America’s Hidden Wilderness: Lands of Seclusion — National Geographic Society, First Edition (1988)

A richly photographed first edition of America’s Hidden Wilderness: Lands of Seclusion, published by the National Geographic Society in 1988 as part of its Special Publications series.

Rather than concentrating on the country's best-known national parks, this volume explores seven comparatively secluded landscapes and ecosystems, pairing National Geographic photography with firsthand natural-history and travel writing. The featured regions range from remote forest and canyon environments to Arctic, desert, mountain, and river wilderness.

Among the landscapes documented are the Lacandon wilderness of Mexico, Utah’s Grand Gulch, and the Great Burn along the Idaho–Montana border, along with other isolated regions of North America. The photographers and writers reached these places by foot, horseback, aircraft, canoe, and other means, presenting wilderness not simply as scenery but as a physical environment to be entered and experienced.

Published in the late 1980s, the book also serves as a visual artifact of an important period in the American conservation movement. By then, the modern concept of legally protected wilderness had been established for more than two decades, while public attention increasingly turned toward preserving ecosystems outside the most famous parks and monuments. National Geographic’s combination of field reporting and large-format color photography played an important role in bringing these remote landscapes into popular awareness.

The result is both a vintage natural-history book and a record of late-20th-century conservation photography, documenting landscapes, wildlife, and ecosystems before the digital era transformed both field photography and environmental publishing.

This copy retains its original illustrated dust jacket, as well as the publisher’s matching pictorial hardcover beneath it.

Publisher: National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
Year: 1988
Edition: First Edition
Series: Special Publications Series 23
Format: Hardcover with original dust jacket
Pages: Approx. 200
ISBN-10: 0-87044-666-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-87044-666-5

Condition: Vintage hardcover with original illustrated dust jacket. Jacket and boards show light age-related rubbing, edge and corner wear, and minor surface marks. Interior appears clean and well preserved overall. See photos for exact condition.