Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell [Hardcover]

Eric Enno Tamm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2004

This is a thoughtful and revealing portrait of symbiotic friendship, a suspenseful tale of adventure at sea, and a eulogy to a trailblazing "popular scientist" whose full story has never before been told. In the 1930s, while the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression sent most of America into the doldrums, a lively intellectual and artistic community formed in the West, revolving around three legendary friends: Ed Ricketts, John Steinbeck, and Joseph Campbell. Steinbeck immortalized Monterey's bohemian spirit in Cannery Row, but the area's true lifeblood was his best friend and mentor, Ed Ricketts. Today he's usually remembered as "Doc" — the beer-drinking philosopher-scientist who presides over Monterey's population of "whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches" in Cannery Row — but Ricketts was actually a highly accomplished ecologist who did seminal work in the emerging field of marine biology. His two books, Between Pacific Tides and Sea of Cortez (coauthored with Steinbeck), are still considered classics.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's quite likely that even the most enthusiastic readers of Cannery Row don't know much about Ed Ricketts, the self-taught marine biologist depicted in John Steinbeck's novel as "Doc"—a beer-guzzling bohemian science-philosopher presiding genially over the coastal California town's seedy sardine-packing population of "whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches." Tamm's account of Ricketts's short life (he died in 1948, at age 51, killed while crossing train tracks) is an engrossing memoir. Freelance writer Tamm smartly weaves in-depth literary analysis of Steinbeck's fiction into his narrative, though writing relatively little about mythologist Joseph Campbell's spiritual explorations. But the links drawn among the three friends (though Steinbeck and Campbell soon had a lifelong falling out around marital infidelity) provide a fascinating insight into how art, science and philosophy can nurture, inspire and feed off one another. Tamm writes with impassioned honesty about his subject's many dimensions. Ricketts was a beach bum, philanderer and party-hearty hedonist, but he was also an intuitive ecologist, whose early warnings about sardine over-fishing along the California and Alaskan coasts in the 1930s proved prescient; an environmental visionary, whose dire observations about the impact of industrial effluvia on shoreline habitats in the 1940s went unheeded; and a true renaissance man, whose avant-garde fusion of life and science inspired the lives he touched.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

John Steinbeck's Cannery Row features a boozy, affable, generous, and eccentrically philosophical marine biologist called "Doc," a character based on Steinbeck's close friend, Ricketts. This indelible fictionalization has stood unchallenged by a biographer until now, and it is a boon to meet the man behind the myth. Ricketts was not only the rowdy king of Cannery Row but was also an original and adventurous marine biologist who, without an academic affiliation, formulated a revolutionary view of life's interconnectedness. Poor and under duress, he nonetheless devoted his life to studying the teeming life of the Pacific coast from Baja to British Columbia, developing a radical "biocentric worldview," voicing prescient concerns about marine pollution and exploitation, and working on the now classic Between Pacific Tides. Ricketts never could have conducted his expeditions without Steinbeck's financial support, but as Tamm so perceptively discloses, "Doc" paid his friend back tenfold by providing Steinbeck with the deep ecological vision at the heart of his Nobel Prize-winning books. Amazingly enough, Ricketts also inspired the enormously influential work of another friend, the mythologist Joseph Campbell. Tamm, therefore, presents an affecting and mind-expanding group portrait of three creative thinkers, but Ricketts glows the brightest, a friend to bums and geniuses. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568582986
• ISBN-13: 978-1568582986
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #470,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Enno Tamm is an author, journalist and analyst with more than 15 years' experience in the media and non-profit sector. His first book, "Beyond The Outer Shores: The Untold Story of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell," was a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book in 2005. His second book, "The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds: A Tale of Espionage, the Silk Road and the Rise of Modern China," is being released in the fall of 2010.

Eric has worked as executive director of the B.C. Coastal Community Network, communications director of Ecotrust Canada, and as a correspondent in Europe. His writing has appeared in Wallpaper*, The Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Canadian Geographic, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Star, among others.

Born in Tofino B.C., Eric developed his interest in history and current affairs at a young age. His father, an Estonian refugee, would often recount gripping first-hand accounts of the Soviet invasion of the Baltic States during the Second World War. At the age of 15, Eric became the editorial cartoonist for the local newspaper, and went on to earn a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a master's degree in European affairs from Lund University in Sweden. Eric remained in Sweden for three years, working as the Nordic Contributing Editor for Wallpaper* magazine.

