THE LANGUAGE OF TREES (Special Edition) by Katie Holten

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“I consider this book to be a masterpiece. Katie Holten’s tree alphabet is a gift to the printed world.”

—Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers

In this innovative and exquisitely illustrated anthology, Katie Holten's custom "tree alphabet" illuminates environmental writing from over fifty contributors who remind us of the fragility and wonder of our landscapes. I have gifted this delightful book to many people I love. 

—Emily Raboteau, author of Lessons for Survival

“A marvelously strange and magnificently inventive book, The Language of Trees returns us to the ragged green edge where meaning is first made. Not content to merely describe the wilderness, Holten somehow manages to rewild literature itself.”

—Robert Moor, author of In Trees

An act of magic: turning a book into a forest.

—Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books

“Like all great artist activists, Katie Holten reminds us that the fight for justice and beauty are intertwined. This is a timeless book for all ages. My children often ask for it after reading The Lorax.”

—Lauren O’Neill Butler, author of The War of Art

“Forests fed us, housed us, and made our way of life possible. But they can’t save us if we can’t save them. Holten introduces a tree alphabet. Each letter is represented by the striking silhouette of a tree.” —Jill Lepore, New Yorker

"Over 50 writings from notable authors, philosophers, scientists and artists―including Plato, Ursula K. Le Guin and Ada Limón―are delicately translated into Holten’s visual “tree alphabet” in this ode to the world’s trees."
—New York Times Book Review

"Inspiring. . . . insights that are scientific, intimate and surprising. . . . a call to action for those who still care."
―The Washington Post

If literature is looking for a way forward in the Anthropocene, surely this is a place from which to start. —Stephen Sparks, LitHub

"Science and storytelling are braided with history and art to create something quietly urgent and beautiful here. This is nature writing in a new way, full of tree magic."
―Buzzfeed

PRAISE FOR ABOUT TREES

“This book is a beautiful revelation, a calming and wonderful source of comfort and inspiration from the green world all around us. I love it so much.”
—Jeff VanderMeer, NYT bestselling author of the Southern Reach trilogy

"Gently reaching, beautiful, bountiful—Katie Holten's About Trees translates pulp and ink into a new language of roots and branches, a bewildering, awilding forest of words as strange as it is unforgettable. Learning to live in the Anthropocene means learning to see, listen to, and speak with our world in whole new ways; About Trees helps us begin that transformation."
—Roy Scranton, author of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene

"The political resistance movements of the future could communicate secret messages with trees—and go down in history as the slowest revolution ever.
Holten is in full compliance with these plans, and actually has a few ideas of her own. "I was reading about the Obama library today. Their budget is something like $1 billion. I immediately was thinking, 'I wonder if they are thinking about landscaping the garden and need some sort of typographic forest?" she says with a laugh. "I feel like this is just beginning, there's a lot more to come. More volumes—and I want [the typeface] to be planted in real life, too."
—Meg Miller, FAST CO DESIGN

"...how inspiring your new arboreal font/typeface is."
—Robert MacFarlane