KEVIN P. VAN ANGLEN first became interested in environmental issues through his personal observation of the degradation of the environment, the decline in numbers of certain types of birds and animals, and climate change in central New England where he lives. Long a student of the Transcendentalists, he also had a commitment to the thought and the writings of Henry David Thoreau. (Among other books and articles, he has edited a volume in the Princeton University Press edition of The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, and a collection of quotations from Thoreau’s works for Columbia University Press). Helping to create Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology seemed like a natural extension of all of this. He currently teaches English and American literature at Boston University, where he gives a course on literature and the environment. He also serves as an editor of the journal Religion and the Arts and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Thoreau Society.