Editorial Review

In a work that beautifully demonstrates the rewards of closely observing nature, Elisabeth Bailey shares an inspiring and intimate story of her uncommon encounter with a Neohelix albolabris --a common woodland snail.

While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater under standing of her own confined place in the world.

Intrigued by the snail's molluscan anatomy, cryptic defenses, clear decision making, hydraulic locomotion, and mysterious courtship activities, Bailey becomes an astute and amused observer, providing a candid and engaging look into the curious life of this underappreciated small animal. 

Told with wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world illuminates our own human existence and provides an appreciation of what it means to be fully alive. ... Read more

Reviews

Uplifting and fascinating, with no hidden agenda
"...the snail had emerged from its shell into the alien territory of my room, with no clue as to where it was or how it had arrived; the lack of vegetation and the desertlike surroundings must have seemed strange. The snail and I were both living in altered landscapes not of our choosing; I figured we shared a sense of loss and displacement."


Elisabeth Tova Bailey was in her mid-thirties when struck with a mysterious illness that soon led to her complete incapacitation. Without knowing the cause, much less the cure or the course that it might take, the disease was a frightening visitor. One day, a friend stops by with a rather odd gift. A snail, from out in the yard. First placed in a flower pot and eventually a terrarium, the snail becomes Bailey's constant companion. Because of her lack of mobility and energy, much of her time was spent observing the creature.

You might think this would be dull, or worse, that you'd be stuck listening to someone bleakly describing their every physical complaint. Not so. This book has very little to do with health issues and far more to do with curiosity and resilience. Bailey is not a complainer, actual details of her health are few and without self-pity. She doesn't simply give up either, she makes clear she wants to fight this unknown assailant on her life. That she does so with the help of a small snail is astounding.

The first surprise is that snails have a daily routine. They have certain times to eat and sleep and travel. They often return to the same place to sleep, and they sleep on their side. (!!!) As she watches the daily activities of the snail, she manages to study research on snails in general and in detail. Turns out snail research is pretty deep...volumes have been written on every tiny detail. As in: snails have teeth, 2200+ of them! Seriously, if they were bigger you'd think twice about stepping on one. They also have a special talent for when the going gets tough in their little world: they start a process called estivation. It's not hibernation (they do that too!) but instead it allows them to become dormant when the weather goes bad, or they lose their preferred food source, etc. Some snails have been known to estivate more than a few years. The process of sealing off their little shell is fascinating, and a study in insulation.

Then there's the romance. Researchers have studied that too, and I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say lady snails are not complaining about romance in their life! Male snails really knock themselves out on the charm aspect. So much of the research that is out there is fascinating, and Bailey sorts through it and shares the most interesting details. This isn't just a science project for her, she sees parallels in her condition as well as the snail's. Illness took her out of her social circle, and her life seemed slow and inconsequential. And snails usually are a typical example of slow and inconsequential living:

"Everything about a snail is cryptic, and it was precisely this air of mystery that first captured my interest. y own life, I realized, was becoming just as cryptic. From the severe onset of my illness and through its innumerable relapses, my place in the world has been documented more by my absence than by my presence. While close friends understood my situation, those who didn't know me well found my disappearance from work and social circles inexplicable.

...it wasn't that I had truly vanished; I was simply homebound, like a snail pulled into its shell. But being homebound in the human world is a sort of vanishing."

What makes this memoir unique, besides her indomitable spirit, is that she doesn't push any sort of religious or spiritual agenda for her positive outlook. There is no implied message, which is often a feature of such an inspiring book. Her facts are based on solid research, and she doesn't waste words; her prose is clear and precise. Additionally, and this may be trivial, but the book is exceptionally beautiful: little snail insignias, and designs, poetic quotes, and the actual fonts and design layout make it lovely.

One word of warning. Some inspirational "illness" stories often end up being the 'go to' gift choice for a sick friend. I know of one gentleman, who, when diagnosed with a serious illness, received eight copies of Tuesdays with Morrie from well-meaning friends. This is not that kind of book. It would be a far better gift for a Type-A personality that needs to slow down in their hectic life, or a book just to savor for yourself. It actually might make a great gift for a young person interested in science (the "romance" portions are tame). In any case, this book made me want to reconsider how much of my hectic life could be slowed down to enjoy the smaller but ultimately relevant details in the natural world around me.

A Healing Book
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey is a healing book. While a woman recovers from a life-threatening condition she has the time and patience to observe one small wild snail. Her thoughts, research, and experiences help her, and us, to heal our damaged relationship with the world of nature. The result of careful and heartfelt observation of even the smallest bit of life can not only enrich a life but also find and give life anew. This book is the perfect gift for anyone recovering from a set-back or in need of inspiration. I love how Elizabeth, while appreciating the small things of life, also brings in haiku. Perfect.

even my husband enjoyed it!
My husband and I rarely read the same books...what interests me does not interest him and vice versa. However, I thought that he might be intrigued by the biologic descriptions of the snail so I recommended it to him. Yes, Elisabeth Tova Bailey did the almost impossible! She bridged the gender gap of reading in our home. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a beautiful book, both in its sentiment and its physical presentation. The pencil drawings of the snail are engaging. This is a perfect holiday present for almost anyone - I highly recommend it.

Truly interesting and inspiring
It was on a trip to the Alps that Elisabeth Tova Bailey first felt weak and ill. Not really being concerned, she continued her explorations but in a day or two she found it difficult to move at all let alone get out of bed. Somehow she manages to return home to Maine but she continues to spiral downward. In very short order, Bailey is flat on her back, laid low by some exotic micro-germ.

That is how The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating opens. Like other reviewers I want to warn you that this isn't a tell all expose about her illness. Bailey mentions it in passing only occasionally and never does it become the center of the book. In stead, the star of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is just that, a small snail.

A visitor to Ms Bailey finds a wild snail in the woods near her house. With a visit to the stricken author the objective, the she picks up the snail and also digs up some near by violets which she pots. The visitor deposits both with the author and is on her way.

It is from humble serendipities that often reveal true magic to us if we are patient. Bailey keeps the snail and in very short order becomes captivated with its comings and goings. Initially the snail lives under the foliage of the violet and explores the surroundings, in and out of the clay pot, at night. Eventually the snail is moved to a terrarium. Observing the snail daily, Elisabeth Bailey becomes curious about behaviors she is witnessing. She gathers an impressive array of resources with which to read about mollusks in general and snails specifically. It is this learning and study that we are allowed to share. If you're curious, check out the sources she sites at the end of the book.

I've seen hundreds of terrestrial snails in my life time and to be honest I never paid a lot of attention to them. That is my loss. I found Bailey's descriptions of the life of a snail fascinating. Reading her descriptions is not like reading a dry tome filled with interesting but busy facts about snails. She does share the information she learns, but wrapped up in her explanations is a wonder that comes through loud and clear. Her almost child like wonder at sharing what she's learned infects the reader with the same awe and surprise that she experienced.

I won't spoil the experience of reading The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. Trust me, this is a book you'll probably want to add to your personal library and will certainly want to recommend to your friends.

I highly recommend.

Peace to all.

Endearing sensitive memoir
"Survival often depends on a specific focus: A relationship, a belief, or a hope balanced on the edge of possibility. Or something more ephemeral: the way the sun passes through the hard seemingly impenetrable glass of a window and warms the blanket, or how the wind, invisible but for its wake, is so loud one can hear it through the insulated walls of a house."

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating records a year in the life of author Elisabeth Tova Bailey--a year in which she struggled for her survival as her focus was lost, her mobility all but gone and her passion for life trapped inside a body that no longer cooperated with her wishes. With grace and wit, Bailey shares the story of the impact that an ordinary, humble creature, a wild snail, had on her during this trying year, and all of the lessons she learned as she lay motionless, observing in minute detail the everyday rituals and wanderings of her tiny companion.

An active woman with many interests, Bailey became not only housebound but bedridden when she was felled by a mystery illness. She was moved from her own familiar farm home to a small studio apartment to receive the care she could not give herself. For most of the day, Bailey felt anxious and heart-wrenchingly alone. "When the body is rendered useless, the mind still runs like a bloodhound along well-worn trails of neurons, tracking the echoing questions; the confused family of whys, whats and whens and their impossibly distant kin how." She became distraught, wondering how, or indeed if, she could make it through.

One day, a visiting friend went for a walk in the nearby woods, returning to Bailey's bedside with a pot of field violets in which she had placed a snail. Bailey gave little thought to it, except to wonder if it was feeling disturbed to be out of its element, much as she was. Then she began to watch it move, out of the pot, into the bowl below, exploring its new surroundings. She fell asleep thinking she would probably never see it again, but when she awoke, she saw her new companion back in the pot under a violet leaf and a square hole chewed in an envelope propped nearby. Worried that a snail could not live on paper alone, Bailey set out some withered flower petals near the pot. Within minutes, the snail was contentedly chomping on the petals--and Bailey could actually hear it in the silence of her room. "The sound was of someone very small munching celery continuously...the tiny intimate sound of the snail's eating gave me a distinct feeling of companionship and shared space." This would prove to be a turning point for Bailey.

Time weighed heavily on the author, causing her to ponder, "Time unused and only endured still vanishes, as if time itself is starving, and each day is swallowed whole, leaving no crumbs, no memory, no traces." She also noted, ironically: "It was perplexing that in losing health I had gained something so coveted but to so little purpose." In the end, it was her gastropod guest who lent some rhythm to her endless hours. Once the snail was moved to a larger terrarium home filled with elements of its native woods, Bailey could lie quietly and calmly, watching it move about: "Its curiosity and grace pulled me further into its peaceful and solitary world...it put me at ease." Like her, the snail was nocturnal. She slept little at night and while this once caused her to fret, she now found comfort.

She began to learn all she could about snails, mainly from older books dating back to Darwin and his companions. What she learned about their habits, their strengths and even their sensuality caused her to have even more respect for the life of her roommate. (I, for one, would certainly have never guessed that a snail could be amorous.) The more she read, the more impressed she was at the complexity of this seemingly simple creature.

Aside from the witty and astute snail observations, this book also is a commentary on the trying life of someone with chronic illness, especially one who is bedridden--issues of loneliness, feelings of abandonment, uselessness. "My bed was an island within the desolate sea of my room." Bailey noted that her friends and former companions did not know how to be around her. It was as if her stillness unnerved them. "Those of us with illnesses are the holders of the silent fears of those with good health." This small book is full of such meditative thoughts, and might well be informative reading for anyone who deals with the chronically ill.

Life with her snail covered only a year of the author's nearly twenty-year struggle with illness, but it was an important one. In a big way, the tiny snail gave her reason to go on. She wrote her doctor: "If life mattered to the snail, and the snail mattered to me, it meant something in my life mattered, so I kept on..."

by Susan Ideus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Elevating & Enriching Tale of a Lady & Her Snail
This beautiful little book with it's light and illuminating touch is surprising, elevating, endearing. Her experience from within the limitations caused by severe illness, her mindful and appreciative observations of her tiny snail companion, and the amazingly varied and detailed harvest of her research on snails..from haiku to obscure scientific texts are interwoven seamlessly and enchantingly. It is witness in its elegance and simplicity to her indelible life affirming spirit. It's not about her ilness or her struggle with it ( which in iteslf says volumes about her) and at its heart, not really about her beloved little snail and his/her species ( snails are hermaphroditic we learn). At its heart it is about living in mindul presence to life, to all sentient beings in wonder and celebration. Thank you Beth.

A new time zone
As human doings going this way and that, talking on this phone or that, buying this item or that, driving here and there; we miss that which is the essence of living life. We are blinded to the miracles that surround us and support us while we are trudging this earthly walk.

Because of a disease, the author is forced to transition from a busy human-doing into a human-being who witnesses the miracles of life while experiencing a debilitating disease. She travels into a different time zone where she is able to slow down and appreciate the strength and busy activities of a wild snail that has found its way onto her table side.

Bailey's observations from this alternate time zone provide insight into what might be the answer to our cultural disease of distraction and busyness. She demonstrates that living this life, whatever our circumstances, can be joyful and full of gratitude. Acceptance of our circumstances we cannot change is the key to serenity. The temporary changes in our activities and self beliefs we must be willing to make in order to live through difficulties carry the solutions to our current problem. We learn something new and then come out stronger for the experience.

Though her life is full of physical imperfection, her heart and soul are fulfilled and serene. The author takes what she is able and lives a glorious, if not perfect life while she recovers from a long-term chronic illness.

And after all, doesn't life throw each of us some kind of curve ball every once in a while? The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is a great example of a human being making the best of a sad situation and still finding gratitude in the opportunity to witness the miracles that surround us. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

The State of (Some) Things: Space, The Mind, The Earth, November 4, 2010

Unexceptional - A Dull Collection, November 6, 2010

Gets Fluffier Every Year - Still Great, October 23, 2010
This book was predictably good. It should be - after all, it contains a select group (26) out of the 122 articles that passed the scrutiny of the series editor. I look forward to this book every year as well as its competitor "Best American Science Writing 2010." This year the Introduction by Freeman Dyson is perhaps the best in all the years I've been reading this series. He explains why this series and the other are getting fluffier (my word), then says that science journalism in general is getting "briefer, sparser, and more superficial." He conveniently puts the table of contents into broad categories: Cosmology, Neurology replacing Molecular Biology, Natural Beauty, and three categories about the Environment. Then in describing the content in broad strokes and mentioning a few specific articles, he proceeds to write a summary essay with his own opinions about his chosen articles - creating a stand-alone essay of his own. However, his choices ARE light on hard science and for that I considered subtracting a point - upon further thought I did not - but I refuse to believe Dyson could not have found more scientific selections. The first three articles I review were found in both volumes - all three among my own favorites, as I have marked by asterisks:

* "The Missions of Astronomy" by Steven Weinberg - Weinberg is a Nobel Prize winner and particle physics expert (currently at UT Austin) who decided he was not current in the history of science - so he decided to teach a course in it. This article looks to be adapted from one of his lectures. He starts out explaining how the ancients used the gnomon - similar to but not the same as a sundial. A gnomon is a vertical pole on a flat, level patch of ground open to the sun's rays. Daily charting of its shadow by Greeks led to "a discovery around 430 BC that was to trouble astronomers for two thousand years: the four seasons, whose beginnings and endings are precisely marked by the solstices and equinoxes, have slightly different lengths. This ruled out the possibility that the sun travels around the earth (or the earth travels around the sun) with constant velocity in a circle." It was not until the 17th century that Kepler explained that the earth's orbit is not a circle but an ellipse. A scientific reading of "Odyssey" reveals that Homer could accurately navigate by reading the stars and Weinberg explains how he did it. On a ship in the Mediterranean a sea captain explained to Weinberg how ship navigators used celestial methods until only recently - now replaced by GPS. The captain lamented that the younger captains don't know how to use a sextant and a chronometer.

But astronomy also experienced an overestimation of its usefulness. Much of the royal support for compiling tables of astronomical data in the medieval and early modern periods was motivated by widespread reliance on astrology. Many scientists, including Ptolemy and Newton were heavily into astrology. Weinberg closes by taking a swipe at NASA's wasteful program of manned spaceflight - cherished by NASA's funding and PR department but terribly cost-inefficient compared to unmanned projects. "All the satellites like Hubble or COBE or WMAP or Planck that have made possible the recent progress in cosmology have been unmanned."

* "A Life of its Own" by Michael Specter - "Scientists have been manipulating genes for decades - inserting, deleting, changing them in various microbes has become a routine function in thousands of labs." Now they are attempting to manufacture drugs and chemicals from entirely synthetic genes, analogous to a software designer rearranging loops of code for a new purpose. Artemisinin is key in treating malaria but the herb that creates it is difficult to produce by cultivation. Jay Keasling et al inserted genes from 3 organisms into E. coli with the idea of making that bacteria produce artemisinin. Within a decade his company figured out how to make the bacteria increase its production by a factor of a million, bring a course of treatment from $10 to $1. The scientific response has been reverential but Keasling is baffled by opposition to what should soon become the world's most reliable source of cheap artemisinin. Opposition comes from farmers of the herb and from the same groups that call genetically engineered food "Frankenfood."

Specter discusses the ethics of the era of biological engineering - peppered with suggestions that the E coli that makes a malarial drug could also make biofuels or (substitute your favorite product). To be brought up to date on this subject, this fascinating article is hard to beat.

* "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert - Of the many species that have existed on earth over 99% have disappeared. There have been at least 20 mass extinctions on earth with 5 stand outs known as the "Big Five" - but extinction has been a contested concept. Until recently the view that "God created species fixed for all eternity" prevailed. Then in 1812 Frenchman Cuvier wrote an essay featuring the absence of mastodons, whose bones littered two continents, saying, "Life on this earth has often been disturbed by dreadful events....Innumerable living creatures have been victims of these catastrophes." The English edition included an introduction suggesting Cuvier's idea proved Noah's flood. Darwin embraced the idea of extinctions but didn't believe they were caused by catastrophes. Kolbert says, "Mass extinctions strike down the fit and the unfit at once....it takes millions of years for life to recover and when it does it generally has a new cast of characters....It is now generally agreed among biologists that another mass extinction is under way."

Extinctions of large mammals and birds have repeatedly happened shortly after the arrival of humans. This has happened in North America, South America, New Zealand, Australia, Madagascar, Hawaii, and many other locations. It happens as a result of hunting, burning, farming, logging, building, water diversion, atmospheric pollution - in general, habitat destruction. As Kolbert painstakingly demonstrates, it is now happening to frogs. They are dying of a fungus spread by doctors. A related fungus appears to be decimating the bat population.
Somewhere toward the end of the article, Kolbert tells the familiar story of the Yucatan peninsula meteor that killed off dinosaurs 65 million years ago. For this Sixth Extinction though, the perpetrator walks upright.

* "The Believer" by Andres Corsello - Memoir about Elon Musk, the genius who was reading 8-10 hours a day by the time he was 10 years old. He learned how to program software on his own and sold his first company, a media software company for $307 Million. Next he developed a company that morphed into Paypal that he sold to Ebay for $1.5 billion. He's the CEO of Tesla, maker of the first all-electric sports car. He's the chairman and controlling shareholder of SolarCity, turning the company into one of the nation's biggest installer of solar panels. He created the company SpaceX, whose short-term goal is to commercialize orbital rocketry but whose long-term goal is a mission to Mars and beyond. He is the vision guy, the money guy, the marketing guy, the engineering guy and the software guy all wrapped into one - not meaning he does all these things singlehandedly but he can talk shop with the hundreds of experts of all types he employs. The reason he is included by Dyson is probably this: They both believe humanity on earth will end - if not by our own self annihilation, by the explosion of a caldera or a direct hit by a huge meteor. He feels his life's work is extending the lifespan of human life itself.

"One Giant Leap to Nowhere" by Tom Wolfe - It is almost a concensus view among cosmologists that manned spaceflight is far too expensive and that unmanned robotic spaceflight is the way to go. Dyson disagrees as does this author, both of whom believe Congress lacks the proper vision necessary for what should be NASA's real purpose - manned spaceflight.

"Cosmic Vision" by Timothy Ferris - A fascinating survey of the telescopes around the world that have illuminated our understanding of the universe. The largest ones have mirrors up to 10 meters in diameter, but "tomorrow's enormous telescopes will do as much in one night as today's do in a year."

* "Seeking New Earths" by Timothy Ferris - Nowadays, new planets orbiting stars other than our own are found every week. The goal is to find one in the "goldilocks zone" - one just far enough from its sun to be the right temperature. Of course, it also has to have other characteristics that would make it habitable for life "as we know it." Ferris says this is like trying to find a "firefly in a fireworks display" or "listening for a cricket in a tornado," but as techniques and telescopes improve, there probably will be billions to choose from.

