Customer Reviews

The Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A marvelous insight into John Steinbeck and his mentor/pal, Ed Ricketts ("Doc" of Cannery Row fame.). Their obvious affection and respect for the other threads throughout the text. Contains wonderful lines such as," ...in six weeks in Baja, we collected about 3000 specimens of beer.", and of course there is the Hansen Sea Cow. Their musings about a world going crazy (Hitler is on the rise in Europe during the time of the voyage) are superb. The science and biology at the back of the volume is just the icing on a most delectable cake.

If you intend to read Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez you can do it two ways. You can order this book, Sea of Cortez, and get the full benefit of Steinbeck and Rickett's exploration of the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), or you can order the Log, which only contains Steinbeck's observations and color commentary, leaving out Rickett's technical information. If you are a fan of Steinbeck, the log is both entertaining and informative and pure Steinbeck in that he exhibits that meandering curiosity that began here (1941) but was still evident in Travels with Charley twenty years later. To get the full effect of the voyage, however, this is the book you want. This is non-fiction Steinbeck, so don't expect Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath. Still, I read the whole Sea of Cortez more than two decades ago and had to come back and order both the Log and the entire Sea of Cortez, just to be sure I have it on my shelf again.

This book is a narrative account of a 1930's marine life collecting voyage from Cabo San Lucas north, and includes both John Steinbeck's recollections and the marine biology appendices prepared by Ed Ricketts dscribing the marine life collected and preserved. The book is an excellent introduction to the east coast of the south baja peninsula, and is an helpful preparation for a current day cruise in the same locale. I was fortunate on such a cruise taken in January 2010 to have on board an interpreter who compared current day marine life in a given collecting area with that presented in this book. While some harbors, such as Cabo San Lucas, no longer support the specimens described in the book, many of the collecting sites still have a considerable diversity of marine life...and the bay north of Cabo supported the largest number of whale sightings of our week long trip. Once north of Cabo, population density decreases and the offshore islands - which are largely protected wildlife zones - provide a landscape very similiar to that seen in the 1930s. This book coupled with a cruise of this coast are a marvelous way to get a break from winter cold in the USA.