Reading List

This is an on-going list of readings related to lost rivers, rivers, water, hydrology, historical mapping & ecology, infrastructure, underground and subterranean worlds, urban exploration and more. If you have favorites not listed here, please contact me.

Acciavatti, A. (2015). Ganges Water Machine: Designing New India’s Ancient River. Applied Research & Design.

Alexiou, J. (2015). Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal. NYU Press.

Ashton, J. (1890). The Fleet: Its River, Prison and Marriages. Scribner and Welford.

Bachelard, G. (2021). Water and Dreams: An Essay On The Imagination of Matter. Dallas Institute Publications.

Barnett, C. (2015). Rain: A Natural and Cultural History. Broadway Books.

Barton, N. (1962). The Lost Rivers of London. Phoenix House Limited. (reprinted 1982)

Barton, N. (1996). The Lost Rivers of London (2nd Edition). Phillimore Co Ltd.

Barton, N., & Myers, S. (2016). The Lost Rivers of London (Revised Ed.). Historical Publications.

Best, J. & Darby, S. (2024). The World Atlas of Rivers, Estuaries, and Deltas. Princeton University Press.

Boccaletti, G. (2021). Water: A Biography. Vintage.

Bolton, T. (2019). London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide, Volume 1. (revised edition). Strange Attractor Press. (Originally Published 2011)

Bolton, T. (2019). London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide, Volume 2. Strange Attractor Press.

Brick, G. (2009). Subterranean Twin Cities.  Univ. of Minnesota Press.

Brown, M. & Davies, R. B. (2021). Atlas of Imagined Places: From Lilliput to Gotham City (Atlases of the Imagination). Batsford.

Calvino, I. (1972). Invisible Cities. Harcourt Brace & Company.

Chesire, J. & Uberti, O. (2021). Atlas of the Invisible: Maps and Graphics that Will Change How You See the World. W.W. Norton & Company.

Chivers, T. (2022). London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City. Penguin.

Danino, M. (2010). The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati. Penguin Books.

da Cunha, D. (2018). The Invention of Rivers: Alexander’s Eye and Ganga’s Descent. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Fathers, D. (2017). London’s Hidden Rivers: A Walkers Guide to the Subterranean Waterways of London. Frances Lincoln Limited.

Fitz-Stephen (1772). Description of The City of London. B. White.

Foord, A.S. (1910). Springs, Streams and Spas of London. Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers.

Galusha, D. (2016). Liquid Assets: A History of New York City’s Water System (Expanded Edition). Purple Mountain Press.

Geertz, C.  (1973). “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.”  From: Interpretation of Cultures, HarperCollins.

Gies, E.  (2023). Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge.  University of Chicago Press.

Goldman, J.A. (1997). Building New York’s Sewers: The Evolution of Mechanisms of Urban Development (History of Technology). Purdue University Press.

Greenberg, S. (2021). Springs and Wells: Manhattan And the Bronx. Fw.Books.

Greenberg, S. (2003). Waterworks: A Photographic Journey through New York’s Hidden Water System. Princeton Architectural Press.

Greenberg, S. & Garver, T. (1998). Invisible New York: The Hidden Infrastructure of the City (Creating the North American Landscape). Johns Hopkins University Press.

Gros, F. (2014). A Philosophy of Walking. Verso Books.

Harrison, M. (2018) Rain: Four Walks in English Weather. Faber & Faber.

Hedeen, S. (1994). The Mill Creek: An Unnatural History of an Urban Stream. Blue Heron Press.

Hunt, W. (2018). Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath our Feet. Spiegel & Grau.

Illich, I. (2005). H20 and the Waters of Forgetfulness. Marion Boyars Publishers.

Johnson, S. (2006). The Ghost Map. Riverhead Books.

Kadinsky, S. (2016). Hidden Waters of New York City: A History and Guide to 101 Forgotten Lakes, Ponds, Creeks, and Streams in the Five Boroughs. The Countryman Press.

Kelman, A. (2006). A River and its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans. Univ. of California Press.

Kibel, P. S., & (ed.). (2007). Rivertown: Rethinking Urban Rivers. The MIT Press.

Koeppel, G. (2006). City on a Grid: How New York Became New York. Da Capo Press.

Knoll, M., Lubken, U., Schott, D., & (eds). (2017). Rivers Lost, Rivers Regained: Rethinking City-Reiver Relations. University of Pittsburgh Press.

