High drama and great adventures are always present in the great outdoors—whether you expect them or not. They range from desperate situations humans have stumbled into, to the hidden worlds that lurk behind seemingly innocent settings.

Many of the greatest writers who have ever written about their experiences in the great outdoors have focused on the dramas, large and small, played out by animals and humans in settings of breathtaking natural beauty turned suddenly into life-and-death events. The stories included in this book are episodes of outdoor life in which great dangers hold the upper hand in the lives of people and animals. These stories are about bear attacks, exploration anxieties, starvation, getting lost, and drowning. Be happy with your role of reading about these outdoor trials, instead of living them.

The authors in the pages that follow include many of the best writers who have ever published nature stories, anywhere, anytime. They include John Muir, John Burroughs, Ernest Thompson Seton, Jack London, Thoreau, Zane Grey, John James Audubon, James Oliver Curwood, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain, Roy Chapman Andrews, Robert Louis Stevenson, and a host of others.