The Birch: Bright Tree of Life and Legend - Softcover

Peyton, John L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0939923424 ISBN 13: 9780939923427

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 1996

Synopsis

This book is a celebration of one of the most widespread, beautiful, useful, and inspiring of trees -- the birch, a group of species that occur across the middle and high latitudes of Europe, Asia, and North America. The author provides an overview of birch ecology and then shifts his focus to the economic, social and spiritual roles of the birch among peoples of North America, Europe, and Asia. The book concludes with a discussion of the birch in art and literature, and the ancient alliance between people and trees. This is an accessible, friendly book containing 17 line drawings by the author-artist.

About this title

About the Author

John Lawrence Peyton, an octogenarian living in Proctor, Minnesota, is well-known throughout the western Great Lakes region as a banker, artist, and award-winning author.

"I was born on the hill above the studio where I live now. The forest was near in those days, and the network of lakes and rivers stretched from here into the Canadian wilderness. I learned to use paddle, paintbrush, and snowshoes before I was old enough to start grade school."

Although Peyton studied at Exeter Academy, Yale University, Yale Art School, and the Art Student's League of New York, and then entered the family banking business in Minnesota, his heart never left the Northwoods wilderness - a love and respect that is embodied in his decades of painting and writing. His books include The Stone Canoe and other stories (1989) which won the Minnesota Book Award for Fiction in 1991 and the St. Louis County Historical Society's Presidential Award for nonfiction in 1990, Voices from the Ice (1990) for children, Faces in the Firelight (1992), and his autobiography, Bright Beat the Water (1993).

Review

"Buy the book if you are keen on the birch or interested in tree mythology and North tribes, especially the Anishinaabeg (Northern Ojibway)." -- Arboricultural Journal, November 1995

"Subtitled Bright Tree of Life and Legend, this book details for the reader more natural history, more super-natural history, more quoted verse and prose, and more nicely executed black and white drawings about the tree commonly known as the paper birch than one could possibly believe interesting. Surprise, surprise, the book holds the reader's interest, and causes this reviewer to wonder how Peyton knew that 73 pages are exactly enough to cover the subject." -- The Roanoke Times & World News, October 2, 1994

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0939923424
• ISBN 13: 9780939923427
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 73