When environmental studies programs broaden their curricular offerings into the humanities, their first stop is often environmental literature, particularly classics such as Henry David Thoreau's "Walden," Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac," and Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." Environmental literature courses consider many of the works of American nature writing that one might expect, works that historians as well as literary scholars love to teach. One central theme which runs through these works is what Randall Roorda calls the "drama of solitude," or "narrative of retreat." Born with "Walden," such stories of retreat take their narrators on a solitary journey out of society into nature. Alone, and closer to nature, the protagonists give up material comforts in order to critique both society and its material trappings. In this article, the author discusses how these books provide environmental studies professors with an opportunity to present the complicated and unromantic aspects of American environmental history. (Contains 5 notes.)