In a Wild Place: A Natural History of High Ledges

In the Deerfield River Valley, a rocky outcrop forms the cliffs at the heart of the High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary. This collection of essays explores the nature and conservation of the place through the personal history of a man who was born there and has returned regularly for 90 years.

ELLSWORTH BARNARD grew up on a farm in Shelburne, Massachusetts, part of which was later incorporated into High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary, which he and his wife, Mary, donated to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and where they have a summer home. He graduated in 1928 from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and received his MA and PhD degrees in English from the University of Minnesota. He taught at a number of colleges and universities, and ended where he began, at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, from which he retired in 1973. He is the author of several scholarly works, including critical studies of the British poet Shelley and the American poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, and a biography of Wendell Willkie; as well as an autobiography titled In Sunshine and in Shadow: A Teacher’s Odyssey. His permanent home is in Amherst, Massachusetts. 

CHARLES H. JOSLIN was born in Port Orchard, Washington. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle, the Art Students’ League of New York, and graphic design classes at Columbia University. He spent his early life in the Pacific Northwest and in Chicago where he did illustrations for graduate research at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. His scientific illustrations have been published by over twenty major publishers, including Little Brown, Encyclopedia Britannica, and the U.S. Forest Service. His wood engravings and woodcuts have been exhibited widely in juried print shows and in a number of one-person shows. He and his wife have maintained a home in Charlemont, Massachusetts, for the last twenty-four years.