John Elder held joint appointments in English and environmental studies at Middlebury College until his retirement in 2010. He has taught courses that include a range of topics, from Japanese literature to the English Romantics to a course that requires students to spend time on Vermont’s Long Trail hiking, camping, and writing.
Elder was co-editor of the Norton Book of Nature Writing, Family of Earth and Sky (about indigenous literature of nature from around the world), and Spirit and Nature. His own books include Imagining the Earth: Poetry and the Vision of Nature, Reading the Mountains of Home, The Frog Run, and Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa.