Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a bryologist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and Gathering Moss was her first book, published years before Braiding Sweetgrass made her a household name. It is a slim collection of essays about mosses, plants that reproduce without seeds and thrive at the margins of larger ecosystems. Kimmerer draws on both scientific study and Indigenous teaching to explain how mosses live and what they can teach humans about attention, patience, and reciprocity with the natural world. Each essay pairs field observations with reflections on family, teaching, and loss. The book is short, quiet, and packed with wonder. Elizabeth Gilbert has recommended Kimmerer's work as some of the most soul restoring nature writing being published today.
What you might want to know about Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer combines the science of mosses with Indigenous ways of seeing and finds a whole worldview in what most people step over.
Gilbert has repeatedly praised Robin Wall Kimmerer as one of the most important voices in modern nature writing, and she has recommended Gathering Moss as a quieter entry point than Braiding Sweetgrass. She has called Kimmerer's attention to the small a form of spiritual practice.
No. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses as she goes, and the essays are written for a general reader who is curious rather than trained.
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses was written by Robin Wall Kimmerer, published in 2003 by Oregon State University Press.
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses is 168 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses takes most readers 3 to 4 hours to finish.
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
