Mosquitoes in Hawaii, sea lampreys in the Great Lakes, mountain goats in the Olympic Mountains of Washington State -- not one of these species is native to the environment in which it now flourishes, sometimes disastrously. Kim Todd's Tinkering with Eden is a lyrical, brilliantly written history of the introduction of exotic species into the United States, and how the well-meaning endeavors of scientists, explorers, and biologists have resulted in ecological catastrophe. Todd's amazingly assured voice will haunt her readers, and the stories she tells -- the astronomer who unleashed the gypsy moth in a botched effort to breed the silkworm, the druggist who brought starlings to America because he wanted the landscape to feature every bird mentioned by Shakespeare -- will forever change how we see our increasingly afflicted landscape and its unanticipated inhabitants. Todd promises to become one of our new century's freshest voices, and Tinkering with Eden will delight, instruct, and astonish.
Kim Todd is an award-winning science and environmental writer.
Her first book, Tinkering with Eden, a Natural History of Exotics in America (W.W. Norton 2001), tells the stories of non-native species and how they arrived in the United States. Species covered range from pigeons, brought over by some of the earliest colonists, to starlings, imported by a man who wanted to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to Central Park. The book explores our developing understanding of exotic species as we become more aware of the potential problems they may pose for native ecosystems. Tinkering with Eden received the PEN/ Jerard Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award and was selected as one of Booklist's Top Ten Science/ Technical Books for 2001.
Her second book Chrysalis, Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis (Harcourt, 2007) looks at the life of a pioneering explorer/ naturalist who traveled to South America in 1699 to study insect metamorphosis. The story also traces ideas about metamorphosis through time. The New Yorker called it a "spellbinding biography," and Kirkus Reviews said Chrysalis was "a breathtaking example of scholarship and storytelling." It was selected as one of 25 "Books to Remember" for 2008 by the New York Public Library. Research for Chrysalis led her to Surinam to retrace Merian's steps through the rain forest.
Her most recent book is Sparrow (Reaktion 2012). Part of Reaktion Books much praised "Animal Series," Sparrow explores at the history and natural history of this much loved, much hated bird.
Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Two in the Wild (Vintage 1999), City Birds (Stackpole 2003), Torn, True Stories of Kids, Career, and the Conflict of Modern Motherhood (Coffeetown, 2011), and The Pacific Crest Trailside Reader (Mountaineers Books, 2001). She has hiked much of the Pacific Crest Trail through Washington State, and hopes to do the whole thing some day.
She has lectured extensively about Merian, invasive species, and the intersection of history and biology, including talks at the Getty Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Denver Botanical Gardens, and Wellesley College.
She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two children. Please visit her web site at www.kimtodd.net.