* "Don't!" by Jonah Lehrer - By testing 4 year olds' ability to delay gratification (postpone eating 1 marshmallow in order to get 2), psychologists can predict, with a high degree of certainty, that the kids who can hold out for the second marshmallow will do better in life. Furthermore, for those who can't delay their gratification - they can be trained. Turns out it's not just about marshmallows - it's also about saving for retirement. The author believes learning self-control is nothing if not early cognitive training. "We should give marshmallows to every kindergartner," he says. "We should say, `You see this marshmallow? You don't have to eat it. You can wait. Here's how'"

* "Out of the Past" by Kathlene McGowan - "Instead of being a perfect movie of the past...memory is more like a shifting collage, a narrative spun out of scraps and constructed anew whenever recollection takes place...reactivating a memory destabilizes it, putting it back into a flexible, vulnerable state." Called reconsolidation, "old memory is actually changed as it is recalled." Put another way, memory and imagination are not that different and even happen in the same circuits of the brain.

* "Brain Games" by John Colapinto - "In a specialty [behavioral neurology] that today relies chiefly on the power of multi-million dollar imaging machines to peer deep inside the brain, [Vilayanur] Ramachandran is known for his low-tech methods, which often involves little more than interviews with patients and a few hands-on tests - an approach that he traces to his medical education in India in the 70's when expensive diagnostic machines were scarce." His first paper was published in "Nature" when he was 20 and in medical school. With only his powers of observation and a simple test, using his fellow students as subjects, he discovered some previously unknown features about stereoscopic vision. With four aquariums, some coral reef flounders, and testing he devised, he "effectively ended the debate on flounder camouflage." His best known work involves his work with neuroplasticity and "mirror therapy" with phantom limb pain, which afflicts up to 90% of amputees. Ending with speculations about schizophrenia and autism, this is a captivating article.

"The Alpha Accipiter" by Gustave Axelson - Northern goshawks hunt by executing surgical strikes in thick woods - weaving among the trees, flying at speeds up to fifty-five miles an hour. They lose their acrobatic flight advantage beyond the forest edge.

"Flight of the Kuaka" by Don Stap - The bar-tailed godwit takes the longest nonstop migratory flight documented for any bird. "The flight is nonstop, no food, no water, no sleep as we know it, flying for eight days." In the days preceding this migration from Alaska to New Zealand, the bird gorges itself on marine invertebrates and doubles its weight. Its intestine and gizzard shrink, leaving more room to store fat. The scientists that implanted radio transmitters and followed the flights could barely believe it. They thought the birds did it following the coastline with frequent stops.

* "Modern Darwins" by Matt Ridley - Although Darwin had to guess on many of the particulars of evolution, he was remarkably accurate. Today's scientists don't have to guess - evidence of each living organism's pathway to its current state of being is scattered throughout its DNA - "They consult genetic scripture." The evolution of change turns out not to be due to gene changes but in the regulation of these genes - switches at either end of the genes that turn them on or off. The core genes that control basic metabolic processes are remarkably constant whether you're an earthworm or a Nobel Prize winner. This discovery "overturned a long-held notion that the acquisition of limbs required a radical evolutionary event....the genetic machinery necessary to make limbs was already present in fins....it involved the redeployment of old genetic recipes in new ways."

* "The Superior Civilization" by Tim Flannery - This is a book review on Edward O. Wilson's and Bert Holldobler's brilliant book about ants. An ant colony is a "superorganism" whose individual ants and groups of ants function somewhat like the cells and organs in our bodies to create a single functional unit. Coordination within the unit "occurs through ant communication systems that are extraordinarily sophisticated and are the equivalent of the human nervous system." Here's a unique bit of ant trivia: "....exploring ants count their steps to determine where they are in relation to home. This remarkable ability was discovered by researchers who lengthened the legs of ants by attaching stilts to them. The stilt-walking ants, they observed, became lost on their way home to the nest at a distance proportionate to the length of their stilts."

"Still Blue" by Kenneth Brower - A mature blue whale is the largest life entity that has ever existed on earth and weighs more than the entire NFL. It was almost hunted to extinction until it gained international protection in the 60's. Our author accompanies a group of scientists who tag and track the blue whales who spend their winter near Costa Rica.

"The Lazarus Effect" by Jane Goodall - The Lord Howe Island stick insect is about the size of a large cigar. It existed on only one island on earth until 1918 when a ship brought rats to the island. The rats thought they were delicious. Thought to be extinct since 1920, a group of rock climbers found some specimens that managed to escape to a single bush on a volcanic rock 14 miles from Howe's island. They painstakingly captured enough to replenish the species in several zoos around the world. In her second story an American woman discovered and rescued a very small and beautiful breed of horse from obscurity and extinction in Iran. After extensive testing these horses proved to be Caspian horses, the ancestors of the Arabian horse.

"Darwin's First Clues" by David Quammen - It is a widely accepted view that Darwin, after his voyage on the "Beagle," developed his theory of evolution over the next decade or so. Quammen makes the case that he formulated much of his theory during the voyage. In the process, we are treated to a view of his journey that concentrates less on the Galapagos and more on South America.

"All You Can Eat" by Jim Carrier - Shrimp are "a perfect protein delivery system." Fat and happy shrimpers made a killing until the 80's when catches flattened worldwide. Eventually, the supply was replenished but not from the sea. Shrimp farms took over but proved to be incredibly dirty and harmful to the environment. As a result, shrimp farms are banished to 3rd world countries whose inhabitants would get rid of them if they only could - meanwhile, their biggest client is Red Lobster restaurant.

"A Formula For Disaster" by Felix Salmon - In 2000, Wall Street "quant" (mathematical guru specializing in creating new financial products) David Li came up with a breakthrough formula that "made it possible for traders to sell vast quantities of new securities, expanding financial markets to unimaginable levels. Eventually his formula was instrumental in causing the unfathomable losses that brought the world financial system to its knees.

"Not So Silent Spring" by Dawn Stover - A blackbird was terrorizing the neighborhood, imitating ambulance sirens, car alarms, and sounds of the city. Beluga whales are changing their calls or switching them to new frequencies because underwater noise from ships have increased about tenfold. Some species that are unable to adapt are suffering precipitous declines in population.

* "The Catastrophist" by Elizabeth Kolbert - The author bolsters the case for human-induced climate change, featuring the work of James Hansen - sometimes called the "father of global warming." This article is perfect for a short primer on the problem and the difficult politics making solutions challenging. There is broad agreement among scientists that coal represents the most serious threat but there is no aspect the author leaves out. The United States stands alone in having a major political party that refuses to acknowledge that humans are the cause of this problem and must provide the solution if there is to be one.

"Scraping Bottom" by Robert Kunzig - The oil sands industry is transforming the economy and the ecology of Northeastern Alberta, Canada. Because of Alberta's tremendous oil reserves, the United States now gets more oil from Canada than from any other nation. Though it's destroying their environment, even the Indians have mixed feelings - it's making them employed and rich. I've been expecting a good article about this topic for years and this is it.

* "Purpose-Driven Life" by Brian Boyd - Early man was quite superstitious and many of the superstitions were retained as the major religions took form. In recent centuries, science found natural causes for earthly events and many of the gods retreated to gaps left unexplained, especially when Darwin's theory suggested that humans, too, could have emerged without supernatural help. Some have thought that the idea of evolution leaves mankind without meaning or purpose but our author disagrees. This is an excellent article, featuring the comment by Stephen J. Gould that if we could rewind and replay the tape of evolution, humans and human intelligence would not reappear.

"The Monkey and the Fish" by Phillip Gourevitch - When self-made American Millionaire Greg Carr was not yet forty he decided to devote the rest of his life to philanthropy - to causes he could pour himself into, body and soul. After a few fits and starts he settled on the preservation of what used to be one of the top safari parks in Africa: Gorongosa National Park at the southern tip of the Great Rift Valley in Mozambique. The title of this selections comes from a story (from the point of view of the indigenous villagers) that illustrates how difficult it is to salvage an ecostructure and still treat the indigenous peoples fairly: "A monkey was walking along a river and saw a fish in it. The monkey said, Look, that animal is under water, he'll drown, I'll save him. He snatched up the fish and in his hand the fish started to struggle. The monkey said, Look how happy he is. Of course, the fish died and the monkey said, Oh, what a pity. If I had only come sooner I would have saved this guy."

I have only a few more to comment on and will do so through edits shortly.

DB

The Best of The Best, November 5, 2010

A Year in Science, October 11, 2010
A straightforward introduction to science and environmental events from the past year, glossing over topics which have also been covered in popular science books during the same time frame. If you are wondering what you may have missed, this is a great start, and a fine introduction to this series. I must confess, this series is my candy, I ate up the last half decade of them in a few days span.

While some of the past years' anthologies seem very dated, with so many developments within the fields in the intervening years, I reckon that this specific entry will hold up fairly well. Why? At first I was a bit skeptical of how much I felt Dyson's presence in the pages; it seemed too much for such an anthology, that these were his articles. However, looking back, it seems like these were very good selections, such as a profile on Elon Musk, who seems to be in the news more for his personal exploits than his scientific ones, and an article on the history of astronomy. Overall, it is a good starting point for those new to the series or interested in learning more about recent events in science, and for finding out what to read more of. For instance, Neil Shubin, mentioned briefly in a paragraph in one article, has an entire book devoted to what he is quoted on, so if that is what appeals, do check it out! And likewise, for other mentions. I am consistently impressed with this series because it manages to cover certain things I have read earlier in depth and find random gems in the pages of magazines or journals I would normally not read, or in some cases, think would have such engaging scientifically-minded articles.

(received ebook ARC from Netgalley)

Good addition to a wonderful series, November 17, 2010

Outstanding example of this always-excellent series, November 11, 2010

An inessential collection of essential writings, November 1, 2010

Absolutely wonderful collection! Dyson rocks..., October 28, 2010

Editorial Review

"Unique among survival books...stunning...enthralling. Deep Survival makes compelling, and chilling, reading."—Penelope Purdy, Denver Post

After her plane crashes, a seventeen-year-old girl spends eleven days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter, or equipment, she gets out. A better-equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash sits down and dies. What makes the difference?

Examining such stories of miraculous endurance and tragic death—how people get into trouble and how they get out again (or not)—Deep Survival takes us from the tops of snowy mountains and the depths of oceans to the workings of the brain that control our behavior. Through close analysis of case studies, Laurence Gonzales describes the "stages of survival" and reveals the essence of a survivor—truths that apply not only to surviving in the wild but also to surviving life-threatening illness, relationships, the death of a loved one, running a business during uncertain times, even war.

Fascinating for any reader, and absolutely essential for anyone who takes a hike in the woods, this book will change the way we understand ourselves and the great outdoors. ... Read more

Reviews

Simply wonderful, January 8, 2004
Those who are focusing on whether or not Gonzales is actually instructing you on how to survive in the wild are completely missing the point of Deep Survival. As a totally urban chick who'd rather die than hike, I bought the book not because I wanted to learn about mountaineering, but to investigate why I've survived a blood disorder that has killed others. And thanks to this book, I've gotten my answer. Gonzales beautifully explains and explores the paradox that must be absorbed completely if one is to live through a catastrophe--which is that to survive something, you must surrender to it, basically fall into it, accepting all the pain and suffering, if you're ever going to get out of it. When you're able to quickly adapt to a new reality and make this new place--however frightening--your new home, you've a much better chance of surviving than the person who's in denial. For one thing, your sense of spirituality and wonder deepens, and this is a tremendous life force in and of itself. It helps you enjoy where you ARE, instead of frantically trying to get to where you think you should be. This is simply a great life lesson, whether you're lost in the woods, or just trying to live a happier existence.

He explains the paradox so well--that in order to survive, one must surrender, yet at the same time not give in. There must be a sheer raw determination to win the game, yet an acceptance of possibly losing it as well, which paradoxically, gives you an edge. And if you can muster a playful spirit on top of it all, well--then you're just golden. A *great* read.

Listen Up, Grasshopper, February 13, 2004
Laurence Gonzales has written a riveting book, not about survival technique, but survival philosophy. The points he makes can be applied to any situation in which you find yourself endangered physically, mentally, or emotionally. He weaves together the tao te ching, chaos theory, musings on Roman military tactics, biological lessons on how the brain works to help us preserve the species by preserving ourselves, true-life experiences from people who have endured some of the more bizarre "accidents", and his own taste for thrills.

Gonzales bookends the essays with the story of his father, a scientist who, as a young flier during WWII, was shot down over Germany. He FELL out of his plane--he didn't parachute, he literally fell--and lived through a harrowing recovery as a POW.

Why did his dad make it when the rest of his crew was killed?

Some of this has to do with events you can't control, and some of it has to do with how to control yourself so that you can find a way out of dire straits. He points out that some people can make every correct decision and end up being killed, while others make every wrong decision and walk out of the woods (or off a mountain...) unscathed. But, you can learn to THINK like a survivor, and greatly increase your chances of getting through what may seem, even to others in the same sinking boat, like a no-win situation.

Gonzales's dad taught him, "Plan the flight. Fly the plan, but don't fall in love with the plan." Being prepared is only part of the equation; being able to adjust to changing circumstances is what a lot of us forget about.

Reading this book is an adventure in itself. If you're a city dweller, like me, and don't anticipate not having the Sears Tower in your line of sight if you get disoriented, it's still enjoyable, and applicable to what you will eventually experience.

This book should be on every high school reading list. (Preferably BEFORE the kid takes driver's ed.)

I also recommend Gavin DeBecker's books, such as THE GIFT OF FEAR. He discusses some of what Gonzales does, insofar as honing your inner resources so they work FOR you, but he is also very specific regarding cases of direct threats from other people. Gonzales does discuss how non-survivors can compromise a survivor, but most of what he talks about is environmental.

If you are planning a wilderness trip or just a seemingly innocuous weekend hike, this book is a great reality check. It's also an inspiration. Some of these stories are just amazing, and they prove how tough, and sometimes dumb, a species we are.

Worth hanging in there for the last third, January 3, 2006
I really wanted to like this book. It was recommended by a friend, and is on a topic I'm very interested in. I've been involved in a lot of wilderness activities, have participated in rescues of myself and others, and am familiar with the literature on accidents and survival.

The author has hamstrung the book by trying to go 'high concept' and connect the book to chaos theory, complexity theory, and self-organizing systems. The author's understanding of the theories is very weak, and he seriously hurts the book by trying to force connections that don't exist and don't add to understanding.

He finally hits his pace in the latter part of the book when he largely drops the half-baked references to chaos theory and actually grapples with the question he set out to answer: who lives, who dies, and why? I wouldn't say his answers are unexpected, but he does a very good job of interwining well-chosen selections from survival literature with some original reporting and his personal story, and presenting them in a compelling way.

There is an excellent book hiding inside of Deep Survival. It's a shame that you've got to piece it together yourself from the good bits.

Thought-provoking and memorable, but I had hoped for more, June 2, 2007
This book is a fascinating survival book because it's about the MENTAL aspects of survival, not the physical ones... not about the knowledge you need, but the emotional toughness: what are the psychological qualities you need, and how to cultivate them in yourself. This is a topic that I'm quite interested in, and Gonzales (and my own experience) has persuaded me that he's really pinpointed some of the often-overlooked, but very key, aspects of psychological survival. One of the highlights, for me, is that the book is also peppered through with interesting survival stories (though I would have enjoyed seeing less focus on climbing and wilderness, since the psychological patterns he talks about would apply even to "urban survival"-type situations like kidnapping).

So I quite enjoyed it, and I'm sure I'll remember and treasure several of his gems of wisdom for a long time. ("Be here now", as advice for general life as well as survival situations, struck me as especially valuable).

BUT. The book was really kind of fluffy and disorganized. It didn't have a very clear structure: it was basically a bunch of stories, with the same general points reiterated in many ways. It would have been equally valuable if it were half as long, since the extra length was just used to repeat the points, not go into them in any more depth. I thought the science was a bit sloppy and oversimplified, which wasn't a *major* problem -- that sort of thing is inevitable when writing a popular book, and he got the core things right -- but it could have been LESS so, without compromising readability, if the organization were just a little better. And the writing was decent, but not great: more than once I was jarred out of an interesting story by a bizarre phrasing or a particularly inapt description.

So if you like survival stories or are interested in the psychology of survival, you'll definitely enjoy the book and be glad you read it. If not, you probably won't be able to get past the scattered organization, general repetitiveness, and at times oft-putting writing enough to appreciate the rest of it.

Deeply revealing - I could not put it down, October 10, 2004
This is not a story book. It has a lot of survival stories in it. But that isn't the point of the book. What the author does is to take a look at the various accidents (ships sinking in the atlanitc, planes exploding over the rainforest, falling into a crevasse at 15,000 feet) and finds a common thread that binds the victims that survived these accidents. Gonzales doesn't tell us how to make a bow to hunt deer or how fire can be made out of flints. Instead, his book explores the physiological/emotional/and spiritual side of survival.

The book is deeply revealing about human nature. He explains why it is that children that are 2-6 years old that get lost in the wilderness have better survival rates than expereinced adults. But why children older than six have the worst rates of survival.

In addition to his discussions into what makes a survivor, what was also fascinating was his discussion on how these accidents happen in the first place. He discusses tightly coupled systems like the spaceship and how accidents like the Challenger and Cloumbia come to happen. He explains how these catastrophes are built into the system. No one designs it into the system, it is inherent. He then relates this information to an accident were several climbers roped together (another tightly coupled system) had a catastrophic fall.

He often quotes Epicletus and Tao Te Ching and explains how their teachings such as humility are inherent characteristics of survivors. I enjoyed how Gonzales tied in philosphy to survival and I had many "aha!" expereinces while reading this book. Those old sages knew what they were talking about.

He also discusses chaos theory as well as the physiological aspects of survival. He talks about the various chemicals that are released by our body and how this affects us physiologically and mentally.

My only critique of this book is that when Gonzales writes about his own experiences, his poetic attempts to describe the environment he is in are really bad. He throws in adjectives and analogies that make no sense and I almost put down the book because they were so awkward and horrible. But when he actually stops writing fluff and gets into analyzing the various aspects of surival, his writing flows and becomes compulsively readable.

Profoundly effective read, October 26, 2003
I was hooked when I read the inside cover. Gonzales will try to explain why a guy in a raft would say "I'm going to pick up the car." Then jump into the ocean to be eaten by sharks, and then explain why a person with no survival skills could survive the jungle. What could explain these differences in catastrophe? Does Gonzales, a very experienced adventurer, succeed?

No! Catastrophes are too complicated, nature is too capricious, and no one can fathom why someone was given -divinely or otherwise- the mental fortitude to survive while another surrenders. Gonzales admits this, but he does better. He shows us that many of those who survive have a mental profile that helps them survive and he encourages us to find this resilience which we all have by varying degrees. He does this through pages of wisdom.

So there are 15 chapters, each presenting a main lesson, and a fantastic tale of accidents, catastrope or survival. Minor points in each chapter is supported by 'minor' stories. Thus Gonzales masterfully weaves several stories in each chapter.

The stories presented are just awe inspiring. Let me give whet your appetite. Two raft guides steer their boats down a raging river. One notices entire trees racing by and has enough, the other doesn't and dies. A teenage girl falls a mile from an airplane with just her high heels and her dress. She survives, but now must face an inhospitable jungle below. SCUBA divers drown underwater with plenty of air in their tanks.

