Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks - Hardcover

Haupt, Lyanda Lynn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316836648 ISBN 13: 9780316836647

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2006

Synopsis

By focusing mostly on the birds Charles Darwin observed, and by brilliantly mining his lesser-known writings, Haupt pens a startlingly fresh exploration of the man's genius that invites readers to look at the world with new eyes.

About this title

About the Author:

Lyanda Lynn Haupt holds a master's degree in the history and philosophy of science, with a personal emphasis in ornithology, and the emerging science of conservation biology. Her articles and reviews have appeared in Open Spaces, Wild Earth Journal, Birdwatcher's Digest, and The Prairie Naturalist.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. When Charles Darwin set out on his voyage of discovery aboard the Beagle in 1831, he was a naļve naturalist. Upon his return to England five years later, as nature writer Haupt (Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds) capably demonstrates, he was a polished, philosophical student of nature. In fluid, lovely prose, Haupt documents this dramatic transformation, focusing on the notebooks Darwin kept during the journey. Through her selections, we see Darwin's minute observations and his understanding of the natural world, and we gain early hints of the ideas that would transform the world when he published On the Origin of Species in 1859. While Haupt presents nothing dramatically new, it is enjoyable to picture the young Darwin spending hours watching Andean condors soar and anthropomorphizing many South American birds (not just the famous finches of the Galįpagos). Haupt uses Darwin's personal journey as a metaphor for our contemporary view of the natural world, expressing the hope that people today might become more attuned to their natural surroundings. Darwin, Haupt argues, reminds us "that we too are animals, connected to life, past and present.... That nothing in the natural world is beneath our notice." (Mar. 7)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0316836648
• ISBN 13: 9780316836647
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288