Self-Portrait with Turtles: A Memoir (.) [Hardcover]

David M. Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Series: . | Publication Date: March 11, 2004

Self-Portrait with Turtles is a book in the spirit of Walden and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but it is also unique, as David Carroll himself is. Driven by a passion for art and turtles, Carroll has lived a Walden-like life for decades, although he is married, with family. In Self -Portrait he tells the story of that remarkable life. He writes about his early encounters with turtles, which led to a lifelong fascination with them and their swampy habitats, and about the high school teacher who told him that, contrary to everything he had been taught before, art is the only thing that matters, the only thing that lasts. During his years at art school in Boston, he got to know the turtles of the Fenway, including one giant snapper he wrestled to shore and carried to his studio for a portrait session. After a brief career as a teacher, Carroll has spent decades scraping out a living as an artist and naturalist, raising three children on a shoestring with his artist wife. "We live like turtles," he has said; "we hunker down when times get hard." In a materialistic age, he and his family have gone their own way, living simply and self-sufficiently, showing that the secret of a good life is to devote yourself to what you love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Carroll, a naturalist and an artist, discovered turtles when he was eight years old, and in this slight but charming memoir, he tells how these wetland creatures forever changed and directed his life. After his first encounter with a spotted turtle in a woodland pool near his home in a central Pennsylvania housing project, he was obsessed, wading in swamps, marshes, streams and ditches to find turtles no matter where he lived. This infatuation led to a fascination with everything in nature, and he combined this interest with his talent for drawing and painting, attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and embarking on a brief career as an art teacher. Although he was popular with the students, especially the more unconventional ones, he was too exuberant and imaginative to last in that profession, so he and his wife, also an artist, moved to rural New Hampshire, where he could devote himself to nature studies. Carroll has now been observing turtles for 50 years, and although he laments that their habitats are often lost to development, he continues to find them everywhere. In an especially touching final chapter, he tells of following one particular spotted turtle for 18 years and finally succeeding in observing her annual nesting ritual. Unlike his earlier book, The Year of the Turtle, this is not a natural history of turtles but rather a meditation on the author's life as a naturalist and a paean to the intriguing creatures that lured him to that calling. Illus. by the author.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Author-naturalist Carroll (Swampwalker's Journal, 1999) spent his early years in the city. When he was eight, his family moved to a town with woods, streams, ponds, and a salt marsh within walking distance. When Carroll saw his first turtle on his first outing through the wetlands, he was hooked. When a high-school art teacher declared that art was the only thing that lasts, the author then had the two guides for his life's work. A degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston led to turtles in the Fens and the woman who became his wife. Bouts of teaching are interspersed with rambling in search of turtles, and a final move to New Hampshire settles the author and his family in a landscape that comes complete with chelonian denizens. In a wonderful blend of natural history, memoir, and drawings, the author leads us through his life and how it has been shaped by his love of nature and turtles. This beautifully illustrated memoir will be sought out by lovers of good nature writing. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; None edition (March 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618162259
• ISBN-13: 978-0618162253
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,382,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great memoir!!, April 1, 2004

By 

J. Rutherford (Conway, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Self-Portrait with Turtles: A Memoir (.) (Hardcover)

I had never heard of David Carroll until I spotted this book by accident at a local bookstore, bought it, read it, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Carroll is obsessed with turtles and writes about his lifelong pursuit of his passion with luminous prose.

Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for turtles, everywhere and always, August 8, 2006

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Self-Portrait with Turtles: A Memoir (Paperback)

It's fun to read about how some of our favorite naturalists came to the field. Men like John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and E.O. Wilson "discovered" the natural world as children exploring the habitats found in their own neighborhoods. They later went on to college for scientific study, and from that background they wrote their signature pieces. Well, that's not exactly the path that David M. Carroll took. Yes, he found his first turtle when he was eight years old, and yes, he's been captivated by them ever since. But he approaches his subject first with an artist's eye, then brings in the science, and combines both with a writing style that keeps readers interested and turning pages.

After spending nearly every free daylight hour as a youngster in the swamps and wetlands of Pennsylvania and Connecticut, David went off to study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. There he focused on oil painting ... and also a fellow student named Laurette. After graduation, David taught art in a variety of schools in New England, always looking to weave his work with living near a natural, turtle-friendly environment. He and Laurette and their three children eventually settled in central New Hampshire, where David could teach and supply illustrations for governmental and academic scientific publications. It wasn't until a friend commented on the engaging writing style in his correspondence that he tried his hand at writing and illustrating his own books. The result was a wetland trilogy: "The Year of the Turtle," "Trout Reflections," and "Swampwalker's Journal." Certainly Carroll would consider one of the highlights of his career the moment he met Archie Carr, whose classic reference work, "Handbook of Turtles," is still found on nature center shelves today. Decades later, Carroll is still adept at finding turtles in the landscape, in spite of human intrusion and the loss of habitat. Together we can share his concern, dismay, and then surprise as he revisits the turtle troves of his past.

David Carroll knows just how much detail needs to be included in this kind of work. He doesn't bog the reader down with extraneous dates, names, and places. Of course, he augments his text with his own drawings and sketches; as usual, they are some of the most accurate and animated in the genre. Here he has given us a heart-warming memoir, making us wish we had turtle stories of our own.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Memoirs of the author's love affair with turtles, April 14, 2007

By 

Jerry K. Hatfield "dragonhunter" (Lubbock, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Self-Portrait with Turtles: A Memoir (Paperback)

This book was my favorite of Carroll's works. It is so readable and interesting to read how the author traces his years early years of interest and eventual obsession with these most ellusive of creatures. I heartily recommend it. I couldn't put the book down!