Gonzales does not get into the 'gadgetry' lessons of survival. There are no techniques about how to apply first aid, or rappel a cliff. Instead, Gonzales presents psychology and the neurology of why we make mistakes, why we sometimes do 'bonehead' acts, why some seem to be lucky to never get into trouble, and what it takes to persevere through indomitable odds; the 'survival personality'. He also discusses tightly interlocking safety systems and 'adventure plans' that give us a false sense of security and can exaggerate the problems that they are trying to prevent!

Gonzales draws heavily from a few science books which are accessible to most readers. I suspect those who have read this book, may already have read them:

-The Emotional Brain by Joseph LeDoux
-Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio

Both these books are very good, and I recommend them. It is not necessary to read them first to enjoy Deep Survival, but reading all three books, will be more enriched. So 'armchair' academics will delight in this original -albeit, light- application of science.

Gonzales so masterfully writes that Nature just IS, but the inner world may be against us. So while we cannot control our outside world, we can construct an inner world which will increase our chances of survival. And let me try to abbreviate them here:

-Be prepared. Have the proper training.
-Be humble. Observe and adapt your knowledge, Nature is not a textbook.
-Stay calm and don't rush.
-Have a loose plan and be ready to change or lose the plan.
-Enjoy nature with each small step.
-Do it for others

There are about 20 points scattered throughout the book, then nicely summarized in an appendix. These points are illustrated with clear, and non trivial examples. This may very well be the best self-improvement book I've ever read.

In addition, Gonzales presents us with other facts and statistics. He discusses the mental stages of being physically lost. He mentions children between the ages of 1-6 having the highest survival rates and why is this consistent with survival psychology/neurology.

This wisdom can be applied to anywhere. I have used it in competitive events and it has helped me. I'm pretty sure any outdoors person, adventurers, thrill seekers or vacationer will reread passages from this book before they go out on their journeys. Just like me, the book will have a positive affect on you. I think -for me- it may very well be permanent.

I hope that is enough for you to buy this book. Right now, I want to discuss some of the negatives. These are minor, but important points which may enrich or aggravate your reading. So you may want to skip it.

I wish this book contained the pictures of the locale of disasters and potential disasters. The lesson that we consistently underestimate nature would be very effective to show an inviting picture of a Hawaiian beach and a caption stating that swimming on this beach will kill you. I'm not exaggerating.

Gonzales is too contradictory. A survivor must be one with his world, but a paragraph later, it's important for the survivor to have a private world, and an outside world. A survivor must have empathy for those injured. Yet pages later, the same survivor cuts his friend's rope to save his own hide. Gonzales talks about balancing the rules of survival, but these contradictions are not what he intends, and there are more than just these two.

Gonzales admits that nature is capricious; not only do you need to survive, you need luck. But, luck is not emphasized enough. It can't because chronicling survival versus death means one-sided results. Still Gonzales could give forensic stories of survivors who did everything right, and still died. Also remember, not many panicked survivors will readily admit they timidly escaped.

Finally, you will mentally compare yourself with these survivors. And, you might ask yourself if you actually want to hike with a survivor. Do you want to be on a raft with a person who wishes an injured person to bleed to death? Do you want to rappel with someone who will cut your rope to save his butt? Do you want to be friends with someone who wishes a cripple will fall off a cliff to make things more convenient for him? I realize by reading this book, I do not have all the qualities of surviving. I'd be the one landing on an exploding grenade to save my comrades and Gonzales would then extol my comrades for surviving. What I'm trying to say is that I sometimes wish Gonzales would tone his prose down. Survivors may be the 'real heroes', but we need all personalities for our species to survive; from the survivors to the martyrs to the techno-geeks which make the med kits and the radios that rescue survivors. Ultimately, nature doesn't give a damn if you are a survivalist or not.

Interestingly, the two climbers in the rope cutting incident survived, and continue to climb. It's not mentioned whether the climbers have climbed together since.

In summary, Gonzales book is excellent. And deserves multiple readings. Every page is filled with wisdom and science coupled to a vivid story that makes the lesson stick. The lessons you learn will stay with you regardless if you adventure or not. You will awe Mother Nature and be humbled by her. But remember the negatives I mentioned, and you will fully appreciate one of the underlying messages Gonzales has conveyed: that, life is extremely precious. So, savor it.

Something off about this..., June 15, 2008
I love natural disaster genre, but this book fell flat for me. Offering some Zen insights, and a few badly narrated but intriguing case studies, the author's voice kept intervening in strange and ultimately annoying ways, which is perhaps why I didn't really like the book: I found the author's voice annoying. Deep Survival is really more about Gonzales' father than surviving, per se, and he seems to have used the trope of survival to offer a meditation on his Dad's spectacular survival in WW2, which is fine is you want a father memoir, or a WW2 experience, but rather less so if you are more interested in case studies than Pater Gonzales or the author's own masculinist excesses, which were often annoying and badly narrated. In the end, this is memoir-cum-vanity autobiography. I was expecting something more interesting.

Unexpectdly spiritual, January 31, 2006
From time to time (maybe every year or so), I engage into some sort of radical sport or activity, for the thrill of it, for the adrenaline, to face my fears and at the end, probably to feel "aliver" (more alive than ever?).

With this in mind, I bought this book without too many expectations. Wasn't really sure if it was going to be a technical book for professional "life-challengers" or what. Seemed to be a different kind of book.

And after reading it, I can say I am not disappointed. It's a truly interesting book in which Gonzales goes beyond the technical matters. Actually, Gonzales spouses that it is not technical prowess, experience, strength or a particular knowledge that distinguishes survivors from not-survivors. I don't want to get into the details (that's for you when you read the book), but his conclusion is that survivors have, among others, a positive mental attitude, "keep their cool", have an ability to somehow dettach themselves from the situation and do not let themselves be overblown by their emotions, feelings and/or psychological pressures.

The book is not perfect, though:
- It lacks a driving force to it. Its not a difficult read, but I actually stopped reading it for almost 10 days.
- The many references to Gonzales' father, and how his life impacted the author's, are very nice (particularly in the latter chapters), but they make the book so autobiographical (sometimes I thought the book was a cathartic experience of some sort for the author), that it would actually be nice to know more about Gonzales and his life.
- Its kinda zig-zaggy. Which is on purpose. At the end you can get some specific practical tips about survival. But the read is not fully structured.

In short, don't read this book if you want a technical training for survival in extreme conditions, or if you want to know in full detail how the more famous survivors made it (Gonzales relies in maybe 10 to 20 examples across the book, but does not rely heavily on the history of famous expeditions). Now, if you want something different from the typical novel, if you are attracted to eco-adventures and/or radical sports, or if you are curious about this strange mix of "Top Gun meets Deepak Chopra", go for it (and yes, I know, the comparison is exaggerated on both sides....).

Useful, Often Fascinating, Sometimes Meandering, August 18, 2005
Deep Survival can often be quite an interesting journey, although occasionally, like many of the hikers in the true life stories within, it gets a little lost and goes in circles. Laurence Gonzales has made a nice selection of survival tales and presents them in a very useful and illustrative manner. The author shoehorns himself in a little too much (particularly as humility is supposed to be one of the main virtues possessed by a survivor.) These true tales make a nice balance and counterpoint to much of the fascinating scientific research. The book does ignore anything that does not help its thesis so luck is downplayed as is the fact that non-survivors, who tales cannot be told, may often experience and exhibit the same charateristics as survivors, such as a sense of humour, but time was never on their side. Still, it makes for great reading and, despite the author's final insistence that survivors are born, may offer many useful tips for mental attitude adjustments during a hike or a climb gone wrong.

saddeningly substandard science, painfully poor prose, December 24, 2006
Rex Painter's 1-star review was right on target, yet only 6/15 people found that review helpful.

1. The writing reminds me of my college students who are still trying to find that "style" that their high school teachers so desperately wished they'd find. The first sentence: "If you could see adrenaline, then you'd see a great green, greasy river of it oozing off the beach at San Diego tonight." Huh? Why is adrenaline green or greasy? Its not, but I guess Gonzales believes the alliteration helps the sentence. More gems in the first two paragraphs: "The steel blade of this boat has ripped up the belly of the sea and I watch for a moment as its curling intestines glisten with moonlight and roll away behind us". With sentences like these, I'm surprised they didn't get Fabio on the cover.
2. The stories are superficially analyzed. Want a deep analysis of human behavior in the wilderness? Read Chip Brown's Good Morning Midnight. What Gonzales give us is lots of little stories, each with maddenly little detail, broken up by summaries of recent models of human emotional processing. Gonzales relies heavily on the work of Antonio Damasio and Joesph LeDoux, whose works I would recommend, to explain who survived and who didn't. But Gonzales utterly fails in this attempt. E.g. The story of the Army Ranger James Gabba is told in one paragraph. Granted, Gonzales does lead the story with a few paragraphs on Army Ranger training, but the story focuses on *him* (Gonzales) and *his* feelings watching rangers (or jellyfish as he describes them) parachuting. Here is Gonzales' analysis of the behavior: "Gabba was sucked under, pinned and drowned. The official report said the 'guest clearly did not take the situation seriously.' But that's not true. He took it very seriously." What is meant by this statement. We never find out because Gonzales moves right into a few irrelevant paragraphs on the immune system (was there an editor for this book?) and stress, and then finally returns to a single final paragraph on Gabba, basically concluding that Gabba died because his training made it dishonorable to be helped. Dah! I think any middle school student could have arrived at this conclusion. But I buy and read books to find out how conventional explanations (folk wisdom) are wrong or, if not wrong, what is the neurological or evolutionary explanation for the behavior. Gonzales attempts the former but, again, fails to make the connection between the science and the stories.
3. The stories about himself are uninteresting and, rather than strengthening his argument, serve to simply divert the reader's attention from the focal story or argument. ... Read more

Editorial Review

On the 150th anniversary of its publication, a new edition of the nature classic

First published in 1854, Henry David Thoreau"s groundbreaking book has influenced generations of readers and continues to inspire and inform anyone with an open mind and a love of nature. With Bill McKibben providing a newly revised Introduction and helpful annotations that place Thoreau firmly in his role as cultural and spiritual seer, this beautiful edition of Walden for the new millennium is more accessible and relevant than ever.

"[Thoreau] says so many pithy and brilliant things, and offers so many piquant, and, we may add, so many just, comments on society as it is, that this book is well worth the reading, both for its actual contents and its suggestive capacity."
—A. P. Peabody, North American Review, 1854

"[Walden] still seems to me the best youth"s companion yet written by an American, for it carries a solemn warning against the loss of one"s valuables, it advances a good argument for traveling light and trying new adventures, it rings with the power of powerful adoration, it contains religious feeling without religious images, and it steadfastly refuses to record bad news."
—E. B. White, Yale Review, 1954

"Bill McKibben gives us Thoreau"s Walden as the gospel of the present moment." —Robert D. Richardson, Jr., author of Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind ... Read more

Reviews

Still the ne plus ultra of nature writing, May 28, 2009
I've read Walden at least a dozen times and it just keeps getting better.

Thanks to the truly inspirational thoughts in this book, I have learned to be alone in the woods and high wilderness and feel nothing but joy and awe. Fear doesn't enter into it. It's only people and "civilization" that bring me angst. Thoreau taught me how to use my mind to see beyond the surface of nature into its glorious inner workings, and few gifts have ever been so precious in my life.

There is so much wisdom here it's impossible to digest it all even in a dozen readings. Lines from this book come to me over and over as life rolls along. One of my favorites states that HDT would be happy to live in a pine box, three feet by six feet, as long as he could wake up every morning in the middle of nature. I know exactly what he means, and I have patterned my life along that vein of simplicity and sustainability.

For that and so many other thoughts here, I love Thoreau like a real brother. He's always there when I need him. It's okay that Walden was closer to town than most think; the real point here is letting wild nature enter into you until you become part of it and no longer part of the illusory world of homo sap. That can be done even in a city park if one learns how.

This book, along with the best of HDT's journals, constitute some of the most useful of all American literature to my mind, and to millions of others over the last century-plus.

Thanks to Hank for understanding what really matters, and for waking up an entire nation to how precious our natural heritage is.

5 stars for Henry David Thoreau, 0 for Bill McKibben, December 30, 2009
This book would be a good presentation of the classic Walden if you tore out the introduction by Bill Kibben. While the annotations are helpful, the introduction is over the top, making out Thoreau as an environmentalist and climate change advocate. Totally self-serving on the part of McKibben. Thoreau was certainly a thinker outside the box, but an environmentalist he was not. To suppose that in this day he would be an advocate of climate change is laughable. Look for a true copy of Walden without the garbage added.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could..., December 20, 2009
...not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Paragraph one sets the scene: Thoreau says that when he wrote "the bulk" of the book, he "lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor...on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusettes..." for a period of "two years and two months." In this first chapter, entitled Economy, he talks a lot about how much stuff cost to build and grow, and describes his living conditions. Early on, he shares his philosophy on what it is (p 12) "[t]o be a philosopher." It is "...to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust."

Although I'm glad that I can now check the "I read Walden," box, doing so involved more drudgery than delight. For one thing, Thoreau seems to ramble a lot. For another, he's a paradoxical guy. He disdainfully emphasizes a lack of intelligence in others, as when he refers to some of his visitors as (p 142) "half-witted men," and one specifically as "an inoffensive, simple-minded pauper;" seemingly rudely directs those stopping by his place for a cup of water to the pond, "I told them that I drank at the pond, and pointed thither, offering to lend them a dipper;" claims of certain unfortunates he offered assistance that they (p 67) "preferred to remain poor;" and admits that charity isn't his thing, (p 67) "As for Doing-good...I have tried it fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution;" but later philosophizes, (p 205) "Goodness is the only investment that never fails." He repeatedly uses the racist term (p 27, etc.) "savages" to refer to Native Americans, yet states that he aided a runaway slave (p 144) "I helped to forward toward the north star." He seems sort of straight-laced, but also funny, as when he mocks the men that built the Pyramids (p 53) "there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs." And even his logic can be illogical, as in his support of the statement (p 48) "the swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot." The example is that traveling 30 miles is better done on foot due to the hassle and cost ("almost a day's wages") of taking the train. By my calculation, at three miles an hour, a 30-mile journey would take 10 hours, more for a man like Thoreau who was afflicted with tuberculosis.

Although Thoreau's story contains noteworthy quotes throughout, the last chapter is filled with pearls, like this inspiring (and quite famous) one, (p 303) "...if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours," which proves to be an enjoyable end to an uneasy read. It was only afterwards, during my book club's discussion session, that I first heard Thoreau's self-proclaimed life of solitude was not as solitary as one might think. This led me to pick up (but only skim) The Thoreau You Don't Know by Robert Sullivan, a good choice for those that feel compelled to learn more about the supposed recluse. Worst of the book was annotator Bill McKibben's occasional opinion-laced footnote, including the one on page 252, in which he feels compelled to share that Louisa May Alcott's father was a "fruitcake." My advice, skip this version in favor of any other. Those that enjoyed Walden may also like: The Thoreau You Don't Know by Robert Sullivan, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

A classic., May 24, 2010
What a beautiful book about simplicity.
Read it! Especially if you're looking to figure out how to have a more simple life. It's relaxing and encouraging and just a fantastic read.

Walden by Thoreau, September 12, 2009
Very good price and fast service, I would definitely use this book dealer again. The book came in excellent condition and was something I have always wanted to have a copy of my own. ... Read more

Editorial Review

A stunningly original exploration of the ties that bind us to the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different species with whom we share the world.
 
For as long as humans have existed, insects have existed, too. Wherever we’ve traveled, they’ve traveled, too. Yet we hardly know them, not even the ones we’re closest to: those that eat our food, share our beds, and live in our homes.
 
Organizing his book alphabetically with one entry for each letter, weaving together brief vignettes, meditations, and extended essays, Hugh Raffles embarks on a mesmerizing exploration of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics, philosophy, and popular culture to show us how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our passions, and beguiled our imaginations.
 
Raffles offers us a glimpse into the high-stakes world of Chinese cricket fighting, the deceptive courtship rites of the dance fly, the intriguing possibilities of queer insect sex, the vital and vicious role locusts play in the famines of west Africa, how beetles deformed by Chernobyl inspired art, and how our desire and disgust for insects has prompted our own aberrant behavior.
 
Deftly fusing the literary and the scientific, Hugh Raffles has given us an essential book of reference that is also a fascination of the highest order.

http://insectopedia.org/ ... Read more

Reviews

Crazy bugs, crazy people, April 27, 2010
This book is about those moments when you've thought the cockroach in the sink was staring back at you. It is not about entomology, and it's not science. It's about how human imagination brings insects into view in unexpected ways, and it's about the ways insects can show people in a curious light. It's about finding out that you are surrounded by thousands of bugs that never bother you, and it's about that moment of sickness when you learn how many spiders you swallow at night. The writing doesn't argue but rather demonstrates through the use of often dainty details and metaphors that can be as fragile as the wings of a fly. Sometimes the language can be too fragile - but overall it's generous, playful, and quite a joy to read.

Interesting look at the human world through insects, April 12, 2010
Insectopedia is an intriguing study of the human world through its relationships with insects. Why do we have such a visceral revulsion to cockroaches, but not (for example) ladybugs? What does the intricate communication methods of bees (physical movement), pine beetles (auditory), and ants (chemical) say about our verbal language? How does a fly process visual information -- and can we ever really "see" from another creature's viewpoint?

Particularly interesting chapters include a first hand account of Chinese cricket fighting, the history of the theory of evolution through insect study, and the amazing chapter about honeybee dances -- great cocktail party fodder! Did you know researchers can translate bees' dances into coordinates (as in, "there's a great stash of spilled jam 90 yards to the southeast")? Who *doesn't* find this stuff fascinating?!

The author is an anthropologist, not an entomologist. If you're looking for a simple guide to insects, this is not the book you're looking for. But if you're curious about how the worlds of insects and humans collide, Insectopedia is an interesting read. You know that insects outnumber humans by some 200 million to one, right? I, for one, welcome the knowledge about our future insect overlords.

I love this book, May 4, 2010
I love this book. Such an unusual, creative, and interesting way to think about the world - examining human life through our relationships with insects. There are so many fascinating stories here and they take you all over the world, to meet people in China, Japan, Africa, Switzerland, and other places and discover their lives through their unusual and intriguing connections to insects. Along the way, I learned not only many new facts about both people and insects but also, and this is no exaggeration, a new way of looking at the world and its inhabitants, human and animal. And a fun read to boot!

Insectopedia is an ingenious, original book, April 1, 2010
Insectopedia is an ingenious, original book by brilliant scholar and writer that goes deep
into a miniature world that reflects and philosophizes on just about everything in the human size world.
Insectopedia gives the reader all at once the spirit of l9th century delirious excitement, modernist story telling,
highly sophisticated humor in the telling, and an incisive journalistic account of particular places that few have gone to.
Hugh Raffles' writing and the accounts of his mysterious journeys are a pure and absolute pleasure to read.

--- Toni Schlesinger

fun and exciting read, May 13, 2010
This is a great, funny, well-written and engaging book. No, it's not a true encyclopedia, but instead jumps all over the place, throughout time and across continents and illustrates just a tiny fraction of the fascinating things there are to learn about the insect world. It was fun to read and kept me turning the pages to find out what else there was to learn.

they live among us, May 8, 2010
Hugh Raffles's Insectopedia is a beautifully and ever-so-carefully constructed opening into the world(s) of insect/ human relations, inviting readers to reconsider how we think about these little animals, both in our lives and in the lives which are their own. Perhaps the discomfort of some reviewers comes from the inability of the writing to fit squarely in science/ nature writing or in literature (technical vs. descriptive), as it forces the question of where the boundary may lie. This book is not merely about insects, but about the possibilities of knowing them and the possibilities of writing grandly about something so... small.

