Best of
Nature

1978

A Fine and Pleasant Misery


Patrick F. McManus - 1978
    McManus.

Of Wolves and Men


Barry Lopez - 1978
    Lopez’s classic, careful study has won praise from a wide range of reviewers and improved the way books on wild animals are written. Of Wolves and Men explores the uneasy interaction between wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures. Drawing upon an impressive array of literature, history, science, and mythology as well as extensive personal experience with captive and free-ranging wolves, Lopez argues for the wolf's preservation and immerses the reader in its sensory world, creating a compelling portrait of the wolf both as a real animal and as imagined by different kinds of men. A scientist might perceive the wolf as defined by research data, while an Eskimo hunter sees a family provider much like himself. For many Native Americans the wolf is also a spiritual symbol, a respected animal that can strengthen the individual and the community. With irresistible charm and elegance, Of Wolves and Men celebrates careful scientific fieldwork, dispels folklore that has enabled the Western mind to demonize wolves, explains myths, and honors indigenous traditions, allowing us to understand how this remarkable animal has become so prominent for so long in the human heart.

The Star Thrower


Loren Eiseley - 1978
    This volume includes selections that span Eiseley’s entire writing career and provide a sampling of the author as naturalist, poet, scientist, and humanist. “Loren Eiseley’s work changed my life” (Ray Bradbury). Introduction by W. H. Auden.

The Tracker


Tom Brown Jr. - 1978
    The first track is the end of a string. At the far end, a being is moving; a mystery, dropping a hint about itself every so many feet, telling you more about itself until you can almost see it, even before you come to it. The mystery reveals itself slowly, track by track, giving its genealogy early to coax you in. Further on, it will tell you the intimate details of its life and work, until you know the maker of the track like a lifelong friend.In this powerful memoir, famous Pine Barrens tracker Tom Brown Jr. reveals how he acquired the skill that has saved dozens of lives--including his own. His story begins with the chance meeting between an ancient Apache and a New Jersey boy. It tells of an incredible apprenticeship in the Wild, learning all that is hidden from modern man. And it ends with a harrowing search in which far more than survival is at stake.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals


Charles W. Chesterman - 1978
    794 full-color photographs depict all the important rocks, gems, and minerals -- in many variations of color and crystal form -- and the natural environments in which they occur; written descriptions provide information on field marks, similar rocks and minerals, environment, areas of occurrence, and derivation of names. Includes a guide to mineral collecting and a list of rock-forming minerals

Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her


Susan Griffin - 1978
    Starting from Plato’s fateful division of the world into spirit and matter, her analysis of how patriarchal Western philosophy and religion have used language and science to bolster their power over both women and nature is brilliant and persuasive, coming alive in poetic prose.Griffin draws on an astonishing range of sources—from timbering manuals to medical texts to Scripture and classical literature—in showing how destructive has been the impulse to disembody the human soul, and how the long separated might once more be rejoined. Poet Adrienne Rich calls Woman and Nature “perhaps the most extraordinary nonfiction work to have merged from the matrix of contemporary female consciousness—a fusion of patriarchal science, ecology, female history and feminism, written by a poet who has created a new form for her vision. ...The book has the impact of a great film or a fresco; yet it is intimately personal, touching to the quick of woman’s experience.”

Linnea's Windowsill Garden


Christina Björk - 1978
    She grows them all over her room - in pots, and crates, even in glass jars. In this book, she takes you on a tour of her indoor garden. She tells you about her orange tree (and plantable pits and seeds, including melons, tomatoes, and grapes); she shows you how to take a cutting from a Busy Lizzie and how to trim an avocado plant. And she teaches you what keeps plants satisfied: the art of watering properly (plants don't like standing with their feet in water) and fertilizing. And what to do when plants are attacked by whiteflies or other nasty bugs. Linnea also makes garden-cress cheese (from homegrown cress, of course); discusses the pleasures and possible pitfalls of growing an amaryllis; and writes a plant newspaper, The Green Gazette. "Linnea's Windowsill Garden" will informs and inspire anyone who wants to grow an indoor garden of their own.

Men for the Mountains


Sid Marty - 1978
    He was a mountain climber, rescue team member, firefighter, wildlife custodian, and adviser to tourists, adventurers, and people passing through. At all times, he was an acute observer of human and animal behaviour. In these pages he records with wry wit and bitter insight true stories of heroism and folly drawn from life in the high country.Marty writes vividly about a land and a way of life that are increasingly endangered. The visceral energy of his prose compels attention. This is a compulsive, alarming, and often hilarious read.

The Ohlone Way


Malcolm Margolin - 1978
    Grizzly bears lumbered down to the creeks to fish for silver salmon and steelhead trout. From vast marshlands geese, ducks, and other birds rose in thick clouds "with a sound like that of a hurricane." This land of "inexpressible fertility," as one early explorer described it, supported one of the densest Indian populations in all of North America.One of the most ground-breaking and highly-acclaimed titles that Heyday has published, _The Ohlone Way _ describes the culture of the Indian people who inhabited Bay Areas prior to the arrival of Europeans.

Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare: An Ecologist's Perspective


Paul Colinvaux - 1978
    Paul Colinvaux takes a penetrating look at the science of ecology, bringing to his subject both profound knowledge and an enthusiasm that will encourage a greater understanding of the environment and of the efforts of those who seek to preserve it.

Rien Poortvliet's Horses


Rien Poortvliet - 1978
    Among the subjects discussed in this book are famous horses in history, horse behavior, show horses, work horses, and more. Poortvliet's illustrations and his candid commentary make this a truly enjoyable book.

Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir


Linnie Marsh Wolfe - 1978
    All readers who have admired Muir’s ruggedly individualistic lifestyle, and those who wish a greater appreciation for the history of environmental preservation in America, will be enthralled and enlightened by this splendid biography.The story follows Muir from his ancestral home in Scotland, through his early years in the harsh Wisconsin wilderness, to his history-making pilgrimage to California.This book, originally published in 1945 and based in large part on Wolfe’s personal interviews with people who knew and worked with Muir, is one that could never be written again. It is, and will remain, the standard Muir biography.

The Year Of The Greylag Goose


Konrad Lorenz - 1978
    Commentary and photographs of the Greylag goose tell the story of their family life structures which is similiar to human family life.

The Snow Leopard


Peter Matthiessen - 1978
    This is a radiant and deeply moving account of a "true pilgrimage, a journey of the heart."

Is There a Doctor in the Zoo?


David Taylor - 1978
    

Killing the Hidden Waters


Charles Bowden - 1978
    The faucet in the kitchen always becomes the reality we believe, and the periodic droughts, one of which for much of the nineties savaged the West, remain a fantasy. This happens each and every day as the water roars from the faucet and the skies remain dangerously blue.”—Charles BowdenIn the quarter-century since his first book, Killing the Hidden Waters, was published in 1977, Charles Bowden has become one of the premier writers on the American environment, rousing a generation of readers to both the wonder and the tragedy of humanity’s relationship with the land. Revisiting his earliest work with a new introduction, “What I Learned Watching the Wells Go Down,” Bowden looks back at his first effort to awaken people to the costs and limits of using natural resources through a simple and obvious example—water. He drives home the point that years of droughts, rationing, and even water wars have done nothing to slake the insatiable consumption of water in the American West. Even more timely now than in 1977, Killing the Hidden Waters remains, in Edward Abbey’s words, “the best all-around summary I’ve read yet, anywhere, of how our greed-driven, ever-expanding urban-industrial empire is consuming, wasting, poisoning, and destroying not only the resource basis of its own existence, but also the vital, sustaining basis of life everywhere.”

Simon Schuster's Guide to Rocks and Minerals


Martin Prinz - 1978
    This field guide is divided into two large sections -- one devoted to minerals and one to rocks, each prefaced by a comprehensive introduction that discusses formation, chemistry, and more. All 377 entries, beautifully illustrated with color photographs and helpful visual symbols, provide descriptions and practical information about appearance, classification, rarity, crystal formation, mode of occurrence, gravity of mineral, rock chemistry, modal classification fields, formational environments, grain sizes of rocks, and much more. Whether you are a serious collector or an information-seeking amateur, this incomparably beautiful, authoritative guide will prove an invaluable reference.

A Walk through the Year


Edwin Way Teale - 1978
    Teale's works serve as primary source material documenting environmental conditions across North America from 1930 - 1980. He is perhaps best known for his series The American Seasons, four books documenting over 75,000 miles (121,000 km) of automobile travel across North America following the changing seasons.

Trees in Britain, Europe and North America


Roger Phillips - 1978
    Each tree is illustrated in full detail - by leaf, flower, fruit, bark, and mature tree shape - and is fully described in the text. A unique leaf index makes the identification of trees simple and accurate. The trees are arranged alphabetically by Latin name and an index of common names concludes the book. An indispensable companion for both the enthusiast and the botanist.