Knowles, A. K. (2008). Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Challenging Historical Scholarship. ESRI Press.

Lopez, B., & Gwartney, D. (2013). Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape, Rev. Edition. Trinity University Press.

Macfarlane, R. (2012). The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. Penguin Books.

Macfarlane, R. (2016). Landmarks. Penguin Books.

Macfarlane, R. (2019). Underland: A Deep Time Journey. W.W. Norton.

Mallea, A. (2018). A River in the City of Fountains: An Environmental History of Kansas City and the Missouri River. University Press of Kansas.

Mars, R. & Kohlstedt, K. (2020). The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design. Dey Street Books.

Mathur, A. & de Cunha, D. (2009). Soak: Mumbai in an Estuary. Rupa & Co.

McNeur, C. (2014). Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City. Harvard Univ. Press.

McPhee, J. (1990). The Control of Nature. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

McPhee, J. (1998). Annals of the Former World. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Melosi, M. V. (2008). The Sanitary City: Environmental Services in Urban America from Colonial Times to Present (Abridged Version). University of Pittsburgh Press.

Myers, S. (2011). Walking on Water: London’s Hidden Rivers Revealed. Amberley Publishing.

Outwater, A. (1997). Water: A Natural History. Basic Books.

Pike, D.L. (2007). Metropolis on the Styx: The Underworlds of Modern Urban Culture, 1800-2001.  Cornell University Press.

Pike, D. L. (2005). Subterranean Cities: The World beneath Paris and London, 1800-1945.   Cornell University Press.

Pollara, G. & Koeppel, G. (2006). Water-Works: The Architecture and Engineering, of the New York City Water Supply. The Monacelli Press.

Proctor, S. (1978). Vancouver’s Old Streams. Vancouver Public Aquarium Association.

Prominkski, M. et.al. (2012).  River.Space.Design. Birkhauser.

Reid, C. (1913). Submerged Forests. Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature. Cambridge University Press.

Sanderson, E. (2009). Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City. Harry N Abrams.

Shawak, E. (2024). There are Rivers in the Sky. Knopf

Sinclair, I. (2013). Swimming to Heaven: The Lost Rivers of London. The Swedenborg Society.

Smith, J. R. (1938). Springs and Wells of Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City, at the End of the Nineteenth Century. The New York Historical Society.

Smith, L. (2020). Rivers of Power: How a Natural Force Raised Kingdoms, Destroyed Civilizations, and Shapes Our World. Little Brown Spark.

Solis, J. (2004). New York Underground: The Anatomy of the City. Routledge.

Soll, D. (2013). Empire of Water: An Environmental and Political History of the New York City Water Supply. Cornell University Press.

Solnit, R. (2005). A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Viking Press.

Solnit, R. (2010). Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas. University of California Press.

Solnit, R. (2001). Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Penguin.

Spirn, A. W. (2019). “Landscape Literacy and Design for Ecological Democracy: The Nature of Mill Creek.” in Ernston, H, & Sorlin, S., Grounding Urban Natures, MIT Press, 2019.

Spirn, A. W. (2014). “The Nature of Mill Creek: Landscape Literacy and Design for Ecological Democracy.”  Draft chapter for book.

Spirn, A.W. (2001). “Restoring Natural Resources and Rebuilding Urban Communities.”  in Barnett, J. [ed.], Planning for a New Century: The Regional Agenda. Island Press.

Spirn, A. W. (2000). The Language of Landscape. Yale University Press.

Spirn, A.W. (2000) “Reclaiming common ground: Water, neighborhoods, and public spaces.”  In R. Fishman (Ed.), The American planning tradition. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Stegner, W. (1987). The American West as Living Space. University of Michigan Press.

Steinberg, T. (2015). Gotham Unbound: The Ecological History of Greater New York. Simon & Schuster.

Talling, P. (2011). London’s Lost Rivers. Random House.

Terpstrea, J. (2018). Daylighting Chedoke: Exploring Hamilton’s Hidden Creek. University of Tortonto Press.

Thorson, R. M. (2017). The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years. Harvard University Press.

Tuan, Y.-F. (1968). The Hydrologic Cycle and the Wisdom of God: A Theme in Teleology. University of Toronto Press.

Way, T., & (ed). (2018). River Cities, City Rivers. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.