Insectopedia, September 20, 2010
The title is misleading, this is not a comprehesive look at the world of insects. Rather, it's an idiosyncratic collection of some of the odd and fabulous stories of how human beings interact with insects. Some of it is historical/cultural, some is current. The book strikes a balance between items that can easily interest most readers and in-depth sections on more arcane subjects. It is never boring. I highly recommend it.

Scary at first, May 17, 2010
I was afraid I was not going to be able to understand the book - but the topic was so charming that I decided to give it a shot. Besides insects always fascinated and scared me: all those legs and eyes, funny hairs, some are slimy, and others sting and hurt. Human beings scare me too: insects and humans together are just one scary nightmare.
I finally decided to start reading it a couple of weeks ago and to my surprise, I am really enjoying it, even if at times I do not indeed understand some passages. I am also surprised that some of my hesitations about insects are also studied in the book.
Overall this has been a curious experience for me and I am glad I finally decided to read it.

Bugged by Raffles, June 15, 2010
Raffles presents insights into the relationship between insects (ugh!) and us (yay!). Some of them are new, like the inside scoop on Chinese cricket-fight gambling, and some are old, like the honey-bee's dances that direct other bees to new nectar sources. Much of it I found fascinating, and many of the illustrations novel, delightful and intriguing. I have to say, too, that it is thoroughly documented and indexed.

But I found it such hard reading I couldn't finish it. His style is so turgid and verbose I had to resort to my Mirriam-Webster for each paragraph, and even then I wasn't sure what he was actually trying to say. And the encyclopedia format is contrived and silly, and unnecessarily so. Raffles' material could have been presented much better.

Three stars is generous.

Thought-Provoking, but not for Everyone, June 8, 2010
What begins as a professor's thoughts on our relationship with the insect world quickly becomes a fascinating study of man and beastie. Look elsewhere for details of insect science (although there is a wealth of information), Raffles focuses on how we study, relate to, share much in common with and can learn from the annoying critters around us. If you give this book a little time, it will take you to places that seem at once new and familiar. "What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed" indeed. ... Read more

Editorial Review

In this rousing examination of contemporary American male identity, acclaimed author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert explores the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway. In 1977, at the age of seventeen, Conway left his family's comfortable suburban home to move to the Appalachian Mountains. For more than two decades he has lived there, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he has trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. To Gilbert, Conway's mythical character challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be a modern man in America; he is a symbol of much we feel how our men should be, but rarely are. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Spanning several decades and three continents, Modoc is one of the most amazing true animal stories ever told. Raised together in a small German circus town, a boy and an elephant formed a bond that would last their entire lives, and would be tested time and again; through a near-fatal shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, an apprenticeship with the legendary Mahout elephant trainers in the Indian teak forests, and their eventual rise to circus stardom in 1940s New York City. Modoc is a captivating true story of loyalty, friendship, and high adventure, to be treasured by animal lovers everywhere. ... Read more

Reviews

Modoc: A fictional tale of true beauty, February 16, 2007
Let me start off by saying that I do love this book. It's a beautiful story that is well written and filled with emotion. Admittedly, this book had me in tears a few times. It is definitely aimed at tugging the heart strings.

What disappoints me about this book is that it claims to be a true story, when it is indeed mostly fiction. There are only tiny bits of fact in there, and those facts are mostly exaggerated. Things that started tipping me off:
1. The author describes most of the Indian elephants (aka Asian elephants) as having tusks. In reality, tusks on Asian elephants are pretty uncommon.
2. The author describes Modoc as having tusks, even to the end of the book soon before she died. Yet in the pictures in the book, the elephant shown has no tusks at all.
3. A circus owner on the hunt for *years* in a foreign country all for one elephant? I doubt that seriously.
4. No dates are given, and for being a work of "fact", I found it odd that no sources are ever listed except for very vague comments (i.e. saying that newspapers wrote articles, but never naming any specific paper)
5. Most information cannot be found except in reference to this particular book.
6. There is an act of a bull's mating with a cow (bull=male elephant, cow=female elephant) that seems way over the top and incredibly ferocious, quite unlike actual mating "rituals" among elephants.
After some extensive research, including research with the Circus Historical Society, I discovered that many elephants were named Modoc, the most famous being "Big Modoc" owned by the Ringling Bros Circus. In fact, Ringling Bros owned 3 elephants named Modoc, the youngest eventually being owned by Helfer, only years after being passed around from circus to circus. Helfer only owned this elephant for 3 years before she was passed onto another place, where she died at the age of 55, not 70 as the book claims. The elephant pics of one performing in the circus is that of Big Modoc, the elephant Helfer did *not* own. While a wonderful story, the bottom line was that Helfer made up most of what was going on. There is no elephant that went through the life that this fictional Modoc went through, there is no Bram Gunterstein...this is a story made up by a man who took an elephant he owned for three years and greatly exaggerated her life.
I also did take issue with the absolutely unnecessary writing style towards human sexuality. It was too graphic, and served no purpose except to throw in sex. The graphic details could have easily been left out without compromising the tenderness of the romantic relationships described in the story.

As I said, I do love this book. But I love it as a work of fiction, not as one of fact. I do not understand why Helfer would choose to make up a story and then call it true, because in my opinion, that greatly hurts his credibility. Unfortunately most people simply take him at his word without actually researching the truth behind the book. I believe the actual plot, writing style, and emotional depth make it a five star book. However, after my extensive research proved that Helfner fabricated almost all of this yet claimed it to be true, the credibility made me think "three star". Yet I couldn't justify rating such a lovely and romantic story so low, so I compromised and gave it four stars.

Please, do read and enjoy this book. But read it with the thoughts that the "greatest elephant whoever lived" merely lived in someone's imagination. It is a great love story that ultimately teaches that it's love, kindness, and affection that prove to be the best way to care for ANY animal. And even for a work of fiction, that is a lesson that is definitely applicable to real life.

heartwarming, breathtaking, and wonderfully written for all, July 31, 1999
Modoc has to be the most amazing story ever told about one's love for the animal kingdom. I was astonished with the retold accounts throughout the text........always reading on to find out what happened next to Bram and his beloved Modoc. I can honestly say it is my favorite book of all time for it touched my heart and actually did bring tears to my eyes as I completed it aboard an airline. I've handed it down to my sister to be read to my 6-year-old nephew. He's intrigued with the story and loves hearing it aloud. It's a book for all ages indeed!

Wonderful Story of Pachyderm Devotion, May 8, 2000
It's been a while since a book produced the sort of emotive response, upon completion, that Modoc did. The last few chapters were the ones that caught me feeling pain and pathos for the great elephant, and a smiling appreciation of her love for her trainer. This sweeping epic tells the story of a boy and his female elephant, inseparable from their dual births on the same day in turn of the century Germany. Born to the circus, Modoc and Bram forge a career of adventures as they travel the world experiencing metaphysical lessons in life and love. These lessons are taught through their interactions with Bram's two great [human] loves, the bigoted and megalomaniacal circus owner, ship and circus mates, and Indian leaders, spiritual and temporal. It is billed as a love story first, adventure second, and it is plain to see the special, almost supernatural bond the elephant and the trainer hold as they both age well into their 70's. This novel gives one pause thinking about our own interactions with animals, and pets. I chuckled to think of how things would be different if my Siamese cat were suddenly 10 feet tall and 3 tons. Playtime would take on a slightly different dynamic. Yet Modoc was always gentle and a constant lifesaver to Bram, aware of her immense power and always desirous of his happiness. It was also interesting to see that the author Ralph Helfer, was also the same Ralph in the story who found Modoc and employed Bram and her for the last 20 years of their lives. I'm not sure what the target audience age was but it proceeds easily and swiftly, and reminded me of the Black Stallion books I read back in 7th grade. Ultimately a feel-good, slightly embellished, true story that is recommended reading.

Exciting and touching story, but with a few problems, September 26, 2004
This is a really incredible and moving story about how Bram Gunterstein and his elephant Modoc grew up together and shared all of their lives together except for the years when they were separated after the circus they were in sold all of the animals. I love animals, and it's nice to see a story about the bond between a human and an elephant; most human-animal stories feature dogs, cats, horses, ponies, and sometimes birds and small mammals like guinea pigs. It's also told in a very lively and page-turning way, which makes it a quick read. Some reviewers have suggested that there's no way Bram and Modoc could have had all of those adventures, like being shipwrecked, the mystical psychic encounter with the Raja's white elephant in the middle of the night, the war in Burma around the time of WWI, and all of their circus adventures, but many times truth is stranger than fiction, even if Mr. Helfer might have taken artistic license with some of the things he obviously wasn't there for.

My main problem with the story is that dates are only given maybe two or three times. We're not even told what year it is when the story begins. That makes it really hard to keep track of how old the two main characters are over the years and through their many adventures. And where are all of the important world events going on during this time, particularly WWI (which we only see a little of towards the end of their stay in Burma, when the liberation army comes to their village and terrorises everyone) and WWII? Don't they have any impact on the lives of these characters and the events they're taking part in? Also, a lot is made of Mr. North's "racial attitudes," but the only thing Jewish about Bram that I saw in the book is his last name. I know that's enough for some people, but it's like it was made into something much bigger than it really was, unless the true scope of Bram's religious identity was deeper and not mentioned in the book. The other issue I have is the one other people have pointed out, how the elephant pictures don't match. Modoc is described many times as having beautiful long tusks, but none of the elephants in the photo pages have any tusks.

A wonderful heartfelt story about an amazing animal., October 4, 1999
Modoc is an amazing story for people of all ages. It is a very easy story to read. I was able to finish it in one sitting but was unable to keep a dry eye throughout the book. If you can look past proper documentation, as this seems to be the book's greatest critisicm, you will truly enjoy a wonderful story. It will make you think differently about animals and their feelings.

Love the cover, skip the text., June 4, 1999
With one of the most captivating covers I've seen in a long time, the book went downhill once I opened the book. As much as I wanted to believe the story I found it more inventive and it raised more doubt than empathy in my mind. I do believe Modoc existed and there must be a wonderful story to tell but the writer missed his opportunity when he doused his writing with new age philosophy and dialoge out of a 1960's sit-com. I was very disappointed as I respect elephants and wanted to believe what I read as true. White elephant in the jungle? I don't think so. The only white elephant is the writing itself. Perfect for young readers well below the age of fifteen.

An Inseparable Pair, February 5, 2005
This story starts with the birth of a boy and a girl. A human and an elphant. Born at the exact same time on the same farm, from the beginning their futures were together. Modoc tells of the amazing journey of this pair from life to death, beginning to end. Filled with heart-wrenching hi's and low's, before the end you'll have used a full box of Kleenex at least.

Bram (the boy) and Modoc (the elephant) travel all over the world. Their status changes from lowly son of a circus elephant trainer to stowaway, from fugitive to star. It even weaves the author's own part in this epic into the tale of life and death.

Modoc is a fantastic novel from start to finish and definitely worth the read.

an amazing story of the bond between two species, March 12, 2003
i thought this was one of the best stories ever! it covered so much ground, even spiritually. Brams dedication to this animal was remarkable. this is a hartwrenching story, one that both shows the strong bond humans and animals are capable of and one that shows the injustices animals endure everyday. im glad modoc and Bram had eachother in their lives.

Modoc -- a love story, November 21, 2002
Magical and moving... This book touched my heart. I wish I could have met Bram, Mosey, Gertie, etc.. Ralph Helfer did a terrific job making the reader "feel" the story. Best book I have read in years.

A wonderful book, October 16, 2002
Modoc is a wonderful, wonderful book and I am in the middle of reading it for the second time. Last weekend i had just finished my previous book and as I walked by my room i spotted Modoc on the bookshelves. I picked it up and as soon as I started to read I fell in love with it all over again. One of the best parts i think is that it is a true story and these things really did happen. I wish that i could have met modoc becuase I'm sure she was an amazing elephant. The intertwinded story of her and Bram's life is one that i'm sure everyone who reads it will love. This is deffenitly one of the best books i have ever read. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Blue Ridge valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "mystery, death, beauty, violence."

Reviews

Playing Seriously, Living Lightly, Beautifully Writing, September 18, 2001
I read this book every ten years or so. It may well be my favorite; it's right up there, anyway. (At my age, picking a favorite book is dangerous: I've probably forgotten about half the strong candidates.) It is, if you will, a connected series of "nature" essays. Each one is strong, and can stand alone, but all are bound by many threads into a larger whole.

Annie Dillard moved to Tinker Creek, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, in her mid-twenties (or, at any rate, this book achieved final published form when she was twenty-nine). Like Thoreau, she came to the woods to "keep a meteorological journal of the mind". Indeed, "Walden" is the model: a person of reflective tendency steps out of the stream of life, as it were, to go to the woods, just to see what he or she can see. It turns out that one's own mind is a large part of the scenery when one gets away from the rough-and-tumble of society. Big mysteries are at stake here; it is somehow appropriate that looking with all attention at minute creatures and giving oneself over momentarily to ephemeral events provide clues. Why is nature cruel? Why is there beauty? Could these be related?

I put it baldly, but these and other questions are more the expression on her writing's face than the subject of it. There are details, and funny descriptions, and a rifling through the wonders of her library of naturalists. But, always, there is a person doing all this: walking, having a sandwich, creeping up on a copperhead for a closer look (after patting her pocket to make sure the snakebite kit is there), or just lying in bed remembering a horrifying or glorious experience of that particular day, in the woods, on the banks of Tinker Creek.

Have I mentioned the quality of the writing? It's glorious. Part of its appeal is her special mix of jokiness and vernacular combined with high-toned thinking and literary reference, her gee-whiz attitude toward outrageous natural facts always butting in. Part of it comes from her sheer likeability. But all that aside, words do her bidding, and always I find myself pausing and smiling at her mastery. She wonders about beauty, and reacts to beauty. She also, here, has created it.

"Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil. Wouldn't it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place? This deciduous business alone is a radical scheme, the brainchild of a deranged manic-depressive with limitless capital. Extravagance! Nature will try anything once...No form is too gruesome, no behavior too grotesque. If you're dealing with organic compounds, then let them combine. If it works, if it quickens, then set it clacking in the grass; there's always room for one more; you ain't so handsome yourself. This is a spendthrift economy; though nothing is lost, all is spent." (chapter 4)

My Review, May 1, 2000
I was assigned to read Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek for my AP English III class. We had just finished reading Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life In The Woods a few weeks prior, and our teacher had told us that Dillards writing style was similar to Thoreau's. Now, I'm not a big Thoreau fan (as my test grade proves), so this was not consoling to me. Over spring break I picked up the book and began to read it. She starts simply "I used to have a cat, an old fighting tom, who would jump through the open window by my head in the middle of the night and land on my chest." From that sentence on, I was hooked. There are two parts to this book, a via positiva, and a via negativa. The beginning is filled with life, positive imagery, and numerous quotes from Thoreau and van Gough. Dillard covers her perspectives on Heaven and earth, seeing, winter, and "the fixed" in this section using such qualities as listed before. The via negativa begins somewhere in

chapter five or six. It creeps in, slowly taking over the positive images and feelings, until you finally find that you are reading about children abusing newts in a state park, or caterpillars walking in the same circle around the same vase for seven full days, because their leader was taken away without their knowledge. Death is a reoccurring theme here. A main question in my class was what happened to make her change styles? Was it planned, or was it the effect of some event--the death of a friend or loved one perhaps? Either way, we read on through the spring and summer, and into the fall. She leads us into a flood, where she says, "I like crossing the dam. If I fall, I might not get up again...I face this threat every time I cross the dam, and it is always exhilarating." Her aesthetic sense of word choice described the monarch butterfly, "A monarch at rest looks like a fleck of tiger, stilled and wide-eyed." We notice though that while she uses such

descriptive tone, it is more heavily applied during the via negativa section. The most enjoyable sections for me were her beginning statements, which were filled with stories. Her old tom cat, life's hidden treasures, and even the history of the starlings can be found in the opening paragraphs of each chapter. This catches the attention of the reader, because it is written in an intimate tone, and it prepares them for what lies ahead. Such stories or memories usually reoccur in the end, bringing her point full-circle. Dillard's perspective on religion is questionable. She appears to favor both religion and creationism throughout the book, yet she never sides with one more so than the other. She uses biblical references to Jacob's cattle, a scripture from the Koran, but then also personifies nature, giving it actions of its own free will. She knows stories from the Bible, yet she knows just as much about evolution. A pro-creation/ Christian perhaps? This _was_ written during the 1970's. Perhaps Annie Dillard and Henry David Thoreau do have the same writing-style. Personally I found Thoreau too redundant and long-winded, while Dillard is more natural. One can almost hear her talking; her stories included in the book as reference to a pervious statement are filled with the tone of her voice, although we have never heard her speak. That's a quality she has, making the readers feel as if they have known her for years after reading the book. So why should someone who doesn't take AP English III read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek? Simple. It makes you look at life differently. It gives you a new respect for nature, and a new knowledge of insects and animals. It's good material for anyone doing a report on Eskimos. But overall, it will open your mind to a philosophical side of nature.

An exceptional guide for opening eyes to the strangeness and wonder of nature, November 6, 2007
I've been meaning to try my hand at video reviews ever since they were announced, but this is my first. It was fun to make, and turned out to be a nice way to practice shooting and editing. My hope is that this short video may inspire some to pick up and read this remarkable book.

The footage in the video is obviously not from Tinker Creek, but from my own "backyard" and surrounding areas in Saint Petersburg, Florida. I captured the images using the new Flip Ultra Video Camcorder, and edited them using Apple's iMovie. The music (perhaps a bit cheesy) was composed using samples from Apple's GarageBand software. All quotations are from Dillard's book. Enjoy!

A worthy winner of the Pulitzer, 1975, September 21, 2003
It took me a long time to get around to reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Im actually glad I waited; I feel better able to appreciate all its nuances at my present age. Annie Dillards lovely book focuses on her experiences living at the edge of Tinker Creek in Virginias Blue Ridge mountains. Its a lyrical ode to nature and also a meditation on our ability - or inability - to appreciate the natural world that surrounds us. For a book this thoughtful and thought-provoking, its interesting that its at times both very funny and very violent.
This is a good book to keep on your bedside table and read in 50-page spurts between reading other books. It lends itself to thoughtful musing and shouldnt be raced through at one long reading. Colorful anecdotes (about such things as the sexual habits of the praying mantis) are interspersed with questioning our ability to stay truly within the moment, to achieve ultimate awareness of our surroundings.
Dillard, a consummate writers writer, can be both romantic and irreverent. She rhapsodizes at one moment, then at the next writes, Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly; insects, it seems, gotta do one horrible thing after another.
You gotta love it. And if you do, you gotta go right out and buy An American Childhood, an absolutely wonderful memoir of her youth in  get this!  Pittsburg. Its living proof that a really good writer can make a stunning memoir out of a pretty mundane childhood.

