The Analysis of The Book "Fifty Key Thinkers on The Environment" by Joy A. Palmer

The book “Fifty key thinkers on the Environment” is written by Joy A. Palmer. The main theme of the book is to introduce the people with the most prominent thinkers of Environment which belongs to different field of study. Among these intellectuals, Robinson Jeffers is assigned to me. The writer provided in his book about the early life of Jeffers, like where he born and got education. He was basically belong to the Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he born in 1887 and got early education. His father was professor of Old Testament literature and history. Jeffers, in his early life went to Europe for getting education where he was with his brother and her mother. He father was rigid in his attitude, and there was his hands for sending his family in Europe.

One of his summary about his life and his intellectual development was presented in this way.When I was nine years old my father began to slap Latin into me, literally, with his hands; and when I was eleven he put me in a boarding-school in Switzerland—a new one every year for four years—Vevey, Lausanne, Geneva, Zurich. Then he brought me home and put me in college as a sophomore. I graduated accordingly at eighteen, not that I was intelligent but by sporting my languages and avoiding mathematics. (Palmer, 2001)Jeffers was the environmentalist, ecologist and as well as a philosopher, because he got degree in all these fields. After pass out from Occidental college, he entered in University of South California for literature degree, then he returned to University of Zurich where he began studying Philosophy. Afterward, he started learning at USC Medical College and 3 years later he went to University of Washington for studying Forestry.

Jeffers first volume of writing gain attention in 1924 which was ‘Tamar and Other Poems’ and later ‘Roan Stallion’ in 1925. Jeffers always wrote away from human and near to the non-human poems. One of his statement about human was ‘I’d sooner, except for the penalties, kill a man than a hawk’. He also labelled his philosophy as ‘Inhumanism’ which he means ‘shift of emphasis and significance from man to notman’. As much of the people in America and Europe liked him, so there were also a group of people from different arena criticize Mr. Jeffers, like those intellectuals who were supportive of human consciousness and social progress. He was also against the American involvement in second world war and had belief that all the leaders including Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill, Hitler and Mussolini as equally evil.

References

Palmer, J. A. (2001). Fifty key thinkers on the Environment. New York : Routledge 29 West 35th street, New York, NY 10001.