Secret Vaults of Time: Psychic Archaeology and the Quest for Man's Beginnings


Stephan A. Schwartz - 1978
    Schwartz uncovers never-before-detailed background on some of the most important digs of the past 100 years, including the recovery of Glastonbury Abbey--known as both the legendary Avalon of King Arthur and the birthplace of Christianity in England. The 12th title in Hampton Roads' Studies in Consciousness line, The Secrets Vaults of Time was originally published in 1978 and hailed by Publishers Weekly as "compelling and cogent . . .new evidence that the thinking and writing on things psychic has attained a maturity that commands the most serious attention." Stephan Schwartz is the former research director of the Mobius Society, as well as a founder and past president of the Society of the Anthropology of Consciousness.

Tales of a Rat-Hunting Man


D. Brian Plummer - 1978
    The rat is "the unheralded game-animal of Great Britain," so much so that its proponents are feared and reviled as not quite "right." But from the time D. Brian Plummer received his first rat terrier at the age of 10, he dedicated himself to the sport of rat-catching using either dogs or ferrets. He actually enjoys killing rats and is pleased to share his techniques. Thank goodness for Plummer's wit and charm, which make the experience of reading about such nasty creatures a delight.

America's Last Wild Horses


Hope Ryden - 1978
    In this provocative account, Hope Ryden--who helped to ensure the passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which grants mustangs special protection--combs the history of these proud and noble horses. Descended from the Spanish horses ridden by the conquistadors, they evolved into the tough and intelligent ponies that Indians--and later, explorers and cowboys--learned to rely on. From the period when wholesale extermination of the buffalo was under way until recent times, commercial and political interests have sought to eliminate the wild horses as varmints. In this update to this classic story, Ryden tells of the successes and failures of regulation, and includes stunning color photographs. The subject of a front-page article in The New York Times when it was first published, America's Last Wild Horses continues to be a compelling testament to the life of a uniquely American symbol of grace and wildness, and is a must-read for horse lovers and Western history enthusiasts everywhere.

River of No Return


Johnny Carrey - 1978
    Guide book - 382 Pages

Uncarved Block, Unbleached Silk: The Mystery of Life


Alan W. Watts - 1978
    No flaws but just not in "Like New" condition.

Doctor in the Zoo: The Making of a Zoo Vet


David Taylor - 1978
    

Wild Harvest


Hope L. Bourne - 1978
    Pretty glossy dust jacket over blue binding with gold lettering. 144 pages with many illustrations by the author. Hope gives us a welcome reminder of what the countryside is really about - survival.

Brothers, I Loved You All: Poems, 1969-1977


Hayden Carruth - 1978
    

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Trees


Paola Lanzara - 1978
    The 300 entries cover conifers, palms, broadleafs, fruits, flowering trees, and trees of economic importance.Each entry supplies the botanical name with its etymology, the common name, and the family name of the tree, along with a full description of size, color, shape, leaves, flowers, fruit, and seeds. Concise information is given on habitat, propagation, and conditions for growth. Also included are a detailed introduction with valuable background information, a hardiness zone map for North America, a glossary, and an index for easy reference.Whether you are interested in identifying the Staghorn sumac or in growing the tallest redwood, this handsome, comprehensive, and authoritative guide tells you everything you need to know about the wonderful and majestic world of trees.

California Grizzly


Tracy Irwin Storer - 1978
    Forty years after its original publication, University of California Press proudly reissues California Grizzly, still the most comprehensive book on the bear's history in California. The lessons of the book resonate today as the issues of protection of wildlife habitat versus unfettered development of land for human use are debated with increasing urgency.

Andy Russell's Adventures with Wild Animals


Andy Russell - 1978
    

A Walk in the Dark


Joyce Stranger - 1978
    He has a flourishing sheep farm in the hills of western Scotland, and his childhood sweetheart, the beautiful, dark-haired Mara, is soon to become his bride. Then in one brief shattering moment Steve's bright future goes black. There is an accident. He is blind. But life is not over, as he first believes. There are new directions he can take, with very special people--and one very special dog at his side--to help him along the way.

Common Texas Grasses: An Illustrated Guide


Frank W. Gould - 1978
    Hatch. This convenient reference guide to the 150 most familiar and important grass species in Texas includes a line drawing and botanical description for each.

Dossier on the Ascension: The Story of the Soul's Acceleration Into Higher Consciousness on the Path of Initiation


Serapis Bey - 1978
    Serapis Bey shows that the soul's reunion with God through the ascension is the goal of life for all. He gives practical keys for spiritual growth that can lead to the attainment of the ascension. The author answers the ultimate questions about life after death.

Lisbeth Perrone's Folk Art in Needlepoint and Cross-Stitch


Lisbeth Perrone - 1978