I keep coming back to this book..., July 11, 1999
I first read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek as an undergraduate at Southwest Missouri State University, in an exposition class. I loved it then and I love it now. I am currently taking a graduate seminar on approaches to teaching literature and have been given the opportunity to design my "dream course." Annie Dillard's Pulitzer Prize-winning literary journey is at the top of my list. I am disappointed to read the few comments from readers who didn't enjoy this book--I suspect they have not taken the time to fully explore Dillard's vision. The work is rich with details that are not just there for the sake of description. It is a carefully crafted prose narrative that delves into theology, existentialism, transcendentalism, and natural history, addressing the relationship between man and God. I would recommend reading Linda L. Smith's book, entitled Annie Dillard (one of Twayne's United States Authors series), for an enlightening analysis of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and other works by the author. If you are willing to open your eyes and mind wide enough, you will surely discover Pilgrim at Tinker Creek's treasures.

The Best Book of the 20th Century, December 22, 1999
If I were stuck on a desert island and could have only one book with me for the rest of my life, it would be Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Dillard is one of those extremely rare people who is not only a writer, but who is a philosopher. We can teach philosophers to write well but we cannot teach writers to think. A priceless gift to the world, Dillard was born both a profound thinker and a phenomenally gifted writer. If you are looking for light reading, this is not the book to pick up. Neither is this a book for the faint-of-heart. I have read it many times and can never read more than a chapter a day due to it's intensity and density. It takes time to process and savor the depth and beauty of each sentence. Your dreams will echo the unique and picturesque images invoked by Dillard's writing. Dillard's profound insights concerning humanity and our relationship with one another, the world around us and God will blow your mind wide open and leave you awe-struck and inspired. This book has changed my life and the lives of the many friends to whom I have given copies.

A student's humble opinion, April 19, 2001
I am a junior in high school, and my AP English class was recently assigned to read Annie Dillard's, A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. We had just completed another nature novel, humbly entitled, Walden: or Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau. To be fair, any book would have been interesting compared to Walden. However, I was pleasently surprised when we began Pilgrim. Annie Dillard has a style all her own. Nearly every chapter begins with a personal narrative, then moves smoothly into philisophical ponderings concerning nature, and finally comes back full circle as if to answer her personal quarry. She writes as a ballerina dances: with poise, grace, and boldness. Dillard's Tnker Creek may become, in the eyes of the reader, paradise. A favorite passage of mine can be found in the first chapter:"Mountains are giant, restful, absorbent. You can heave your spirit into a mountain and the mountain will keep it, folded, and not throw it back as some creeks will. The creeks are the world with all its stimulus and beauty; I live there. But the mountains are home." I encourage anyone with an inquistive mind to read this book. You will be fulfilled.

The harsh miracle of life, January 29, 2001
Einstein once said that there are two ways of living: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is. 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek' is a window into a world in which everything is miraculous.

Dillard took a great deal of trouble writing this, surely her best work. She wrote, while recovering from a serious bout of pneumonia, by distilling some 22 journals into the final manuscript. Her sense of mortality shows, but the resulting prose is effortless and at times miraculous in itself.

Like Thoreau, on whom she had written a thesis, Dillard spent a year in a hut in the woods of a 'rather tamed valley' in order to 'see what I could see' and to seek some answers to some of life's important questions. Whereas Thoreau saw nature as the answer ('in the preservation of the wild is the salvation of the world'), Dillard sees nature as the problem. Why is it so cruel, so gruesome, so seemingly heartless - and yet so beautiful, so alive? As she meditates on the image of a frog, eaten from the inside out by a giant water bug, she asks herself, What kind of God made this kind of world?

There are no easy or conventional answers, for 'our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery'. The author's aim, if she cannot understand the mystery of horror and beauty that is life, is at least to see it as it really is: 'We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that,choir the proper praise'.

Like the bear who went over the mountain, Dillard claims, all she could see was more of the same. The trick however is not what you see, but the way you see it. Having read this book I for one will never see the other side of the mountain in the same light again. It is now forever more ambiguous, more beautiful and, yes, more holy.

Amicable yet aimless stroll through Virginia's Blue Ridge, February 7, 2004
Dillard describes herself as "a wanderer with a background in theology and a penchant for quirky facts." Published thirty years ago, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" is a pleasant if somewhat aimless journal that combines a rather jejune spirituality with lots of those "quirky facts"--anecdotes and observations that flavor the accounts of her wanderings through the fields, meadows, and woods surrounding her home. Monitoring a flood caused by a hurricane, stalking an unwary muskrat, tracking the life cycle of a mantis--little escapes her attention, and she supplements her explorations with fascinating tidbits she has gathered from her readings. Although the book ostensibly cycles through the seasons, from winter through summer and back again, her recollections are randomly presented, if organized very loosely by theme.

I'll add my two cents to the Dillard vs. Thoreau debate. While many readers--especially high school students--don't see much of a resemblance (mostly because Dillard is so much easier to read), Dillard herself invites comparison by mentioning Thoreau's work half a dozen times. Her style, like Thoreau's, is informal, and her powers of observation are keen. Yet, in my view, there is one important difference between the two writers: Dillard appears to have no interest with the human issues that preoccupied Thoreau: race relations, political activism, egalitarianism--and even environmentalism. In this book especially, Dillard rarely strays from "nature writing," with the exception of a few short passages pondering the role of the "creator" and the place of humans in the universe and one ill-conceived section in which she mangles quantum physics in metaphorical support of some insights on "mysticism."

Many readers are enamored by Dillard's prose style, and I will confess to bafflement on this point. All too often, she abandons understated lyricism for Hemingway-inspired simplicity: "It is winter proper; the cold weather, such as it is, has come to stay." "It is early March." "It is spring." "Now it is May." "It's summer... It's summer now: the heat is on. It's summer now all summer long." "In September the birds were quiet." As with Hemingway's work, Dillard's writing can sometimes be elegant in its simplicity, but just as often, I found that she had forsaken the realm of the simple for the simplistic (and even the simple-minded). The paucity of her own prose becomes most apparent when she quotes or paraphrases other authors (such as Edwin Way Teale, whose book on insects provided much of the source material for the mesmerizing episodes in her chapter on "Fecundity").

Dillard confesses that she is "not a scientist"--and she is certainly not a philosopher. Her abstract musings are unsophisticated; the chapter on "The Present," for example, is notable for its fuzziness: "What I call innocence is the spirit's unself-conscious state at any moment of pure devotion to any object. It is at once a receptiveness and total concentration." During passages like these, Dillard is no longer serving up pop metaphysics, she's unabashedly belaboring the obvious.

More than a few readers and critics have accused Dillard's works of being hollow and pointless, but I'm not sure I would go that far; her books do contain some beautiful and consequential descriptions. Yet, ultimately, it's a matter of taste: I prefer the meatier, methodic, thesis-driven, grounded works of such writers as Rachel Carson, John McPhee, Diane Ackerman, and (yes) Thoreau to Dillard's sauntering diaries.

The Profound Road Home, November 19, 2000
We live in a time when shallow amusement and mindless pursuit of personal recognition blot out the eternal spinning of the fierce beauty of the cosmos behind the fenced carnival of our lives. Our days on earth have become short and unimportant. We worry, plot and fill our existence with dreams of tomorrows that never quite fulfill us, even when they turn out exactly the way we dream them. The fortunate have family, home and status, but in the end even those things must pale in the empty knowledge of our own mortality and the certainty that everything shall go on and that who and what we were will be utterly forgotten.

Many of us harbor some vague inkling of lives that once had meaning. When we least expect it we almost get a glimpse of that lost and forgotten natural paradise behind the shimmering backdrop of our everyday lives. Perhaps it happens just after we stoop to retrieve our morning newspaper from the front step or when we lift our eyes from the line of slow moving traffic on that endless commute home to sense for an instant something hidden and forgotten behind the suburban landscape or city skyline.

In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard reminds us with great clarity that we are all vessels for wonder. Much can be made of Annie's prose poetry and poetic prose. Quotes abound in the many enthusiastic reviews to be found here, all praising her power to convey deep meaning through words. Though not a religious person, I am much reminded of the 23rd Psalm when I re-read this wonderful book. The words of Pilgrim restore the soul and lead us to calming still waters-they anoint us with immense and endless yearning and refresh us in remembering a natural world too often drowned out by honking horns and the ubiquitous TV.

Dillard's Pilgrim is a deep and calming meditation. For those readers seeking light diversion or a clever story, look elsewhere. For those who hunger for meaning and enlightenment, who find beauty in nature and who have never forgotten the sublime wonderment of childhood or the thrill of transcendent experience, this book will transport you. I have no quarrel with Thoreau, but for me, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek outshines Walden. Read it! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Berry's assessment of modern agriculture and its relationship to American culture--our health, economy, personal relationships, morals, and spiritual values--is more timely than ever. This new edition of Berry's work presents a a classic testament to the value of the American family farm. ... Read more

Editorial Review

DIY goes outdoors, giving winter enthusiasts more than 25 new ways to play in the snow!

Calling all snow lovers—young and old alike! When you’re surrounded by the white stuff, it’s time for Snow Play!

With crazy creatures to build, challenging games to play, and outrageous spaces to sculpt, author Birgitta Ralston, a Europe-based designer, has imagined the most creative ways to play in the snow. From a looming Loch Ness monster to a slippery Ice Slide, from a Snowball Lantern to brighten a yard to Curious Footprints to mark freshly fallen snow, the book includes 25 projects and games to draw you outdoors on a snow-filled day. Celebrate a winter birthday by building a giant Frosted Cake (and use food coloring to dye the snow!), or light your walkway with the flickering flames from a set of snowy Glow Cones.  You’ll find hours of entertainment to brighten even the coldest winter days and nights.

Snow Play is filled with projects and games for any age, ability, and number of people. Each entry includes complete step-by-step text instructions, plus explanatory line drawings. The full-color photographs show how each project is finished in all its frozen glory. ... Read more

Reviews

Can't wait till it snows now..., December 14, 2010
I bought this book with a 13 year old Granddaughter and her Father in mind. They are coming for Christmas and this is a year of new snow sleds, snow flingers, snowball makers, and this book. I especially look forward to the Magical Lights chapter that has night snow men with lit up eyes, I think these will be beautiful and a lot of frosty fun. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Editorial Review

An unforgettable spiritual journey through the Himalayas— now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary

IN 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Z en Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest—to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty. ... Read more

Reviews

No Title of Mine is Adequate, December 27, 2004
I read this book the first time back in the 70s, shortly after it was published. I've re-read it every two years or so since then. As in reading any number of times lines from Shakespeare, I never tire of their inherent beauty; my heart soars again and again re-reading Mattheissen's lines of ice-like clarity.
The book on one level is a extraordinary travel documentary, describing brilliantly one man's experiences during a trip into a recently opened area in Himilayan Nepal. On a profoundly different level, the book also is a diary of his journey into his own heart and soul, one, perhaps, calling for more true bravery than any mere physical experience.
There are many moments of exquisite beauty and intimacy that have left me sobbing, longing to be on the journey with Matthiessen and his travel companions.
Matthiessen is an Everyman, seeking he really knows not what, searching for what may only be the quest itself. Perhaps he and his fellow Buddhists have the answer: their goal is ultimate acceptance of what each moment brings us, not wanting or desiring anything but what is now.
In closing, if one is looking for some answers to how to live a good life, without being told what to do and not to do, I find that this book is a far more useful guide to being a human being than any religious text that I know.
By all means, even if you think you have all the answers, buy this book.
Wayne Robinson

Spectacular book, September 10, 1999
Spare, lyrical and honest, the Snow Leopard lifts the reader's mind to the high deserts of Nepal. Reading it is almost like spending an afternoon in quiet contemplation. I've read several books that deal with Zen and what makes this book work is that the author is unflinchingly honest about the internal journey that is at the heart of the book. He shares with the reader the mental baggage he brings with him, and that makes the external journey -- described in vivid detail -- seem all the more real. I can understand why other reviewers say they went to Nepal after reading it.

...in the footprints of the Himalayan leopard, March 7, 2002
A naturalist & Buddhist and adventurer extraordinaire Matthiessen met his traveling companion in 1969 on the Serengeti plain in East Africa. This newfound friend, George Schaller, later asks him if he wants to join him on his next trip to Nepal to study the bharal or Himalayan blue sheep. So late in 1973 the two set out on a journey to the Crystal Mountain that takes them west under Annapurna and north around the Dhaulagiri peaks and across the Kanjiroba to the land of Dolpo, on the Tibetan Plateau.
This is a very literate and philosophic quest ripe with quotes from Lamas and Rilke and Ovid:
Just as a white summer cloud, in harmony with heaven and earth freely floats in the blue sky from horizon to horizon following the breath of the atmosphere-in the same way the pilgrim abandons himself to the breath of the greater life that...leads him beyond the farthest horizons to an aim which is already present within him, though yet hidden from his sight.-Lama Govinda
Spiritual but in an earthy way, an approprate response to Nepal. The Tibetan culture is fascinating to seeker and secular journeyman alike. The country itself comes to life in this book and that is to be expected from Matthiessen who is a world renowned naturalist. What makes the book stand apart form all others like it is Matthiessen who is a much more nuanced character than your average adventurer and the resulting narrative is a many layered and often exalted one. I suppose as a writer he reminds me of that other great American naturalist Henry David Thoreau whose work also operates on many planes at once not the least of which is the earthen one. Matthiessen comes alive once he is beyond the reach of his own temporal civilization and among the timeless elements of the earth under skies where no planes ever appear and no rescue is forthcoming should anything go wrong. A book that continues to enthrall with its stunning imagery and insight and it shines even more on repeat readings, a shrine to the mountainous east.

zen and the art of chasing wild cats, December 8, 1999
Simply one of the best books I've ever read. Matthiessen manages to capture the length and breadth of his journey in every sense of those words. A book this helpful on the spiritual aspects of the journey would be excellent; a book this fascinating about a trek like his would be great; put 'em together and you win a national book award. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to think, learn, and grow. If you want simple entertainment enter John Grisham in the search box.

The white diamond, May 13, 2002
At first glance, the novel appears to be a travel diary, or an exotic safari journal. Perhaps Matthiessen thought the same when he began the journey. But this is a novel that is penned from the heart and not by any distance travelled. The journey that the author relates is as intangible as the snow leopard itself.
As you can see above, the editors of Amazon deftly describe the beauty and storyline of "The Snow Leopard". But no amount of praise can empart to the reader what truly lays waiting inside the pages of this novel.
Matthiessen expertly transports the reader into his shoes. The author ceases to exist less and less with each chapter. The reader becomes the first person. Halfway through the story, it is ~we~ who are the ones making this journey deep into the wilds of the Himilayas. And by the end of the book, it is ~you~ who just may have found something you did not know you were searching for. Enlightenment.
The snow leopard Matthiessen speaks can be found by the reader, if you let it find you. Read this book with an open heart and open mind, and it just may change your life forever.

One reviewer bluntly summarised his opinion of this novel as "THE SNOW LEOPARD is the best book I've ever read. Period." I agree.

The Self of Dreams..., February 25, 2002
THE SNOW LEOPARD is the best book I've ever read. Period. Read this book.

In sum, it is Peter Matthiessen's recounting of his trek in the Himalayas with the naturalist George Schaller to establish a new national park on behalf of the Nepali government.In substance, it is a luminescent prose poem of a spiritual journey through a universe in which the mundane is holy, the sacred is the commonplace and the profane is touched with glory.

My copy has traveled throughout the world with me, the one indispensable item I take with me when leaving home. No review can do such a magnificent book justice. Read this book.

Can a book generate a karma all its own? This one does., February 7, 2007
The Snow Leopard is not just a book, rather a marvelous mental holiday one can return to as often as one needs, like a literary hitchhiker, to get away from the modernity and electronic technology that swamps us. Matthiessen illuminates the mystery and silence of the Himalayas, and the human need for nature and it's transformational powers.

I read this book every year, and for two years taught it on a college level to over 500 freshman. Yes, freshmen, at 7:00 a.m., who have never even seen snow.

Being a public college and teaching a book with overtly religious themes, I suggested they skip over the "Buddhist bits" if it did not interest them, and stick to the journey, paying attention to PM, George Schaller and the mixed bag of porters and Sherpas who guided them. Funny thing when you tell students not to read something, they go right for it.

To my amazement, they got it. They understood Matthiessen's flaws: the drug use, failed marriages, parental doubts about leaving family once again to pursue "nothing" in one of the remotest places on earth--the Land of Dolpo, where lamas rule and people obey. Students are intimate with the concept of to work for the sake of work; be it one foot in front of the other on a trail in Nepal, or their own path of study; these young people easily saw how humans transforms themselves through their work and passions. They were also quite politically savy, impressed by the results of this remarkable and timeless journey into the heart of the wilderness where it's okay to get lost, make mistakes and fail.

Readers should not ignore the after affects, literal shock waves, both literary and political which came out of this simple journey between a writer and field biologist, who submitted his report on the wildlife numbers to Kathmandu who ten years later created the Shey-Phoksumdo National Park, the largest preserve in Nepal. The snow leopard still lives and is protected because PM and GS walked that path, and more importantly freely shared their observations, not just writing within their fields, but about themselves as human beings and the role human beings play in protecting or destroying what's left of our environment.

Matthiessen much deserved the National Book Award for Contemporary Thought in 1980, and many people do not know The Snow Leopard was to be the cover story for the New York Times Book Review the Sunday the pressmen went on strike for the first and only time in it's history. The review was never run. It did not become the best seller it seemed destined to be, given the glowing reviews of the time.

It has become a cult classic instead, with a karma all its own. It's okay not to "get it" all the first time you read it. It unfolds, like a lotus blossom.

The Magic of a Spiritual Odysey, November 28, 1999
I have lost count of the number of times I have re-read parts of this book. I have read it from cover to cover at least 4 times over ten years and it speaks new words each time. It is a spiritual journey just reading it; to say nothing of the description of Peter's own inner odyssey. Please read this book.

Zen and the art of wildlife biology, November 26, 2006
After the death of his wife, Matthiesen joins a friend (George Schaller) on a fall expedition to Nepal to study the rut of a rare sheep/goat (the classification of the species is one of the subjects of the research). Matthiesen has been studying Zen Buddhism for several years, and is interested in the area both for its wildlife and for its Buddhism. This book consists of (heavily edited and revised) journal entries that tell the story of his journey. He gives us both a travel story and meditations on Buddhism. The interplay between the two work very well.

Several of Matthiesen's own Quests are revealed as the book goes on, and many end up having Zen lessons. Many of these have the kind of resolution that you might expect if the book were fictional, in that some are Too Perfect for a Zen novice. Yet they are entirely believable, and I suspect that the degree of poetic license here is not too great.

If those two paragraphs have convinced you to read the book, stop right here. If not, I'll summarize some of the Zen lessons - - but be advised that several spoilers follow.

Matthiesen wants to see a snow leopard but never does. However, when he splits up from his partner, his partner sees the leopard.

Matthiesen wants to visit a particular "monastery" to visit a particular lama. He ultimately visits the monastery and later learns than he has already met the lama.

He wants to learn Buddhism from the Buddhists who serve as the expedition porters, but not too surprisingly they aren't very Buddhist at all. Also not too surprisingly, he learns the most from the least likely candidate, who is not trying to teach him anything at all. (I actually think that Matthiessen is wrong about this porter, but the literary point is what Matthiesen thinks he learned from him.)

And again, not surprisingly, in the end Matthiesen does find what he is not looking for.

If you're part of a reading group, you might try this one alongside Catherine Reid's "Coyote: Seeking the Hunter in Our Midst." Both books interweave a story about the natural world with an intensely personal journey. As I discussed in my review of "Coyote," I think Reid fails, while Matthiesen succeeds. In part, this reflects the fact that Matthiesen has a strong spiritual core, though a seemingly weak, Zen core. He has no chip on his shoulder. Matthiesen is also traveling more interesting terrain than Reid (Nepal versus western Massachusetts). His recurring stories of goals not reached are also more interesting than Reid's more linear narrative.

