Originally published in 1972, Canyon recounts the struggle for survival, against powerful and determined opposition, of a counter-cultural community tucked in a redwood canyon about eight miles from San Francisco. A community of individuals united by the idea of living complimentary to nature rather than subduing it, the men and women of Canyon developed strategies of community organization, resistance, management of resources and political moxie some foolish, some prescient that allowed the community to survive, barely then, and provide what The New York Times termed A blueprint for meeting nature half-way. Mr. van der Zee has added a heartfelt fore and afterword, a reflection on his findings in the small community of Canyon as a young man, through the sagest view of an accomplished writer and grandfather today. ...Canyon has survived and even thrived, often in the face of determined and powerful opposition, in the process acting out some of the most fundamental questions concerning the American national character. How shall we live on this land which all of us, save Native Americans came to as strangers. What comforts are we willing to sacrifice in the interest of freedom?