While study in Lund, a Finnish friend told him about Gustaf Mannerheim's epic trek from St. Petersburg to Peking in 1906. Several years later, and back in Vancouver, Eric read Mannerheim's travel journal and was mesmerized by its piercing insights and the striking parallels between the country's modernization in the late Qing Dynasty and Communist China today. He began intensive historical research and logistical planning to retrace Mannerheim's route on the centennial in 2006.

However, before he departed his home in Vancouver, the Chinese consulate, through its network of spies and informants, caught wind of his plans to venture into China's restive and rugged borderlands. He was repeatedly denied a visa. Like Mannerheim, he devised a cover and snuck into China's back of beyond.

The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds chronicles two epic journeys along the Silk Road--past and present--that offer a cautionary tale about the breathtaking rise of modern China.

Eric currently lives and works in Ottawa, Canada.

Visit Eric's personal website at www.ericennotamm.com.
visit "Beyond The Outer Shores" website at www.beyondtheoutershores.com
Visit "The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds" website at www.horsethatleaps.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grateful to Eric Tamm, August 18, 2004

By 

Kenneth Saladin (Milledgeville, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell (Hardcover)

I got to know "Doc" Ricketts when I was about 15. In 10th-grade English, we had read "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men," and I greatly enjoyed both. My English teacher knew not only of my enthusiasm for Steinbeck, but also my penchant for standing knee-deep in ponds collecting invertebrate animals. She suggested I might like to read "Cannery Row" on my own. I did, and became a convicted Steinbeck fan.

I could not have known then, of course, that one day I'd not only get a doctorate in zoology but also have a daughter who'd earn a degree in marine science. Nor could I have imagined that she and I would make a pilgrimage to Monterey and Cannery Row together, and perform together in a college production of "The Grapes of Wrath."

"Doc" was never far from my mind in the years since 1965. But aside from what little we learned on our brief visit to Monterey, I still knew Ed Ricketts as little more than Doc: a collector, proprietor of a biological supply company, and wanna-be scientist. (Remember Doc's futile effort to write a scientific treatise on an octopus.)

Until now. I read a review of "Beyond the Outer Shores" in "Nature," promptly booted up Amazon.com, and ordered it to give to my daughter this Christmas -- along with Steinbeck and Ricketts' "Sea of Cortez" and Ricketts' "Between Pacific Tides." I couldn't resist dipping into "Outer Shores" the moment it arrived, and once I did, I couldn't stop until I reached the back cover. Now I've ordered another set of this Ricketts-Steinbeck-Tamm trilogy for my own library.

Tamm elevates Ed Ricketts far beyond the Steinbeck caricature. It's an enlightening look at how close the Ricketts-Steinbeck friendship and mutual admiration was, and a surprising revelation of Ricketts' friendship with another admired scholar, Joseph Campbell. But most importantly, it fleshes out my image of Ricketts as a serious scholar, philosophical thinker, and pioneering marine ecologist. I regret only that I didn't have this book a few months earlier, when my wife and I visited Vancouver Island this summer. We did not get to the outer coast, but only the stretch between Nanaimo and Victoria. Having "Beyond the Outer Shores" in hand would have changed my itinerary and made another pilgrimage of it.

On many levels from ecology and conservation to mythology and Tao, I will be proud to give this to my daughter this Christmas. It's so much more than a biography; it's an inspiration, an intellectual feast, and an invitation to so many other domains of human thought and feeling. I really appreciate both the effort and story-telling skill that Eric Tamm put into this terrific intellectual biography.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good start, but some things missing, April 12, 2006

By 

Scott White (Ontario, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell (Hardcover)

A couple of years ago, I posted a review of the Ricketts letters collected by Katharine Rodger. In that review, I wished for a more comprehensive biography of Ricketts. I guess this is the book. It is well written, well researched and well documented by references to sources. I think its main benefit is that it separates Ed Ricketts from the characters in John Steinbeck's novels and The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Evidently, Steinbeck was first and foremost a novelist, even when writing "nonfiction."