Despite its strengths, Matthiessen can be an exasperating companion at time. He has Great White Hunter attitudes toward the porters. He has abandoned his son shortly after his wife's death, and does not keep promises to his son about his return. He can be self-indulgent, as is true of many people on a spiritual quest. He's not as self-critical as he might be, but honest enough to give us the rope with which to hang him if we want to do so.

Finally, if you're interested in the Himalayan region, this is one of the best travel narratives that I've read. It has richer characterization and a stronger sense of setting than the more spartan account in, say, "Seven Years in Tibet." It's a page turner and worth reading more than once.

Most Desirable Goal is also Most Elusive, November 1, 2005
Readers beware. For those looking for an adrenaline-pumping adventure story, read "Into Thin Air" or "Touching the Void" instead. This is NOT an adventure story, but an advanced literary form of a sutra for serious students of Zen Buddhism. The Zen Master Yasutani Roshi described Shikan-taza (state of Zen meditation) as "a heightened sense of concentrated awareness wherein one is neither tense nor hurried, and certainly never slack. It is the mind of somebody facing death..." ("Tao of Physics" by Capra) Matthiessen was warned in advance by his Zen teachers not to expect much from his journey to the Himalayas. But by focusing his mind on finding Snow Leopard (which is a symbol of the elusive Enlightenment), his journey was one of a long extended meditation.

Matthiessen applies his extraordinary literary gift to describe Zen Buddhism, which of course doesn't render itself well (if at all) to verbal description. He achieves this by not preaching or romanticizing his journey, but remaining mercilessly clear and objective about himself and his observations. A remarkable haunting achievement that will nourish you for a long time to come.

A true MUST READ for anyone who's more than idly interested in Zen Buddhism, along with Matthiessen's earlier "Nine-Headed Dragon River" and Hesse's "Siddhartha". I also recommend Capra's "Tao of Physics" as a great comparative study of Western and Eastern philosophies.
... Read more

Editorial Review

Heinrich involves us in his quest to get inside the mind of the raven. But as animals can only be spied on by getting quite close, Heinrich adopts ravens, thereby becoming a "raven father," as well as observing them in their natural habitat. He studies their daily routines, and in the process, paints a vivid picture of the ravens' world. At the heart of this book are Heinrich's love and respect for these complex and engaging creatures, and through his keen observation and analysis, we become their intimates too.

Heinrich's passion for ravens has led him around the world in his research. Mind of the Raven follows an exotic journey—from New England to Germany, and from Montana to Baffin Island in the high Arctic—offering dazzling accounts of how science works in the field, filtered through the eyes of a passionate observer of nature. Each new discovery and insight into raven behavior is thrilling to read, at once lyrical and scientific.

Reviews

Intriguing Investigations into the Lives and Minds of Ravens, March 22, 2004
In "Mind of the Raven", biologist Bernd Heinrich delves into the behavior of ravens as individuals who might have a conscious choice, as opposed to taking a strictly behavioral ecologist perspective of those behaviors as being simply the results of evolutionary necessity. Heinrich strives to share the insight into the world of ravens which he gained over the course of nearly a decade of studying and interacting with ravens, both wild and captive, at his Vermont and Maine homes. "Mind of the Raven" isn't confined to the birds' intelligence or consciousness, although chapters on these fascinating and controversial subjects are included. The "mind" of the book's title encompasses all behavior and experience in these birds' lives. Heinrich details innumerable observations and experiments which he conducted on the subjects of raven feeding and educating their young, cooperation, hunting, adoption, dominance, sensory perception, individual recognition, communication, fears, interaction with other animals, caching, deception, play, intelligence, and emotions. Heinrich seems to possess an insatiable -and infectious- curiosity about these magnificent birds, which is demonstrated in his exhausting and endlessly inventive experiments. Heinrich's studies are as controlled and straightforward as possible. And although they sometimes raise more questions than they answer, they never fail to entertain or to impress the reader with the complexity and variety of raven personalities. It's nice to read a book by a scientist who has such an enthusiasm for his field of study, as well as genuine affection for his subjects. "Mind of the Raven" is a very readable broad account of the lives and minds of these large, clever corvids that have so populated human folklore and experience for thousands of years. I recommend it to any bird-lover, and those who have occasion to observe ravens will find Bernd Heinrich's insights especially interesting.

Idiosyncratic, charming, thought-provoking and informative, October 11, 2004
This book is a wealth of information about ravens. While most of other books are set in Maine, here Heinrich travels farther afield to discuss ravens in the Arctic, Yellowstone, a pet raven in Germany, and elsewhere -- in addition to his own wild and tame ravens in Maine.

I can imagine some scientists (and others) being annoyed by Heinrich's style. His research questions are guided by his own natural curiosity and not by what the scientific community defines as important. He isn't trained as an ornithologist. Heinrich clearly depends on his own observations and does not like to delegate -- so his methods are not those of a scientist running a lab or something like a lab. For most of us, though, these "faults" make him all the more interesting. He is certainly high on the list of authors I'd like to invite to dinner.

Heinrich also seems to be a born teacher. He does a great job explaining ravens as well as explaining the process of discovery that brings him to his conclusions.

If you think that a bird can't possibly be conscious (or self-conscious), that a bird can't be intelligent, and that a bird can't have a real personality, this book will drive you nuts. If you think any of those things are *possible*, Heinrich gives you some thought-provoking stories about ravens.

Gotta love this raving naturalist, November 3, 2004
Bernd applies his multi-faceted brand of research to a species that is clearly close to his heart (the raven), with spectacular results. He weaves anecdotes and scientific studies together flawlessly to draw conclusions that are hard to argue with, if only because he refuses to draw unwarranted conclusions when the evidence isn't clear. He personally studies ravens in his northeastern home area, in Alaska, and in Germany to note the differences between different populations of the animal. He also draws extensively on his observations from his own aviary, where it seems he is at times obsessively painstaking in recording nuances of behavior that would fly over the heads of the average bird owner.

The Good and the Bad:
This book has been done right, with a real attempt to keep the reader's interest without compromising the scientific value of the work. The information given is enough to be compelling without being too boring about statistics. The end of the book gets a little more tilted towards hard science, with a fairly in-depth discussion about what warrants consciousness and intelligence, but there's no other conclusion that would be appropriate.

On the bad side, there are very occasional forays into self-indulgence, as when he takes the opportunity to argue the comments of a peer reviewer who contributed to the rejection of the publication of his study, or when a not-so-funny joke is recounted.

What I learned:
The raven is a remarkable animal, and consciousness evolves for as much of a specific reason as anything else. One bird might be given all of the instinct necessary to operate within a very narrow range of activity, but shorted on additional brain tissue, which is costly to maintain. But the raven has evolved to develop food gathering skills through problem-solving, which allows it to be much more flexible in its approach to food gathering, social interactions, and defense. This hardwired ability to solve problems manifests itself as curiosity, a desire to play, and the ability to visualize consequences without actually performing the action; this last is the most compelling criterion for awareness.

Other interesting raven facts: They can count to as high as seven. They hunt items ranging from ground squirrels to baby seals, but subsist mostly on the carrion provided by bigger predators. They lack the physical ability to pierce skin, and so have to eat through natural body openings or wounds. They have a collaborative relationship with other predators, generally wolves, which results in the ravens possibly directing the wolves to a kill so that they can take their share. This has a strange effect where they're actually uncomfortable eating from a carcass that lacks a predator as a feeding partner. This relationship has been transferred to other species where wolves are scarce, ranging from human hunters to polar bears to, possibly, a cougar, which seemed to be led to a human by a raven hoping to feast on the aftermath of a human kill. The problem-solving abilities were best demonstrated by the fact that a raven, when confronted with a piece of meat dangling from a string, will pull the string up by degrees so that it can reach the meat.

A wonderful wonderful book, July 11, 1999
Living in the mountains of colorado, I first became aware of ravens when one followed while I was tracking elk in the back country. It followed me, flying along tree to tree, "talking" to me, cocking its head as if waiting for a reply. With that introduction, I started noticing other odd behavior... huge flocks wheeling, and playing with each other... mimicry of the calls of raptors... and so forth.

I saw this book, and thought: its about time I learn something about the minds of these animals. Why do they do what they do? Well ravens are more interesting than I thought. Makes one wonder why social scavenger-hunters (humans, coyotes, ravens) turn out so clever regardless of where they pop out of the animal kingdom.

BUT EVEN MORE IMPORTANT... Prof. Heinrich's narrative is totally engaging and entertaining. I found myself laughing over and over gain as he quietly dropped comments about famous ornithologists that have died climbing trees, or the risks involved in demonstrating which bumblebees are edible to one's experimental charges (ie showing young ravens what's good to eat). It becomes very clear ethologists are an interesting species in themselves.

If you're interested in birds, or have ravens around, or generally interested in experimental ethology: this one is among the best

Corvid capers, November 6, 2003
Why do they hang from one foot, cavorting with a stick? Why are Maine ravens hesitant with a carcass while their western cousins gorge without fear beside wolves, coyotes or even eagles? Do they actually warn humans about predators, or are they opportunists awaiting the kill they hope to share? These mysterious birds, appearing in myths, legends, and, of course, Poe's lasting image, are Corvus corax - the Common Raven. Heinrich, who has studied these enigmatic avians for many years, shares his thoughts, achievements, frustrations and observations in this compelling narrative. In a series of invaluable accounts, crossing many countries and meeting many people, he shows us how much we have learned and need to study about these fascinating birds. No matter how strange reported raven behaviour may sound, he reminds us, "some raven, somewhere, actually did that".

Heinrich combines studies in the field with "experiments" performed in large aviaries. Although an avid runner, he loathes climbing trees. Of course, that's where ravens roost and nest. He climbs. He photographs. He steals eggs [to record parental response before restoring the eggs to the nest]. All of which provide him with more information on how ravens live. And think. Universally acknowledged as the most intelligent birds, ravens have demonstrated to Heinrich how little we understand that cognitive ability. This book's title is indicative of their behavioural variety. Chapter titles, ""Social Webs", "Vocal Communications", "Prestige", "Morality, Tolerance and cooperation" and "Play" [yes, ravens play, apparently for their own entertainment] speak volumes about how much has been learned about these amazing creatures. The text within them reveals we've only begun the quest for understanding. Whatever else may be derived from this informative book, Heinrich's plea for more studies is earnest and compelling. He is open with his admiration for the talents of his student assistants, but, clearly, there aren't enough of them.

Heinrich's study area reaches from Maine to anywhere. If you've ever watched a raven tearing at a trash bin, you'll understand Heinrich's hesitation at visiting "Jakob's" home in Germany. He was amazed to enter a neat, well-kept apartment instead of a scene of chaos. Jakob was as fastidious as his doctor owner. He even restricted his paper diet to junk mail. Among the wealth of accounts in this book, the most intriguing remains the relationship of ravens and wolves. It seems logical that ravens have learned to follow wolves. Evolution has taught them the advantages of following an effective predator. Heinrich, however, proposes this interaction works two ways with ravens guiding wolves to prey. He suggests that early humans, still killing quietly, may have cooperated with ravens in a similar way.

Offsetting Heinrich's wealth of information is the style he uses to present it. While no-one should object to his highly personalised account of his research and interests, some of the details might have been shaded or omitted. It's fascinating to accompany his waiting for local ravens to descend on his prepared bait [a quarter of a dead calf or road kill groundhogs]. That the sequence began at 05:29 on the morning of 08 May is less compelling. Especially when that type of detail is repeated frequently. This lapse of interest-garnering is wholly overshadowed by the variety of experiences in many places Heinrich recounts. Additionally, his photographs and drawings illuminate further what he relates in the text. With an excellent bibliography to further anyone's reading, this is a treasure of a book.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Mind of the Raven" is thought-provoking, comfortable reading, June 18, 1999
To compare this book to Heinrich's "A Year in the Maine Woods", is to compare apples to oranges. "Mind of the Raven" is more, a continuation of the thought-provoking analysis the author began in his earlier work, "Ravens in Winter". "Mind of the Raven" carries us many steps farther in understanding, as an intriguing account of the on-going evaluation of these impressive birds' mental agility and singular place in nature. Heinrich takes us not only to the woods of Maine, but to Germany, California, the Artic, and Yellowstone Park, while he examines those qualities which define Ravens as a unique but adaptive species in a changing environment. Heinrich shares with us the scientific and personal experiences which reveal Ravens both as individuals, and as members of a complex but flexible social order scientists are only begining to understand. "Mind of the Raven" is not a dry, technical journal, and while not "light" reading, it is certainly comfortable reading. Heinrich's writing style is refreshingly "open". The book is, in the end, as revealing about the process of scientific fieldwork, success and failure, and the perserverance of an inquisitive mind as it is about Ravens. I would recommend "Mind of the Raven" to anyone interested in the continuing studies of animal intellect and behavior. Additionally, I heartily recommend it to mature young adults with an exceptional interest in these study areas. Heinrich's book reveals that while travel, and many hours of observation in "tight places" may be required to answer particular questions within a given field of science, a great deal may also be learned in our own backyards, with patience and an eye for detail.

Thus quoth the raven: QUORK! You go, Bernd Heinrich!, May 14, 1999
In this book, Mr. Heinrich does it again, with his apt, close-up observations of raven behavior that leave the mind in wonder at these most graceful, important birds. Why important? Read the book!

As a wildlife rehabilitator and one who has been in the process of attempting to release an imprinted raven to the wilds, I have witnessed in this bird, many of the behaviors described by Mr. Heinrich, as he applies them to the eastern / northern subspecies of Corvus corax, called C.c. principalis. Since I am on the west coast and dealing with the smaller subspecies, C.c. sinuatus, I can only surmise that the behaviors he ascribes to his eastern broods are going to be similar to my western friends. Though indeed they are, I must also keep in mind that just as certain jay species have certain geographical dialects, so ravens must also, and this variable can also apply to behavior.

Thank you, Bernd Heinrich, for publishing this wonderful work!

I am in the midst of reading it and find it extremely valuable to my own studies and am consisistently engrossed and enthralled, entertained and educated, by your observations put into writing.

As with Ravens In Winter, I am finding Mind of the Raven intensely gratifying in answering some of my questions and equally surprising in discovering that there is still so much more we need to learn about ravens as a species and corvids as a whole. Indeed, we can also learn something of ourselves, somehow. . .

A fascinating read about an amazing bird., August 4, 2002
This is my first Bernd Heinrich read. It will not be the last. The author is simply one of the best at translating his very considerable scientific expertise into readable, entertaining narrative that is easily understandable, entertaining, and enjoyable.

This particular book examines the intelligence of ravens, birds that some disdain to their eternal error. Primitive peoples, who were far closer to nature than ourselves, readily understood and appreciated the cunning, slyness, and outright cognitive ability and reasoning possessed by the remarkable raven. Numerous legends, including Biblical references, prove the point. Heinrich refreshingly shows how scientists are rediscovering these traits, at long last.

I am no expert on birds or avian science, but I am a country boy who spent a good many hours watching birds in action. Ravens were always interesting to me, and are far more so after reading this wonderful book. I would have appreciated more photos and diagrams, but this is a minor quibble. I recommend the book highly, and urge you to read it. You will be continualy amazed, and the book will hold your attention to the end.

An Entertaining and Enlightening Book, February 22, 2001
A delightful book, "Mind of the Raven" takes the reader into the life of a truly amazing bird. Professor Heinrich writes more than just statistical trends: he brings us on a journey that makes us feel as though we know these birds personally. The book includes the results of Heinrich's studies, his personal interpretations and many, many wonderful stories about Heinrich's relationships with these birds. This is a very personal book, and goes beyond watching from a distance. Some scientists from certain schools of thought may find the book to be poor science. I couldn't disagree more. In a time when behaviorists are admitting that animals are conscious creatures, and the studies of animal behavior and cognitive psychology are slowly becoming one, Heinrich presents some fresh looks and new, creative methods to study animal minds. One can never truly know an animal until one is able to know what it knows, and why it feels that it does what it does. Bernd Heinrich certainly doesn't have all the answers - nor does he claim to - but he brings us as close to this kind of understanding as anybody possibly could. Dr. Heinrich, despite what critics say, keep up the wonderful work that you do. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but someday, this sort of research will be crucial to animal behavior/psychology studies, and you will have been one a small few who helped to usher it in. I highly recommend this book!

Mind of the Raven. An honest view without skullduggery, July 14, 1999
In this day and age it is refreshing to find that there are researchers willing to share personel views along with the hard evidence of their findings.

In the case of Dr.Heinrich I find that even when he makes an assumption it generally becomes fact with hard evidence to back his views. To read Mind of the Raven after reading his earlier book Ravens in Winter is to watch wisdom developing in what was already a very wise being.

Mind of the Raven should be mandatory reading in all of our schools.It is an excellent example of how we should view all life forms within our world. With curiosity and understanding.

JR.Inghram ... Read more

Editorial Review

In a lifetime of exploration, writing, and passionate political activism, John Muir made himself America's most eloquent spokesman for the mystery and majesty of the wilderness, a master of natural description who evoked and celebrated with unique power and intimacy the untrammeled landscapes of Alaska and the American West. ... Read more

Reviews

Lovers of Muir, find your home in this volume!, August 29, 1999
In a world brimming with wonderful volumes of the work of John Muir, here is the one edition in which you may find virtually everything you seek. To find it in such a handsome, handy, easy to negotiate book makes this a must for all lovers of Muir's writing. Eight inches tall by six wide and two inches thick, it is a durable and willing partner for excursions through the wilderness. Created for long life among library shelves and scholarly studies, this sleek little friend stows away quite comfortably in backpack or oversized coat pocket. Those who don't know Mr. Muir will meet the great lover of wildness (and perhaps history's most influential advocate of preservation) presented in a lovingly researched volume which includes informative notes on the evolution of Muir's field journal entries into published pieces, a chronology of his life and literary career, and all of the major writings for which he is known. A generous selection of his published essays and magazine articles reveal many previously unsuspected jewels of poetic prose. As a lifetime devotee of the works of Shakespeare, the Bible, and the immortal Scottish bard Robert Burns, Muir could recite extensive passages from all. Likewise, his writing breezes through the imagery and lessons drawn from these potent sources. Coffee table books brimming with Ansel Adams photography, biographies of Muir, and collections of his correspondence are all aspects of any comprehensive Muir collection. The words themselves, however, simple and elegantly bound, are where the journey might well begin.

John Muir: Outdoorsman, Conservationist, and Literate Genius, September 14, 2003
"American forests! the glory of the world!"
- John Muir, 1901

Of all the extraordinary men and women that have made our nation great, one stands above all others for his dedication to preserving its unequaled natural beauty: John Muir. Founder of The Sierra Club, this lover of the western forests' legacy to our generation is the National Park system, through which millions of acres of unique ecosystems have been set aside for everyone's enjoyment.

"Muir: Nature Writings" is a collection of the writings of this Scottish expatriate who first stepped foot in America in 1849 as an eleven year old brawler and budding naturalist. Blessed with a childhood mastery of Latin and Greek as well as a discerning and disciplined eye, the learned boy possessed a poet's heart, a scientist's mind, and a theologian's soul. A genius, who as a teen whittled precision wooden scientific instruments, Muir used his diverse skills to vividly portray nature's life and death struggles on his family's Wisconsin farm in "My Boyhood & Youth." Here we find Muir learning to swim by observing frogs or recollecting the mindless slaughter of the Earth's most numerous bird, the now-extinct passenger pigeon, a forlorn tale that foreshadows the conservationist he was to become.

