The Sagebrush Ocean, Tenth Anniversary Edition: A Natural History Of The Great Basin [Hardcover]

Stephen Trimble (Author)

Book Description

Series: Natural History | Publication Date: July 1, 1999

This tenth anniversary hardcover edition celebrates the Great Basin wilderness in all seasons. "The Great Basin is one of the least novelized, least painted, least eulogized of American landscapes. Stephen Trimble has opened it up with the perception of a frontier scout, but for a different set of people this time: people more eager to know than to possess, more eager to understand than utilize."-Barry Lopez, from the foreword

The Sagebrush Ocean "will be a revelation to those who have habitually steeled themselves to drive across the desert at seventy miles an hour, generally at night. They have been missing something fabulous. . . . It ought to be in the pack of every desert camper and every off-road recreationist, just to teach them respect for what they use so freely. It ought to be on the seat of every car that starts across from Salt Lake to Reno, or vice versa, to give even seventy-mile-an-hour travelers some notion of what that apparently monotonous sagebrush ocean contains of the diversity and mystery of life."-Wallace Stegner

"The Sagebrush Ocean is one beauty of a book, a triumph of regional literature of the kind we need, to relate more closely to his land of ours."-Harold Gilliam, The San Francisco Chronicle

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Great Basin desert is so little explored, so little inhabited, that an Australian journalist--and he a seasoned denizen of the Great Outback--could deem one of the region's main roadways, U.S. 50, to be "the loneliest highway in America." The vast arid expanse, comprising portions of Utah, Nevada, Oregon, California, and Idaho, has never enjoyed the cachet of the Sonoran Desert, chronicled by writers like Ed Abbey and Joseph Wood Krutch. It finds a gifted champion in Stephen Trimble, who recounts the complex and varied natural history of the Basin's ecosystems in a mere 250 oversized pages. He takes us from salt playas to mountain islands, from creosote bush valleys to aspen glens. It's a fine tour, enjoyable from first to last page, and exquisitely well illustrated. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

When a group of California-bound "argonauts" almost perished, crossing Death Valley's wasteland in 1849, the legends of gold and hellish climate instantly achieved lasting interest.i rewrote this sentence; read carefully But modern readers will have problems with these 27 tales: most were written between 1890 and 1910 in the ornate, stilted diction of that era. There's some historical value in a few eye-witness accounts of the '49ers' troubles: John Wells Brier's "The Argonauts of Death Valley" and William Lewis Manly's "Good-Bye Death Valley!" and "Charles Alvord." The other pieces have curiosity value at best. Sydney Norman's 1908 attack on "Death Valley Scotty," titled "Chasing Rainbows in Death Valley," is longer on spleen than on facts or good writing. Sadly, there isn't much good writing here at all, and without the editors' introductory notes readers would have trouble discerning truth from fable. The final section, on "Tall Tales," dowses for humor and comes up dry.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: University of Nevada Press; 10th Anniversary edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874173434
• ISBN-13: 978-0874173437
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #988,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Trimble has received a broad range of awards for his photography, his non-fiction, and his fiction, including: The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for photography and conservation; The National Cowboy Museum's Western Heritage "Wrangler" Award; and a Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater, Colorado College, honoring his efforts to increase our understanding of Western landscapes and peoples and his choice to remain a stubborn generalist. As writer, editor, and photographer Trimble has published twenty-two books, including: Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America * Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography * The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places (with Gary Paul Nabhan) * The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin * The People: Indians of the American Southwest * and * Talking With the Clay: the Art of Pueblo Pottery in the 21st Century. Trimble makes his home in Salt Lake City and in the redrock country of Torrey, Utah. Trimble's website is www.stephentrimble.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sagebrush Ocean : A Natural History of the Great Basin, November 23, 1999

By 

Brent Mason "brent3236" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sagebrush Ocean, Tenth Anniversary Edition: A Natural History Of The Great Basin (Hardcover)

This book was GREAT! Between the pictures and maps I found an author who shows a great deal of expression, passion and dedication to his work. Using common names for plants and animals except when specific subspecies are mentioned made the book much more readable for a layperson such as myself.

My next trip to the Great Basin in Oregon will be more fulfilling and educational as much of my ignorance about this special area has been dispelled.

To date this is the best money I have spent on a book about the Great Basin.

(Originally wrote this in 1999 and feel even stronger about this book in 2004!)

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sagebrush Ocean is the best Intro to the Great Basin., June 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin (Max C. Fleischmann Series in Great Basin Natural History) (Paperback)

If I were to recommend a single "must have" book about the Great Basin Desert, this would be the one! It is the single best one-volume introduction to the natural history of the Great Basin that I know of, and is well illustrated with his own photography. He was writing on behalf of the Desert Research Institute, and spent six years on this particular project. Stephan Trimble exemplifies the best traditions in writing about Natural History. He combines the scientific reason and clarity of a Voltaire, with the poetic sensitivity of Rousseau. My copy is so bedraggled from being packed all over the Basin, I've got to get a new one soon!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent Overview of the "Empty Quarter", December 16, 2000

By 

W. Lindsey "jfcutter" (Klamath Falls, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sagebrush Ocean, Tenth Anniversary Edition: A Natural History Of The Great Basin (Hardcover)

If you were to only have one book on the Great Basin - this should be it. It covers the flora & fauna of this least know section of the lower 48 in a comprehesive, yet not belabored fashion. Plenty of salient details with a minimum - though adequate - smattering of scientific jargon. Even though I have worked for a public land management agency in the "Basin" for over 2 decades, I learned much and enhanced my understanding of things I did know. The photography by Trimble captures the inescapable beauty of the area that is unknown to the typical drive-through-as-fast-as-you-can tourist. There is no finer book - verbiage or photographic - on this largely unpopulated jewell of complex arid ecosystems.