A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than 20 books, including A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, Men Explain Things to Me, Orwell’s Roses , and Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power. Solnit experienced a troubled childhood in California. She skipped high school and attended an alternative junior high that allowed her the opportunity to obtain her GED in the 10th grade. She immediately enrolled in junior college and expanded her mind through education and travel. At 17 years old, Solnit moved to Paris before returning to finish a Bachelor of Arts at San Francisco State University and a Master of Arts in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. These early acts of self-discovery anticipate A Field Guide to Getting Lost, a book that argues for the value of disorientation in personal and intellectual life.

Throughout her writing career, Solnit has published works that stretch the boundaries of nonfiction. Wanderlust (a cultural history of walking), Savage Dreams (on Yosemite and the Nevada Test Site), and River of Shadows (on the birth of moving images), among others.