A collection of essays written over 30 years by Sydney Lea, representing what he refers to as the persistence of preoccupations and the absence of theory - a group of speculations, each one a single Himalaya, together a great elevation achieved in small increments. His musings on Robert Frost, his own approach to literary criticism, imagination, the American nature essay, rural life, the process of writing a poem, and fitting writing into everyday life all combine to create a picture of the things that interest him.

Sydney Lea is Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth College, Poet Laureate of Vermont, and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and Fulbright Foundations. Lea founded, and for 13 years edited, the New England Review. Retired after 43 years of college teaching, he has published 10 volumes of poetry, a novel, and two collections of naturalist essays.