Tamm helps explain Ricketts's relationship with Toni Jackson and presents some new (to me, anyway) information on his trips to Vancouver Island. There is quite a lot of material here about Joseph Campbell's influence on Ricketts (and vice-versa) that isn't in Steinbeck's various writings on Ricketts. There isn't much new about Ricketts's life before his lab (including notes and correspondence) burned down in 1936.

Tamm has a tendency to use Ricketts's, Steinbeck's, and Joseph Campbell's writing as jumping-off points to his own ethical and environmental perspective and even to preach a little. I largely agree with his views, but I don't think this biography is the place for them.

Tamm emphasizes Ricketts's philosphy, as Steinbeck and others have. Ricketts took this work seriously, but only one of his three large essays was ever published. His "Non-Telological Thinking" appears as the Easter Sunday entry in the narrative half of The Log from the Sea of Cortez, which Ricketts coauthored with Steinbeck.

On Ricketts's philosophy, Tamm writes: "He was pioneering a new mode of thinking that contained all the elements of what would become 'deep ecology' in the 1970s." (p. 239).

"Deep ecology" is a viwpoint that recognizes an inherent value in all species (value beyond their use to humans) and holds to mostly conventional liberal politics (Wikipedia, 11 April 2006). These ideas seem commonplace today, though they rarely go by that hoity-toity title. I doubt they were exceptional in the 1930s and 1940s (e.g., John Muir advocated nature for its own sake decades earlier). If Ricketts's ideas were unique, Tamm should have explained then-prevailing environmentalism to put them into context. Further, I would have liked a discussion of the "deep ecology" view as it progressed into the 1970s. What other authors (especially biologists) were influential in its development? Had they read Ricketts's work? (aside: David Ehrenfeld has a nice essay on inherent value, called The Conservation Dilemna, in his book, The Arrogance of Humanism).

The discussions of Rickett's scientific work would have been better if Tamm had comparared it more thoroughly with other biologists of the time, and discussed its long-term influence in biology. The book doesn't clarify to me whether Ricketts's documentation of the collapsing Monterey sardine fishery was a new approach to population ecology and resource management, or if he used existing analytical techniques. Ricketts is very well known among California marine biologists. Has his work stood up over time, and is it still relevant to modern researchers?

Finally, I was bothered by Tamm's inclusion of the false (but widely believed) "Chief Seattle" speech. The text Tamm quotes on page 242 (quoted from Joseph Campbell's 1990 book, Transformation of Myth Through Time) was actually written by Ted Perry in 1972 for a film script. Campbell's flawed research isn't Tamm's fault, but I wish Tamm had checked the source before propagating this myth still further. Much more on the Chief Seattle story is available at the Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages and links posted there.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On Living at the Right Time, August 17, 2004

By 

Cecil Fox (Little Rock, AR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell (Hardcover)

Within five years of the death of Ed Ricketts marine biology changed forever. The first was the widespread use of wet suits and self contained underwater breathing devices. The observer no longer was tethered to the shore and could hang motionless in the water at almost any depth observing what was actually happening in the submerged cosmos. Underwater photography allowed dynamic and objective views. Gone were the days of waders and buckets and dry heads.

John Steinbeck in the introduction to between Pacific Tides of 1948 also sensed a different change, an Enlightenment, "The world is being broken down to be built up again, and eventually the sense of the new worlds will come out of the laboratory and penetrate into the smallest living techniques and habits of the whole people". And of course in 1953 Watson and Crick announced the functional structure of DNA.

Ricketts, one the greatest naturalists of all time, was astounded at the array of creatures, mostly animals he found along the shore. He wrote of what he saw and was ostracized by the "legitimate" academic Poo Bahs of his day. But he was clean and pure and loved true things. How would he feel if he could see all of his sea animals displayed in comparative genomics arrays and consider the genes that make them holy?

But about the book. Tamm has captured the light hidden behind the towering figure of Steinbeck and "Doc". He shows Ricketts, complex, gifted and maybe all mixed up as an existensional figure laboring under the stigma of never having taken a degree. Thank God! If Ricketts had become the academic soft science ecologist like David Phillips who revised the fifth edition of Tides, my life would have been far poorer.

This is a wonderful book, but don't stop there. Review Sweet Thursday and the Row. Go once again the the Sea of Cortez. Try to find a 1939 edition of Tides and then the 5th edition so you can properly despise Stanford University Press. We can never know Ed Ricketts but his sweet spirt is everywhere in the sea and the nature around us.