Geographic writing has been a powerful learning tool for generations. Indeed the history of exploration is more spurred on by the journals of the explorers than the actual trips. The journal, or other reports, spread the information at a time when one talked, drew, or wrote. If we look at American development, the flow of information back to Europe is a significant aspect of the selling of American settlement. Pioneers, including local Norwegian settlers, wrote home. The description of the land and its features was an important part of this. It told people in Europe of the riches and the pitfalls of settling here. Alexis de Tocqueville is among the most famous of such travel-based writers. Almost 200 years later people still discuss his finding on what Americans were like in the early 1800's. He wrote about what he saw for the French public.

Another written source of geographic information has been the novel. The novelist is creating a plotted story that often relies upon the local human and physical environment. As in any dramatic presentation, the setting is often crucial to the establishment of reality, characters, or plot. Dracula is intimately set in the spooky mountains of Transylvania. Michener's Hawaii cannot be separated from its location, and indeed is focused on illuminating the history and people of that place.

To show this use of place, let us take some sample novels and see what they have in them about the places in which they are set

• Tom Robbins,Another Roadside Attraction.

  Consider this quotation: "The sky was still blue, the sun still beaming when they locked me up. But during my incarceration it had begun to rain. The legendary Seattle rain. It was a thin gray rain; hard and fast and cold. In it, we had to walk four blocks from the Public Safety Building to the Zillers' Jeep - we were at its mercy. As was my custom in such elements I hunkered against the rain, drew my head into my collar, turned my eyes to the street, tensed my footsteps and proceeded in misery. But my hosts, I soon noticed, reacted in quite another way. They strolled calmly and smoothly, their bodies perfectly relaxed. They did not hunch away from the rain but rather glided through it. They directed their faces to it and did not flinch as it drummed their cheeks. They almost reveled in it. Somehow, I found this significant. The Zillers accepted the rain. They were not at odds with it, they did not deny it or combat it; they accepted it and went with it in harmony and ease. I tried it myself. I relaxed my neck and shoulders and turned my gaze into the wet. I let it do to me what it would. Of course, it was not trying to do anything to me. What a silly notion. It was simply falling as rain should, and I a man, another phenomenon of nature, was sharing the space in which it fell. It was much better regarding it that way. I got no wetter than I would have otherwise, and if I did not actually enjoy the wetting, at least I was free of my tension. I could even smile. What I smiled at was the realization that I had been in the Zillers' company less than fifteen minutes and already their example had altered my behavior. Surely, I was on the right track. [p. 133-4 in the Bantam paperback edition]

  Robbins has painted a picture of the nature of Seattle and its rain that clings to the reader. He uses that rain to take the reader to a new level of consciousness concerning it. This is geographic writing.

• Grace Metalious, Peyton Place

  While possibly unknown to young readers, Grace Metalious represents the insightful pot-boiler in this list, yet she takes the reader deeply into a saga about a place and its people. Peyton Place is a small New England town that undergoes a modernization of culture during the early 1940s. From an isolated industrial town with class lines and strict, but damaging, moral codes, the novel takes the reader deep into the hearts and minds of the people, while not forgetting to place them in a specific environment. Metalious skillfully uses that environment to enhance the plot. The closed nature of the small, New England town is exposed in all its rot and growth. Of special interest is Metalious' ability to use the environment to paint omens of the future. The "Indian Summer" reference at the start sets the tone foe the rest of the book.

• James Michener, Hawaii

  Michener's epic begins with a most geographic description of the creation of Hawaii as an island. The building of an island, from the beginnings under the sea to the growth of plant and animal life, is clearly established as a complete history of the island. The violent physical beginnings set the stage for the turbulent human occupation of the island. The sea voyage of the Polynesian settlers is exciting, establishing their bravery and insight into the ocean, then Hawaiian. world. Their culture is described in detail. The Europeans and Japanese follow, creating a multicultural society with many subtexts and struggles. Michener intimately takes the reader into the deep recesses of Hawaiian life.

The essence of the above is that many of our finest writers have taken great pains to present pictures of the human and physical environment in the pursuit of their goals as novelists. They have recognized the role of the novelist in telling stories and making points that often have specific place relationships. This is also in line with the historic practice of storytelling. The traditional storyteller is the memory of a tribe, and a guide to the important things in life. The novelist is one of ours. This is also an important part of lifelong learning, something so highly regarded today. We learn from all sorts of places. While people have put their textbooks down and high school or college graduation, novelists seek geography and many other academic areas into their lives. Those who have developed a true and deep love of reading have known this for centuries.

Geographic writing has also been a part of non-fiction world. Real world writing has described the world as the traveler and scientist see it. Often in no less emotional words and mental images than the novelist, the descriptive writer documents a place for others, providing a detailed body of knowledge that serves a non-entertainment purpose: ecology, habitat preservation, exploration, commercial activity, etc.

Geographic Writing: Active Learning in Action

In this section I want you to engage in some geographic writing. This is meant to encourage you to engage your students in the same.