While in college polishing his mechanical skills, Muir was detoured into studying botany. Dropping out to make powered tools for factories, an accident left him rethinking that detour; he forsook the factory and walked across America. His journey led him to the Sierra Mountains, chronicled in "My First Summer in the Sierra." Now working as a shepherd, Muir drove his flock through Yosemite while making detailed nature studies. Marveling at the natural beauty of the land he would eventually champion as one of the first National Parks, Muir wrote: "We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us. Our flesh-and-bone tabernacle seems transparent as glass to the beauty about us, as if truly an inseparable part of it, thrilling with the air and trees, streams and rocks, in the waves of the sun, - a part of all nature, neither old nor young, sick nor well, but immortal."

Muir's writings here run the gamut from analytical to thrilling. In "Stickeen", the author and a canine companion cheat death while stranded mid-storm between crevasses of an Alaskan glacier. (A self-taught authority on glaciers, Muir would eventually have one in Alaska bear his name.) "The Mountains of California" is an in-depth look at the geologic formations, plants, and animals of the region. In this piece, he tells of being stuck on the side of volcanic Mt. Shasta, staying warm in the bitter cold by nestling up to steam vents. Muir also laments the loss of the vast meadows of the San Joaquin Valley as he discusses how to make a living post-Gold Rush by raising bees for honey.

What makes Muir so unique when compared with today's environmentalists is this belief that we can live in harmony with Creation if we take simple steps to prevent despoiling it. In "The American Forests" he wrote: "No place is too good for good men, and there is still room.... Every place is made better by them. Let them be as free to pick gold and gems from the hills, to cut and hew, dig and plant, for homes and bread...." Muir's balanced view of Man's place in the wilderness overwhelmingly reflects his Christian faith, for he never fails to stand in awe of each living thing God has made. That our government leaders were so swayed by Muir's writing attests to the power of his "holy" persuasion. All of us are indebted to John Muir's single-minded devotion to America's wilderness.

("Muir: Nature Writings" is part of the Library of America series. This diverse collection of the writings of great Americans ranges from sermons of early American preachers to analysis of the Vietnam War. The works of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Ulysses S. Grant, Flannery O'Connor, and James Thurber are but a few that comprise the series. An invaluable lookingglass into the heart and soul of our nation, this collection is essential reading for anyone who longs to know what makes America unique.)

The Finest Natural History, January 3, 2007
John Muir was one of the founders of the early 20th century conservation movement and godfather to today's environmentalism. This collection of three books and shorter works demonstrates the reason. Muir's description of the natural world is at times scientific, at others spiritual. Here nature is not some remote thing but the living manifestation of God's love. This is not a religious book as such and yet he finds that all parts of the natural creation from rocks and mountains to trees and animals have inherent within them a life force which makes them precious. Humans are neither removed from nor a "higher" part of nature. Muir shows that we are part of this larger whole - a radical concept when he proposed it and radical still. Muir set the standard in calling for preservation of the natural world. He was a genius as an inventor and scientist and, in addition, is one of our finest writers ever. These collected Nature Writings are simply beautiful and wonderfully presented in this Library of America edition.

Muir should be required reading, period., September 30, 2008
I've only read "My First Summer in the Sierra," and attest to Muir's enchanting style and lucidity. He writes as an enthusiast, but gives his stories a plain-spoken clarity that can be enjoyed by all.

Muir must have been quite an individual - after working as a shepherd for a few months, he talks of getting time off from his employer, "tying some bread to his belt, and walking to Mammoth" from the Merced area of the western foothills of the Sierras. Yep, a nice casual stroll. Or climbing and looking down into the ice cone on Yosemite Falls. Why not? It's there every winter...

I hope Library of America will put out another volume so they can make "The Yosemite" available to all. In it, Muir describes the three native Californian "Yosemite" (Tuolumne, Sequoia, and Kings) almost as a tour guide. This book is a glaring omission from the LoA volume, and gives great insight into the mind of the premier conservationist of the early 1900s.

As always, LoA delivers a quality volume at a good price.

A Look At the Life of an Amazing Man, May 7, 2007
This Autobiography of John Muir was a look at the life of an amazing man. He was the type of writer that could take you to the place where he was living and make you feel like you were right there with him. His childhood experiences in Scotland and the farm life of Wisconsin formed the basis for how he viewed and related to the rest of his life and those around him. He was a world traveler who looked through the eyes of creation to observe ecology and invention. As a world traveler I also observe through the eyes of creation and as a native Californian I have had extensive experience hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada's. John Muir's writing style took me back to the places I have loved and remembered.

Remarkable Boy in Scotland and Wisconsin, September 13, 2008
I read the Boyhood section published by the Sierra Club. An engaging, descriptive writer was John Muir. If you enjoy detailed descriptions of nature you will not be able to put it down. He was a student of human nature as well as nature and quite an inventor!

Essential Outdoor Reading, December 26, 2007
This is essential reading for anyone interested in preservation and those who simply love nature writing. I read this book before reading "The Wild Muir". In comparison, this one is obviously a more thorough overview of Muir's life. Reading this book first makes "Wild Muir" more enjoyable....kinda like reading a novel before watching a movie based on it.

Share with a friend, February 6, 2010
I bought a couple of these books to share with friends I backpack in the Sierras with. This is an excellent collection of the writings of John Muir. If you price the individual pieces, you will see the value of this one volume. If you are a hiker or a naturalist of any degree, you will have an appreciation for the experience of John Muir in his wanderings through unspoiled territory. This book does not come in a dust jacket as one of the images shows, but it does come with a sturdy binding that could stand up to a day in the hills or at the shore spent in thoughtful reading.

Poetry in Discovery, March 3, 2010
With the recent focus on our national parks, it seemed valuable to revisit Muir's own writings. His enthusiasm for even the smallest encounters with the natural world remind us that we need not explore to conquer or as an "extreme sport", but are better served to allow the experiences to unfold.
His is a keen, yet quiet, approach to true adventure in living in our world and on our planet.
No need to feel obligated to read his writings as one might a novel. It is equally satisfying to take sips and enjoy the moments.

inspirational in every way, October 10, 1999
A great writer writing about great things - you'll feel like you're in the middle of the Sierra yourself. Endlessly enjoyable. ... Read more

Editorial Review

David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with passion and intellectual daring.

"Long awaited, revolutionary...This book ponders the violent disconnection of the body from the natural world and what this means about how we live and die in it."--Los Angeles Times ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Incredible!, November 22, 2003
I had not read this growing up but wish I had. This is such a wonderful book. There are not many pictures in here - just a hand drawn map in one part of the book. Its excerpts from Thoreau's journal over the two year period when he lived on Walden's pond. He did not live like a recluse (he went in to Concord almost every day) so its not a book about living alone per se. Its more about reflecting on life, considering why one "is" and recognizing the beauty and mystery of nature around us every day, everywhere. Thoreau talks of regular daily things too like what it costs him to farm, or having cider, or building a chimney. The writing style is conversational, open, honest. He doesn't try to get tricky with words, he just tells it like he sees it. It's so beautiful. For anyone (like me) who indeed sees nature as their "religion" or sees the Great Spirit in every leaf, tree and bug, this book will be adored. So many wonderful messages, thoughts, woven throughout this book. Its an incredible work.

Sublime, January 23, 2006
Read it when you are eighteen, and it will fire your imagination with the possibility of excellence.

Read it again at thirty-five, and it will break your heart.

Read it at fifty, and it will bring you to peace.

Don't overlook its less famous predecessor, A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS (the book he actually wrote while living at the pond). The seeds of what make WALDEN great are to be found there.

Walden, July 30, 2005
Henry David Thoreau's _Walden_ is an account of a young man's sojourn in the New England woods, a critique of modern society (in the 1840s), and a call to action to vegetarians, libertarians, and other free thinkers. Thoreau's account is highly idiosyncratic and obscure. To be honest, it is a chore to read it through to the end. But Thoreau is wise on some subjects and, even better, he is funny. He is also very quotable, as this review demonstrates excessively.

Thoreau begins _Walden_ with a scathing depiction of the senseless, directionless activity of modern life:

"Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them."

And:

"Men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before."

Instead of working harder to produce more, Thoreau decides to want less, and leaves corrupt society behind to live at Walden Pond. There, he takes refuge in naturalism. He plants a crop of beans, he takes long walks, he observes the animals that share his woods, and he engages in some amateurish scientific speculation. Thoreau is not a hermit: he often visits the village of Concord, Massachusetts, and enjoys visiting with infrequent visitors at Walden Pond. But he finds that a little bit of society can go a long way:

"We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. ... We live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty communications. ... It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live."

One of my favorite passages in the book describes the author as he leaves behind the brightly lit village and walks home through the woods alone to his cabin:

"It was very pleasant, when I stayed late in town, to launch myself into the night, especially if it was dark and tempestuous, and set sail from some bright village parlor or lecture room, with a bag of rye or Indian meal upon my shoulder, for my snug harbor in the woods, having made all tight without and withdrawn under hatches with a merry crew of thoughts, leaving only my outer man at the helm, or even tying up the helm when it was plain sailing. I had many a genial thought by the cabin fire "as I sailed." I was never cast away nor distressed in any weather, though I encountered some severe storms. It is darker in the woods, even in common nights, than most suppose. I frequently had to look up at the opening between the trees above the path in order to learn my route, and, where there was no cart-path, to feel with my feet the faint track which I had worn, or steer by the known relation of particular trees which I felt with my hands, passing between two pines for instance, not more than eighteen inches apart, in the midst of the woods, invariably, in the darkest night."

After a minute description of his life at Walden, extending over the bulk of the book, Thoreau suddenly tires of that part of the narrative and decides to fast forward a bit in what I think is the funniest paragraph in the book:

"Thus was my first year's life in the woods completed; and the second year was similar to it. I finally left Walden September 6th, 1847."

In the last part of the book, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," Thoreau expresses a radical libertarianism:

"I heartily accept the motto, -- 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, -- 'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."

An opponent of the war with Mexico and the institution of slavery, Thoreau decides to do something about it, and lands in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax. In life as in politics, Thoreau advocates a life of deliberation followed by action:

"There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. ... To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically."

LIfe Changing Experience, November 4, 2006
At the age of 50, I, like many adults struggled with the meaning of what I had been doing for the past 50 years. Most of it spent in pursuit of my generation thought of as the "American" dream. Thoreau, in the classic work, answers many of those questions. Less is actually more. No review can do justice to this work; it must be read, and preferably in some wilderness location, away from the bustle of "city life". ENJOY!!

The sun is but a morningstar!, October 4, 2006
Reading Walden is like visiting the Grand Canyon or standing at the shores of the Meditteranean...part awe at witnessing the grandeur of such a thing and part studied concentration to ensure it will remain in your memory.

For the purposes of this review, I would offer two examples:

In the first, Thoreau is attempting to demonstrate the futility of acquisitation. To make his point, he likens the burden of property ownership with the burden an ant endures while carrying a morsel. Like the ant we are blinded to the unnecessary weight of our possession.

Unlike the Buddha, Thoreau shows by example that existence is suffering even when caused by the fulfillment of desire.

In the second example, Thoreau gives us vision and asks that the word go out to every John or Johnathan that "there is more light to day than dawn. The sun is but a morningstar!"

How could I -- a mere reviewer -- follow this up? I can't. Thoreau preached self reliance so I would offer the same: read Walden for yourself that you may better appreciate its wonders.

difficult but worth it, July 8, 2006
I needed an encyclopedia, a dictionary, and a reader's guide to get through this book. It's by no means light reading, Thoreau uses a lot of big words, metaphors, and references a lot of obscure people and places. Though arduous to read, this helped to expand my vocabulary and knowledge as well while reading. Even though it is so difficult to read, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. He had an amazing perspective on life and some of his writing just made me gasp in amazement. It's worth reading, my advice would be to not get discouraged if you don't understand everything he writes and says.

to undertake Walden is to undertake oneself, October 3, 2005
Anyone who has ever been stirred by discontent or haunted by life's unanswered questions or just intrigued by possibility, hear Walden's message. "No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof." Thoreau offers no proof, but merely sought himself, and challenges us rethink every assumption, habit, and doctrine. This concept, along with so much about Thoreau, resounds within me. As with no other writer, I can relate with him on a personal level. I, too, have had revelations in amidst simplicity and nature. Time and time again, I emerge from a time in the woods-be it two weeks backpacking in the smoky mountains or an afternoon jog beside four mile creek-only to find myself irrevocably changed. The seemingly impervious logic that formerly laid behind affections preferences, habits, hobbies, choices, even my lifestyle, had vaporized. The sun shines more brightly-and every aspect of life is illuminated differently. It can be an alarming but incredibly valuable experience, a free one as long as nature is preserved, and one that I would not trade for anything. All men would view and their time differently if only they became acquainted with nature, where time does not exist. "At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again." The choice, in so many ways, is yours.

Just a man trying to shift for himself., September 13, 2003
Thoreau went into the Concord woods "to live deliberately" and to try to approach in practice his excellent motto--multum in parvo--much in little. Setting off to transact some business as simply as possible, Thoreau began his famous experiment a happy man. Importantly, he concluded it 26 months later in the same convivial state. After proving to himself it could be done, he saw no point in continuing his experiment in such extreme fashion, becoming once again "a sojourner in civilized life."

Thoreau was certainly not alone in the woods. Apart from the many visitors he welcomed, he took frequent trips "into town," or met woodchoppers and ice cutters during his marathon sojourns through the fields and forests surrounding his wooden castle. While most men, as he famously said, "led lives of quiet desperation," Thoreau seemed to soak up the life and energy of every waking hour, giving him an inexhaustible supply of earthly happiness. There was nothing quiet or desperate about Thoreau.

Classically-educated Thoreau was patently devoted to the writings of ancient authors, but to him the words and pages written by Nature were far more interesting and pleasing than histories in Latin or 2500 year-old Greek sagacity. In fact, Thoreau read very little during a good portion of his Walden experiment. He preferred sometimes just to sit on his doorstep from morning to noon, steeped in the sights and sounds of the abundant nature surrounding him. Of course he also wrote. But the Walden we read today is not simply a collection of his raw, day-to-day diary reflections. In fact, it wasn�ft until a few years later that he expanded and painstakingly polished the rough journal entries he made during his stay in the woods. Whatever the case, the writing in Walden is brilliant throughout. Foremost, Thoreau was a writer�ca profoundly masterful one at that.

People read his Walden for a variety of reasons. I read it because it speaks with an immortal voice...and every word, phrase and sentence resounds with transcendent clarity. This simple little book is so full of hope, wisdom and inspiration that one can read it a thousand times and each time discover a new kernel of brilliance or vision.

During his lifetime, traditional success would never be his. But you would have had to argue with him over the definition of success. "The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind," the author so wisely said. It is precisely because of such profundity that his "success" is guaranteed for as long as people still read good books.

"Follow your genius closely enough and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour." --H.D.T.

Pertinent and well written, September 17, 2007
Strangely surprising how pertinent many of Thoreau's perceptions, opinions and insights on habits and values are to modern day society and culture. And impressive how vehemently he professes these views in some sections. No sugar coating here. This is raw stuff, presented with language and skill we've lost over the years.

My favorite quote: "One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels"

Thoreau is inspired and inspiring.

My god; my bible, August 6, 2007
Henry David Thoreau is more to me than a neighbor. His book is more to me than a classic.
"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity," Thoreau states. . .
. . .and in such powerful, clear, and memorable language tries throughout the book to awaken us.
"Simplify, simplify," he restates. . .
. . .and encourages us to live--as he tried--honestly and sincerely.
The five words quoted summarize "Walden", but it should not be summarized: it should be read, and reread. . .and understood. . .and practiced.
What is Thoreau; what is Walden to me? The four-word title of this review was my original, complete review, submitted--and rejected--over 20 times.
Simply:
My god; my bible
... Read more

Editorial Review

Twenty years ago, St. Martin's Press published a volume of memoirs by an unknown Scottish veterinarian named James Herriot. Its title was All Creatures Great and Small.

Within a year, the book had become recognized as a masterpiece. In the two decades that have followed, James Herriot has become one of the most universally loved authors of our time.

Now, as we celebrate the publication of Every Living Thing-- the country vet's fifth book of memoirs-- St. Martin's is proud to reissue the book that started it all. Its pages, now as then, are full of humor, warmth, pathos, drama, and James Herriot's unique, richly justified love of life. His journeys across the Yorkshire dales, his encounters with humans and dogs, cows and kittens are illumined by his infinite fascination and affection, and rendered with all the infectious joy of a born storyteller.

As one reviewer wrote," If you ever loved a friend, human or otherwise, this is the book for you."
... Read more

Reviews

Great and not-so-small, December 29, 2002
James Herriot was a country veterinarion who lived in Yorkshire before (and after) World War II. His stories are funny, heartwarming, sad, and highly educational. And after reading this, you will either want to be a vet or be very grateful that you aren't one.

The book opens (after a brief chapter taking place several months later) with James arriving in Yorkshire, to be the assistant to the eccentric but kindly Siegfried Farnon (yes, that is his name). He becomes accustomed to Siegfried, Siegfried's mischievous younger brother Tristan (yes, that is his name), and the gruff, kindly farmers who eke out a living in the Yorkshire Dales. Pampered pooches who are spoiled rotten, savage pigs who chase Tristan around the farm, a nightmarishly strict secretary who drives Siegfried up the wall, James's car-with-no-brakes, cows running on three cylinders, a sadistic vet who makes James wear a rubber bodysuit, and an elderly, immensely wealthy widow who adopts a pig. And through this, James falls in love with the beautiful Helen Alderson and worms his way into the trust of the farmers.

James Herriot (real name, James Wight) was truly a one-of-a-kind man. He let readers into his head throughout the book, where the cows kick him across the yard, farmers often treat him as an interloper or a nuisance, and his boss gives contradicting orders from one day to the next. But he never loses his drive or his love of animals. (Okay, he hates some animals, but only as individuals) He even lets the readers see him at his worst, when he's humiliated by some recalcitrant livestock, and one horrible scene where he and his date show up drunk and mud-smeared in front of the girl he adores. (Not to mention when Tristan got him to use very feminine-smelling bath salts) But don't think that all of these stories are funny or romantic -- quite a few are aggravating or outright sad. James didn't soften the blows at all.

The people around James are just as fantastic: Siegfried, his weird but genial boss who can kick Tristan out of the house and forget about it overnight; Tristan, the mischievous anti-scholar who usually manages to keep out of trouble; and Helen, who seems a little too saintly at times (which isn't surprising, since James married her). There are a lot of details about surgery and stuff like that that will gross out the squeamish, but at least you'll learn a lot of medical trivia. (For example, what is a torsion?)

It's sweet, sad, funny, romantic, dramatic. "All Creatures Great And Small" (and its four sequels) is a fantastic read for all ages.

Stories that never fail to make you laugh and cheer up, March 10, 2001
These stories are true treasures. While the BBC series is amusing, these stories are far more personal. You get to met Dr. Herriot (a pseudonym for James Alfred Wight) who starts as a young veternarian just out of school and joins a country practice. Cows get the better of him, the local Yorkshire farmers one-up him, he gets his car inevitably stuck in the mud and yet prevails as a caring, resourceful vet who loves his quirkly rural clients as much the animals he cares for. He also writes with such laugh-outloud humor and self-deprecation you just wish the book would go on and on. Fortunately, he wrote four more of these books (each named for a line in a hymn) and a memoir of his father, in whose practice he began. They really give you the flavor of rural life in England before and after WWII.

