Owl

by Desmond Morris

Overview

From ancient Babylon and the Greek goddess Athena to Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat; from Harry Potter’s Hedwig and the grandiloquent, absent-minded Wol from Winnie the Pooh to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, owls are woven into the fabric of human culture. Beautiful, silent, pitiless predators of the night, these enigmatic beings dwell throughout the world yet barely make their presence known. For people, owls are contradictory beasts, at times depicted as dignified, wise old scholars and at other times as foreboding voyeurs who see all—omens both good and evil, in turn. In this fascinating book, best-selling author and broadcaster Desmond Morris explores the natural and cultural history of one of nature’s most popular winged creatures.

Excluding Antarctica, owls are found on every land mass across the globe, and they range in size from well under a foot tall (the tiny least pygmy owl) to more than two feet (the orange-eyed Eurasian eagle owl). As a result of their wide distribution, owls also occur in the folktales, myths, and legends of many native peoples around the world. Morris spreads his wings wide to explore these stories alongside owl evolution, owl species, and the many examples of owls in art, film, literature, and popular culture. Despite the fact that many of us have never seen an owl or even heard its accusatory “Who? Who?,” Morris’s enticing read makes clear this creature’s looming presence in our lives. Featuring more than one hundred telling illustrations from nature and culture, Owl will enthrall the many devotees of this surreal bird.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780239163
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	07/15/2018
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	1,067,731
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Desmond Morris is a well-known and critically acclaimed writer and broadcaster. His many books include The Naked Ape, The Human Zoo, and The Human Animal. For several years he was the host of the television program Zootime, and in 1959 he was appointed Curator of Mammals at the London Zoo.

Table of Contents

Introduction
 
1    Prehistoric Owls
2    Ancient Owls
3    Medicinal Owls
4    Symbolic Owls
5    Emblematic Owls
6    Literary Owls
7    Tribal Owls
8    Owls and Artists
9    Typical Owls
10  Unusual Owls
 
Timeline
Appendix: Classification of Owls
References
Bibliography
Associations and Websites
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

Filled with drawings and photographs of owls and our depictions of owls throughout time. An avid fan of art, I was especially enthralled by seeing Pablo Picasso’s paintings and ceramics of owls. Harry Potter fans will certainly enjoy this book.

Guardian, on the first edition - GrrlScientist

Owl is sparely and eloquently written, scholarly and highly readable. . . . An entertaining and informative little gem. It will particularly appeal to the many devotees of these eternally iconic birds.

on the first edition Emu-Austral Ornithology

In this small, elegant volume, Morris explores our paradoxical relationship with the owl, symbol of both wisdom and evil. He examines its depiction in mythology, literature, and art and provides an overview of its fascinating biology. Beautiful photographs illustrate the allure of this mysterious creature.

on the first edition Sierra Magazine

"The sometimes unsettling encounter with a real flesh-and-blood specimen of an animal—or, for that matter, the absence of one—is a recurring literary conceit at the beginning of many volumes of the series. . . . In each of the books, the writers frequently mine the nervous roles of tiptoeing birdwatchers or greedy hungers lying in wait for the big game that may never appear. Prosaically, the device . . . underscores that the books in the series are above all essays, and personal ones at that, penned less frequently by professional animal specialists than by interested scholars from literary and history fields; their tone eschews the dry cant and summary overview of the encyclopedia."

Chronicle Review