially the only one in her world.... Speaking of the universe very often, she is yet self-surrounded".
, Jack London
and Richard Nelson
—have used this theme as "a symbolic ritual of violence", Dillard "ventures into the terrain of the hunt, employing its rhetoric while also challenging its conventions."
Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for General...
. It won the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in another category.-1960s:...
in 1975, and has continued to receive acclaim from both critics and writers. In 1999 it was listed in Modern Library
Modern Library
The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...
' 100 Best Nonfiction Books.
The book is about Dillard's experiences at Tinker Creek in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
's Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...
, near Roanoke
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
. In the book, Dillard records observations and thoughts on solitude, writing, religion, and the flora and fauna. Dillard has described it as a "book of theology". It is analogous in design and genre to Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
's Walden
Walden
Walden is an American book written by noted Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau...
, which was based on his observations in a Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
forest.
Background and publication
As a child, Dillard grew up in Pittsburgh, the daughter of an oil company executive and a homemaker. A voracious reader, one of her favorite books was Ann Haven Morgan's The Field Book of Ponds and Steams, which she compared to the Book of Common PrayerBook of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
; in painstaking detail, it instructed one on the study and collection of plants and insects. While studying at Hollins College, where she received both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in English, she wrote a thesis on Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
's Walden
Walden
Walden is an American book written by noted Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau...
. After graduating in 1968, she continued to live in Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two years later she began keeping a journal, in which she recorded her daily walks around Tinker Creek. In 1971, after she suffered a near-fatal bout of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, she decided to write a full-length book dedicated to her nature writings.
Summary
Written in a series of internal monologues and reflections, the book is told from the point-of-view of an unnamed narrator who lives next to Tinker Creek, in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Roanoke, Virginia. Over the course of a year, the narrator observes and reflects upon the changing of the seasons as well as the flora and fauna near her home.Style and genre
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is often described as a series of essays; however, Dillard has insisted that it is a continuous work, as evidenced by her references to events from previous chapters as the narrative progresses. Dillard has also resisted the label of being a "nature writer", especially in regard to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. She stated, "There's usually a bit of nature in what I write, but I don't consider myself a nature writer."Although the book is often compared with Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
's Walden
Walden
Walden is an American book written by noted Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau...
, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek does not comment upon the social world; rather, it is completely rooted in observations of the natural world, and unlike Thoreau, Dillard does not make connections between the history of social and natural aspects. In her review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Eudora Welty
Eudora Welty
Eudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...
noted Pilgrims narrator being "the only person in [Dillard's] book, substantially the only one in her world.... Speaking of the universe very often, she is yet self-surrounded".
Themes
Critic Jenny Emery Davidson believes that Dillard utilizes and rewrites the hunting myth, a popular theme in nature writing which mediates the space between nature and humans. Although a long tradition of male nature writers—including James Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
, Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
and Richard Nelson
Richard Nelson (author)
Richard K. Nelson is a cultural anthropologist and writer whose work has focused primarily on the indigenous cultures of Alaska and, more generally, the relationships between people and nature.He is the host to a public radio series called Encounters aired nationally.Nelson was born and raised in...
—have used this theme as "a symbolic ritual of violence", Dillard "ventures into the terrain of the hunt, employing its rhetoric while also challenging its conventions."