I can't believe these stories are 30 years old, and Dr. Herriot has passed on. Thankfully he left this legacy behind for us to savor. These are books to re-read on dreary days with a cup of tea or just when you really need something to lift your spirits.

A Timeless Classic, November 17, 2006
What can one say about a masterpiece. For this is truly what this novel is. This is a timeless classic that will endure for generation after generation.

Follow the true adventures of Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriott and his charming comrades as he traverses the Yorkshire dales in the 1930's attending to the ailing animals that he loved so dearly. You'll feel every mile as he bumps along over the fells and moors. You'll see all the wild beauty of the extraordinary Yorkshire territory of England. But most importantly, you'll feel all the emotions tugging at your heart from the hardened Yorkshire farmers to the humorous and warmhearted denizens of Darrowby. You'll meet the inimitable Seigfried Farnon, James's veterinary partner, whose constant contradictions nevertheless fail to conceal a heart truly without malice of any kind and filled with love and generosity. You'll meet Seigfried's brother, Tristan, with his, shall we say, overly relaxed view of life. There's also Helen, the woman who captures James's heart and the hysterically funny Granville Bennett whose eating and drinking prowess is not to be outdone by anyone. Yes, there are these lively characters and more that pepper the pages of this work of literary genius.

But most of all, this novel will leave you with the warmest and coziest of feelings. From the blazing fires in the drawing rooms to the shivering winter nights spent delivering precious new animal lives, you'll be drawn into this world of delight and joy. Don't miss the opportunity of a lifetime to own this enchanting marvel!

Smash B

A Timeless Classic - An Animal Lover's Delight, April 28, 2000
I recieved this book as a gift then it was first published in the 1970's. I have read it at least five times. Each time I read it I am delighted all over again.

This is an animal lover's delight - but it's much more than that. Follow the young James Herriott as he starts his adventure as a country veterninarian. You feel his pain and joy as he experiences failures and successes. His courtship with his wife-to-be Helen is poignant. Herriott tells it like it is: there's no fancy stuff. Don't let that make you think this is dull. Herriott's descriptions of the landscape and characters make you feel like you're there: the sights and smells he describes tantalize your senses. You can smell the fresh country air, the hearty farm meals, and so much more.

This is a book that will delight young and old alike. Read a chapter and it's a mini-book in itself, or curl up for the long haul. I found it very hard to put down.

You'll be enchanted by Herriott's adventures (and misadventures) and find yourself laughing and crying. Even after 5 reads, I'm ready for another. This stuff never gets old.

one of the best books out of the best series ever written, February 13, 2000
It's been six years since I first bought one of James Herriot's novels, and far longer since I read his picture books (e.g. Bonnie's Big Day). Even now in my last year of high school, it's a choice I have never regretted making. All Creatures Great and Small is just one of the most heart-warming and touching books written by someone who was truly blessed by God. This book is serves as an inspiration and companion for the soul of any animal-lover, one whose stories will never fade with the passage of the years. It brings every facet of life and love into being, and is a calling for all animal-lovers around the globe. I have James Herriot, my idol, to thank for helping me choose veterinary medecine as my future career, a choice I have stood by for eleven years!

All tales wonderful and beautiful, June 27, 2003
Such a great book and a great beginning to an amazing series. I never had the oppourtunity to read this in school, but my older brother had a copy of it laying around for many years, and one day I picked it up and started reading. The stories were so engrossing it was hard to put this book down. The narration is so rich and textured, you can almost feel yourself transported to the places and meeting the people and animals, having the experiences the author talks about. In a way, I am sort of glad I didn't read this when I was younger, as I doubt that I would have appreciated as much as I do. Even though the stories take place a world away, the author has a way of making it seem familiar. After I finished this book, I went on to read the rest in the series, and I was never disappointed, but this one will always be my favorite. A great book for anyone, even if you don't care for animals.

"All Creatures" is no small feat., March 11, 2006
James Herriot doesn't just write in this novel. He picks the reader up and takes him or her along with him to his first traveling veterinary job. The stories run the gamut from sad to amusing with an emphasis on the latter and the writing is superb. I'm reading some other books by "authors" who don't have side jobs and they can't rival the mastery of writing that James Herriot exhibits in his very first novel.

This is an excellent book as are others in Herriot's collections. You can't go wrong. If you haven't read anything by Herriot, you're missing out. Start with this book and you'll want to keep a part of you in Herriot's world from now on.

This is a really great book for readers and non-readers., November 12, 1998
I found this book to be a very easy read, and would recommend it to anybody that reads at the fourth grade level or higher. The Scottish author, James Herriot, describes his life as a newly hired veterinarian, in pre-WWII England. He shares with readers his experiences in handling distressed animals, their owners and caretakers, the business of being a veterinarian, and the successes and failures of love and life.

His descriptions of the situations he was in, were right on. Being British, and the grandson of a blacksmith, I could easily picture in my mind what kind of weather he was experiencing, or how dark a barn, byer, or piggery might be. His characterizations of the local farmers and townspeople were great, and he met some really interesting people!

The book left me with a new respect for what life was like for people in the days when life seemed so much simpler than what it is today. I have just started "All Things Bright and Beautiful", and look forward to completing it, and the rest of Herriot's books in the future.

A wonderful story, June 5, 2006
All Creatures Great and Small was a wonderful book, definitely one of my favorites. It was about animals, which was what drew me to the book to begin with. The book draws you in, not really in a suspenseful way, but in a way that makes you just want to keep reading. Also, James Herriot tells wonderful stories and is willing to make fun of himself and situations he was in, some of which were his fault. It was fun getting to experience his first few years as a country vet along with him. You also get to witness his relationships with animals and the people around him. Plus, all the characters are realistic and you believe all the situations that they are in.
Even though there were a lot of good things about this book, there were also a few things that I did not like. The author was Scottish and he lived in Yorkshire so some of the language was kind of confusing and often you had to guess at what the words meant. In the beginning it was a little confusing, because usually each chapter talks about a different event in the authors life, but as you read you get used to that. Also, some parts of the book could get kind of long and repetitive, but most parts kept your attention quite well. Overall, I though it was a very, very good book that I would definitely recommend.

The first book of it's kind., December 13, 1999
This was a revolutionary book. This is the book that Herriot uses to first introduce us to his friends, both human and animal alike. You will find yourself laughing through tears as we follow this Scottish vet to an English land filled with inspiring stories of people, farmers, and of course, animals. The quirky characters lend us a picturesque look into the life of a country vet. There is just no other author who can touch me the way Herriot does. This book is not just a woman's book (as my review seems to point to), but men will find the farmers and Herriot (though sometimes drunken) screamingly funny. Herriot's memoirs are indeed a classic in it's own right. The only item that seems to frighten readers away is how truly English the book is written. The strong Yorkshire dialect can make the new Herriot reader a little frustrated at first. Yet stick with it. It will certainly come to you sooner than you think. It's worth the trouble... Believe me! ... Read more

Editorial Review

The ultimate gift edition of Walden for bibliophiles, aficionados, and scholars

Thoreau’s literary classic, an elegantly written record of his experiment in simple living, has engaged readers and thinkers for a century and a half. This edition of Walden is the first to set forth an authoritative text with generous annotations. Thoreau scholar Jeffrey S. Cramer has meticulously corrected errors and omissions from previous editions of Walden and here provides illuminating notes on the biographical, historical, and geographical contexts of Thoreau’s life.

Cramer’s newly edited text is based on the original 1854 edition of Walden, with emendations taken from Thoreau’s draft manuscripts, his own markings on the page proofs, and notes in his personal copy of the book. In the editor’s notes to the volume, Cramer quotes from sources Thoreau actually read, showing how he used, interpreted, and altered these sources. Cramer also glosses Walden with references to Thoreau’s essays, journals, and correspondence. With the wealth of material in this edition, readers will find an unprecedented opportunity to immerse themselves in the unique and fascinating world of Thoreau.

Anyone who has read and loved Walden will want to own and treasure this gift edition. Those wishing to read Walden for the first time will not find a better guide than Jeffrey S. Cramer.





Jeffrey S. Cramer is curator of collections, The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods. He is the editor of Thoreau on Freedom: Attending to Man: Selected Writings of Henry David Thoreau.

... Read more

Reviews

The best of the annotated Waldens, August 18, 2004
WALDEN has rarely been out-of-print since its first publication in 1854. Copies come in all sizes, shapes and price ranges. Today's Thoreauvians have three ANNOTATED versions of WALDEN to choose from. Each one provides same-page explanatory notes that help the reader interpret the sometimes esoteric references in Henry David Thoreau's original text. The three books are "The Annotated Walden" (edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, 1970), "Walden: An Annotated Edition" (edited by Walter Harding, 1995), and "Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition" (edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer, 2004). Each one has at least one map of Concord and/or Walden Pond. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Each one has appeal for a devoted audience.

"Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition" by Jeffrey S. Cramer was released in August 2004, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the original publication date. Cramer is the curator of collections for The Thoreau Institute and therefore has access to some of the best primary and secondary source material available -- including Walter Harding's notes. In addition to the text of WALDEN, this volume includes a few "extras": an introduction to Thoreau's life but only as it applies to his cabin stay and WALDEN writing; a bibliography; notes on the text; and a detailed index. The explanatory notes -- the essence of an annotated edition -- are quite extensive. They are set off from the WALDEN text with page-within-a-page graphic detailing and are easy to read. Cramer did not merely merge Van Doren Stern's and Harding's previous notes with those from David Gorman Rohman's dissertation. His analysis at times echoes that of Harding, but when it does, Cramer often goes one step further with a definition or citation. He has thoughtfully used a "Notes on the Text" appendix to outline HDT's wording differences in the various drafts of the work. Thus his annotations are not bogged down by minor editorial alterations that the casual reader may not care about. Unlike Harding, Cramer refrains from expressing personal opinions and lets the research speak for itself. An added bonus is a reproduction of Edward Emerson's map of Walden Pond which shows the location of Thoreau's bean-field as Waldo's son remembered it. The only cumbersome quality in this publication is the placement of WALDEN chapter titles at the bottom of the pages instead of the top. This otherwise stellar volume is beautifully presented with a cover photo of the cabin reproduction as it currently stands in Walden Pond State Recreation Area. A classy edition by all accounts.

Lining up the three versions side by side is an interesting experiment, best conducted on a rainy summer day when no other work has appeal. Let's use two well-known and oft-debated passages for an initial sample interpretive comparison.

"I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail." ("Economy") Do those three animals stand for actual individuals in Thoreau's life? Or does this passage simply refer to Life's losses? Philip Van Doren Stern devotes a page-length note to this paragraph. He mentions a few of the major interpretations and refers readers to the bibliography for more. His conclusion is: "Since there is no clear explanation, each reader will have to supply his own." Walter Harding offers three pages in a special appendix that covers all the major theories. At the end, he too suggests that "each reader is free to interpret them as he wishes." Jeffrey Cramer's paragraph cites two similiar excerpts found in other Thoreau pieces, and his explanation states that "no analysis has been generally accepted as valid." So the three men agree: we have to decide for ourselves what we think of the story.

"There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection." ("Conclusion") Is the parable that follows that opening sentence based on some of the Eastern texts that Thoreau was fond of reading at the time? Or is it a thinly-disguised depiction of his own struggle to perfect the final WALDEN manuscript? Philip Van Doren Stern simply says that "no one has been able to find a source for the legend" and agrees with Arthur Christy that it is an allegory about Thoreau's own life. Walter Harding offers several possible origins of the legend but eventually cites and agrees with Christy's allegory statement. Jeffrey Cramer devotes just a two-sentence annotation, concluding with "It is generally agreed that the following fable is by Thoreau." In this instance, Cramer has the benefit of time over his colleagues. Most Thoreauvians have come to the same realization during the past decade after much gnashing of teeth.

Explanatory differences are more pronounced at other various junctures in the text. Each man obviously was intrigued by certain references more than others. I can say that overall, I found Jeffrey Cramer's annotations to be the most helpful of the three. Maybe someday someone will have the courage to tell all the makers of posters, bumper stickers, and t-shirts that "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in" is NOT about fishing at all.

Every school and public library should own at least one of these annotated editions. Academic libraries will want at least two of the three versions. If you want a book that has a lot more HDT than just WALDEN, find a used copy of the Philip Van Doren Stern book. If you want to hear from expert Walter Harding, choose his. Individuals who want the most comprehensive interpretation should go with the newest volume by Jeffrey Cramer. It's a worthy addition to the Thoreau legacy.

Walden, The Cramer Edition: A Must Get!, September 15, 2004
We have waited too long for a new edition of Walden which takes account of contemporary Thoreau scholarship. This new edition from Yale University Press provides what can now be regarded as the definitive text of Walden, correcting errors and omissions from previous editions. But it is very much more than simply a corrected text! We are invited into Thoreau's world and the context of his writing and thought through generous annotations on every page. These annotations include details on Thoreau's experiment in living, his physical circumstances, relevant quotations from his other writings and the writings of his contemporaries, as well as detailed references to things, places, and names, both contemporary and historical, mentioned in the text. In short, this Walden is a tour de force of scholarship that should not be missed by anyone with a passing interest in Thoreau or Walden. It is sure to become a standard reference in the subject. The book is physically beautiful as well. Its rich paper and the spacious layout of text and annotations make handling and studying this Walden a physical pleasure in addition to an intellectual one. Yale University Press clearly intends that this edition should be honored as a centerpiece in any Thoreau collection. Hurrah for Yale University Press and Jeffrey Cramer! Well done!

To Live at Walden; A Visit with Thoreau, February 14, 2005
150 years ago, a philosopher went to live in the woods off a small Massachusetts pond, and write about his experiences and meditations. Today, his thoughts, opinions, and experiences inform and educate us, enlightening us to a world of possibilities. Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden, and now all of us have a chance to spend time there in this richly illustrated edition.

Jeffrey Cramer, Thoreau scholar, has meticulously put together this labor of love for the book, as is shown on each and every page. Writing a short, insightful introduction to this book, and carefully research notes in the margins of the book, add layers of understanding to an already powerful book.

I hadn't ever visited Walden prior to this book. As a Walden novice, it served as an excellent introduction to an amazing man and an amazing work. I'm sure that both novices and scholars will benefit from this wonderful literary escape from the world. Yet the escape teaches us more about the world than we might ever know. Thanks to Cramer, and thanks to Henry for crafting this word feast.

A Plethora of Riches, September 23, 2004
Jeffrey Cramer's annotated "Walden" weaves together the "woof" of Thoreau's philosophy and observances with the "warp" of all the influences upon him in his life, current and remembered. Cramer brings light to bear on the puns and allusions that would likely escape the reader of today. It is an uncommonly rich reading experience.
The book itself is the best designed I can remember in years. The annotations are side by side with the text; the type is crisp and clear; the book opens flat for easy handling; and it is printed on fine stock. Cramer and Yale University Press have given us a rare gift.

Beautiful and accessible, January 30, 2007
This edition of Walden is a joy to read, with lovely typeface and layout. I am not a Thoreau scholar, but found the annotations accessible and absorbing. The layout allows you to read Walden straight through or wander off into the annotated notes, depending on your mood.

A book that serves as a miniature vacation every time you open it.

One step further outside of Concord, February 1, 2006
Walden, since the age of fourteen, has always been a special place for me. Ironically, I did not disturb the leaf laden path through Thoreau's wood until seven years after, but at a young age I enjoyed the utopia this book offers. Interestingly enough the surface was read, and with little understanding of history, of which I know have a Masters degree, I did not know the context. With this Annotated version you are thrusted further into Thoreau's world than ever before. I suggest strongly to read the text, then start over with just the annotations. It takes you into the historical/political context of the book's purpose, and from that, into a world leading to civil war, that would traverse those growing pains into a time of reform. Truly a book before its time, yet speaks to the reform movement of the latter 19th c., and perhaps today.

Beautiful edition of one of the greatest of books, October 20, 2007
I have at least six or seven different editions of Thoreau's greatest classic, and this one is my prized possession. Of course, if I took his ideas more seriously I would simplify things and give away the other copies, but they have my notes in them and I find it hard to let go of them. Part of the problem of this edition being so beautiful, on excellent paper, with very useful notes and images, is that I would hate to mark it up with the lines and notes that I have included in some of the other editions. Still, that's a good problem. The notes in this book are useful notes -- not just a haphazard list of some scholars' remarks (not always authoritative) on favorite passages, and not speculation, but clear sources for some of the obscure references in the text.

On the book as a whole, it is worth noting that Walden is rich in ideas and is one of the most profound American philosophical classics, and no reading could exhaust its wealth. It is much more than a journal of Thoreau's time alone in the woods (as it were) on the banks of Walden Pond (as it is often thought to be by those who haven't read it - I know because I often ask my students what they know about the book before they read it).

A quick introduction to the project of Walden, that will help organize and make sense of some of the variety of Thoreau's remarks here, is to think of his remarks as falling under three rough stages:
(1) an account of the problem we face, that we waste away our lives trying to make a living, that we seek to acquire property for the sake of freedom but find ourselves encumbered, that we associate the rise of modern technology with enlightenment but find that our technologies and advances increasingly take us away from ourselves and our self-sufficiency, and make us dependent on what we do not individually understand.
(2) an account of an experiment undertaken to discover what is truly essential for a life of fulfillment, and the discovery that a complete and worthwhile life can be achieved through a deliberate simplification of desires.
(3) an account of the many remarkable discoveries that can be made about ourselves and about the natural world and the relation between these when we voluntarily simplify our lives.

This is a book to read and return to throughout one's life, and there aren't many books that really merit such attention. Given its importance, having a copy in what is probably the best edition available now makes a lot of sense.

Living Philosophy, November 14, 2008
Henry David Thoreau, as his many devotees (including this reader) know, is as relevant today as he was 150 years ago. His writings are available in a variety of hardback and paperback editions most of which are considerably cheaper than this book. So why purchase this particular edition. There are two reasons that seem to make sense: if you read and reread Walden a hard copy is more durable than a paperback; and this edition includes an excellent set of notes placed side by side with the original text which is a real convenience.

So what about the book called "Walden" and Thoreau himself? Well those many folks who are devoted readers of course understand the importance of Thoreau to American letters. For someone who might like to read either Walden or one of Thoreau's other writings out of curiosity or necessity (required reading) there is one thing that this reader finds particularly interesting about him and his works: Thoreau was a practicing philosopher who created a set of values and proved their validity by living them. "Walden" among many things is an account of how the practice of such values can effect the way one lives.

In academic philosophy there is a branch called "axiology" which is the study of values. Many a modern professor of philosophy would undoubtedly fault Thoreau for failing to build a value `system' based on recognized philosophic criteria. Well, this is the difference between a professor of philosophy and an actual philosopher. Thoreau did not profess a philosophy he lived a philosophy. The values that he developed if adopted today by an individual would be just as practical and lead to the same level of happiness as in his day. Reading through Walden provides a running account of how to deal with mundane chores necessary to live (and live well) and to deal with the more cosmic issues of space and time (as understood by the individual). There are of course other tangible benefits that come from reading Thoreau, but obtaining a philosophy for living is certainly among them.

Beautiful book, helpful comments, June 14, 2007
This copy of Walden is beautiful and the extensive notes are very helpful. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth. "Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in."--The New York Times. (Literature--Classics & Contemporary) ... Read more