The Nearsighted Naturalist

by Ann Zwinger

Overview

Seeking out wildflowers and whitewater, Ann Zwinger has called many places home. The Nearsighted Naturalist brings together work from more than two decades in her career as one of our most distinguished natural history writers. From the Indiana landscape of her youth to her Colorado mountain retreat, from Arizona's Aravaipa Canyon to New Zealand's Kapiti Island, Zwinger leads an ever-widening armchair tour of natural places both ordinary and astonishing. Whether anticipating the first day of spring or seeing the elegance of the subtle hues of a moth's papery wings, Zwinger's trademark eye for detail brings the landscape alive. Her travels trace her evolution from a home-centered wife and mother to a wandering adventurer, an evolution that has taught her to be at home in nature no matter where she is. Sprinkled with Zwinger's own charming pen-and-ink drawings, The Nearsighted Naturalist reminds us of the power of the very best nature writing. It is an invitation to wander, to travel to faraway places, to revisit your own backyard, to chase dragonflies, and to experience the healing power of a sea-smoothed pebble. With the author, readers will embark on a fascinating exploration into distant deserts of the mind and hillsides of the heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816548224
Publisher:	University of Arizona Press
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	292
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ann Zwinger has written and illustrated many books, including Run, River, Run, which won the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and in Audubon, Orion, and other magazines.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface Remembering Indiana The Day before Spring Under the Silver Ceiling Annals of an Amateur Insect Collector Moths First Snowfall Every Valley Shall Be Exalted The Eagle's Fate and Mine Are One The Flip Side of River Travel Rowing the San Juan River A'aly Waipia Of Pebbles and Place Wind on Round Mountain A Cave with a View Birds in the Bush Last Look at the Long River A Hungarian in Baja California A World of Infinite Variety Drawing on Experience The Art of Wandering "What's a Nice Girl Like Me Doing in a Place Like This?"

Editorial Reviews

In a collection of essays that includes works from over two decades, Zwinger explores the abundant life in Rocky Mountain rivers, streams and ponds as well as the experience of whitewater rafting and exploring the world from Colorado to China. Whether she's crouching by the side of a stream observing stonefly nymphs, or doggedly seeking signs of a short-lived spring in Colorado, Zwinger combines eloquent writing with a devotion to nature. She describes and catalogues every creature, including those seemingly insignificant, tiny animals invisible to all eyes but those trained to look. As one might guess from the title, Zwinger's vision isn't perfect, but her myopia forces her, she says, to get even closer to her subjects. Having been raised in Indiana, she also comes to her new home in the Rocky Mountains with the unjaundiced eye of an outsider. But it was in Indiana that she first learned to love observing and writing about nature. Nature writing, she explains, "was part of my upbringing. Quite early my mother gave me Gene Stratton Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost to read." Since then she has expanded her list of literary models to include Annie Dillard and Edwin Way Teale, among many others, and here Zwinger once again displays the eloquence, beauty and acuity that put her in that great tradition. Includes pen- and-ink drawings. (Sept.) FYI: Zwinger's last book, Downcanyon, won the Western States Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Zwinger, the recipient of the John Burroughs medal for nature writing and author of numerous books (Downcanyon, LJ 8/95), offers a collection of 21 essays drawn from over two decades of writing. From her roots in Indiana to her beloved home in the mountains of Colorado, she shares not only her field experiences--collecting insects, observing raptors, running the rapids on the San Juan River--but also her ideas on illustrating, being a naturalist, and the process of natural history writing. Several of the essays are vintage Zwinger, combining the essential ingredients of natural history writing: scientific accuracy based on field experience and research along with an enticing, lyrical literary style. Especially noteworthy essays are the poignant "First Snowfall" and the evocative "Of Pebbles and Place." Highly recommended for all libraries.--Maureen Delaney-Lehman, Lake Superior State Univ. Lib., Sault Ste. Marie, MI

Library Journal

A slow-starting but ultimately intriguing collection of natural history essays written over two decades. Zwinger (who won a Western States Book Award for Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, 1995) attributes her "nose-to-nose" interaction with nature to nearsightedness, which leaves her dependent on a hand lens. This approach lends itself well to an exhaustive exploration of her home base near Colorado's Pikes Peak, where she lovingly records the land's changing science and aesthetics in the drift of seasons. The first essays detail small wonders, and though she makes a case for the importance of invertebrates (which comprise almost 99 percent of all living species, she points out), it's hard to share her excitement for the complex, tedious process for determining moth gender. The book takes off when Zwinger broadens her focus, exploring a coastal Chilean island that sheltered the real-life Robinson Crusoe, traveling to Baja to retrace the steps of 19th-century naturalist Xantu, one of the first to document the natural science of the newly opened west, and tagging along with researchers in the world's most densely populated raptor breeding ground, Idaho's Snake River Canyon. Whether thrusting a bare hand in a January stream to discover nymphs or shooting summer rapids on the San Juan River, she's an intrepid explorer whose enthusiasm for travel off the beaten path is inspiring. Zwinger is at her best interpreting the rigors of serious science for the casual naturalist. Explaining the immense pleasure she derives from the meticulousness and order of collecting insects, she documents the copious note-taking and fastidious preparation required,then nails the intangible appeal of it all with an apt analogy: "I feel about insect collecting the way a trout fisherman feels about fly-fishing: it is the thereness that is important." Lyrical, astute, passionateþan altogether charming look at the natural world. (illustrations by the author, not seen)

Kirkus Reviews

"Lyrical, astute, passionate—an altogether charming look at the natural world." —Kirkus Reviews"Whether she's crouching by the side of a stream observing stonefly nymphs, or doggedly seeking signs of a short-lived spring in Colorado, Zwinger combines eloquent writing with devotion to nature." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher