Book excerpt: Big Sur and the Canyon, set on California's Central Coast, is a thrilling, at times humorous tale of perhaps the most magnificent terrain in America's national forests. High adventure mix with poetic and vivid descriptions of life in the backcountry-the interior of the Ventana Wilderness. Forest fires, camping, backpacking, near death experiences, along with the spiritual intensity of what Livingstone calls his 'cathedral of the forest" dot these pages in the midst of the great freedom hikers and horsemen know in the wild and beautiful interior: redwood canyons, streams and waterfalls, to the high open dry country along the Coast Ridge a mile above the vast blue Pacific. Steinbeck referred to these mountains as 'Eden", and as the 'dark and mysterious Santa Lucias", in his great novel, East of Eden. In this book with its many descriptions, the Ventana is the Garden of Eden. An arduous and sometimes dangerous teacher, but truly free. What they say about Best Selling Author Harrison Edward Livingstone's novels and non-fiction: 'A triumph!"-The New York Times about David Johnson Passed Through Here, under the pen name of John Fairfield. About The Wild Rose: 'A foursquare sea novel in the tradition of Herman Melville"-Prof. William Alfred, Harvard University. 'Very good writing"-Publisher's Weekly 'Monumental Investigation!"-The Guardian