David Robertson is Professor of English at the University of California, Davis, and a founder of the interdisciplinary Nature and Culture Program at Davis. He is the author of West of Eden: A History of the Art and Literature of Yosemite and the recent Real Matter, in which he retraces the mountain journeys of such writers as John Muir, Mary Austin, and Gary Snyder and records his own experience through journal entries and photography. His title comes from Japhy Ryder, in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums: "The closer you get to real matter, rock air fire wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is."