Travels and Other Writings: Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East andWest Florida... (Nature Library, Penguin) [Mass Market Paperback]

William Bartram (Author), Ronald E. Latham (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1995 | Series: Nature Library, Penguin

This classic narrative of travels through America's southern wilderness was first published in 1791 by botanist William Bartram. From an Indian village to an orange grove, from the Mississippi to the Florida coast, this exquisite travel diary--enhanced with Bartram's own line drawings--brings to life the raw beauty of the American South as it was over 200 years ago.

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

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is the visionary quality which gives Bartram's writing its special radiance: the passionate, wonder-struck, daring, and very personal scientism, the repeated acts of rapt, total absorption.”--James Dickey

"This is much more than a new edition of The Travels; it is really two books in one. . . . Harper has traveled the routes followed by John Bartram in the 1760's and William in the 1770's. The study is a labor of love, but also a labor of great scholarly value . . . Superb [and] indispensable."--American Quarterly

"In the southeastern forests and savannahs, Bartram experienced a wild that we can no longer know in our mechanized and urbanized present. Our sense of environmental loss imparts an elegiac fascination to his evocative and rapturous descriptions."--New Republic

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

William Bartram (1739-1823) is renowned as one of the first early American naturalists. Francis Harper (1886-1972) was a noted field biologist and the author of many books, including Okefinokee Album (Georgia).

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140170081
• ISBN-13: 978-0140170085
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,043,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Natural History classic, February 9, 2000

By 

Anita Gelbart (Augusta, Ga. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Travels of William Bartram: Naturalist Edition (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the nature, landscapes, Indians, and early settlements of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee around the year 1775. I haven't read this book in about 10 years, but I do remember checking it out of the library about 3 times, and I'm going to buy it for my birthday. The landscapes the Bartram describes will by and large never be seen again. Bartram described seeing a 45 square mile forest made up of nothing but magnolia, and dogwood trees. He saw forests that were covered by grapevines for miles. The trees were sometimes 20 feet thick, and the grapevines were so old that the vines were more than a foot thick. He saw canebrakes that covered miles, and some of the bamboo cane was 40 feet high. Canebrakes are practically extinct as an environment. He saw virgin forsts, abandoned Indian fields, overgrown Indian villages, open pine savannah forests, and uninhabited swamps. He saw wildlife which today would be scare, or extinct. He reported seeing a bobcat stalk a turkey. He pleaded with a market hunter not to kill a mother bear, and lamented the reaction of the bear cub to it's mother being killed. Bartram also reported seeing wolves, and bison skulls from recently killed buffulo. Bison were just rendered extinct in eastern Georgia at that time. Bartram took literary licence with some events. He exaggerated his encounters with alligators in Florida. After enjoying a meal of fish, rice, and oranges from the Spanish missionary orchards, he battled "fire breathing dragons." Bartram had many encounters with the Creeks, and Cherokees, and most were friendly. He feasted with Indian cattle raisers. Bartram also gives a good account of early settlements. If you decide to get this book, also get a copy of a tree guide with the scientific names, because Bartram tells exactly what kind of trees he came across in each forest. What I wouldn't give to see what Bartram saw?

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable resource for Bartram enthusiasts, September 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Travels of William Bartram: Naturalist Edition (Paperback)

The Travels of William Bartram, first published in 1791, was the first book to combine the natural sciences, travel and philosophy in a style that was not purely scientific. The Travels has it all-encounters with entrepid Seminoles, battles with alligators, observations on God's design for Nature and new plant discoveries. He influenced a generation of professional travelers, scientists and writers and was a mentor to some of America's greatest pioneer naturalists. The Naturalist's Edition of Bartram's Travels has been the bible for enthusiasts wishing to follow in the footsteps of the gentle Quaker botanist. This edition has been out of print for a number of years and has been increasingly hard to come by until now. Author Francis Harper was a well known biologist employed by the American Philosophical Society to retrace Bartram's travels in the late 1940's. His work is presented in the commentary section of the Naturalist's Edition and an index that catalogues and identifies the plants mentioned in the Travels. Harper's work has been the foundation for much of the modern effort to commemorate William Bartram's trail and lead to a revival of interest in Bartram's work in the 1970's.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hight Priest of 18th century natural science, November 6, 2006

By 

Brian D. Fitzpatrick (Medford, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Travels of William Bartram: Naturalist Edition (Paperback)

"...So it is the varied and mutable scenes of human events on the stream of life.The high powers and affection of the soul are so blended and connected with the inferior passions, that the most painful feelings are excited in the mind when the latter are crossed,thus in the moral system,which we have planned for our conduct,as a ladder whereby to mount to the summit of terrestrial glory and happiness,and from whence we perhaps mediated our flight to heaven itself at the very moment when we vainly imagine ourselves to have obtained it's point,some unforseen accident intervenes,and suprises us;the chain is violently shaken,we quit our hold and fall:the well contrived system at once becomes a chaos;every

idea of happiness recedes;the splendor of glory darkens,and at length totally disappears;every pleasing object is defaced,all is deranged,and the flattering scene moves quietly away;,a gloomy cloud pervades the understanding,and when we see our progress retarded,and our best intentions frustrated,we are apt to deviate from the abmonitions and convictions of virtue,to shut our eyes upon our guide and protector,dought of his power,and despair of his assistance.But,let us wait and rely on our GOD,who in due time will shine forth in brightnes,dissipate the envious cloud,and reveal to us how finite and circumscribe in human power,when assuming to itself human wisdom..."

Excert from Dover Publications -copyright 1928 (Part 1,Ch.5 pgs.66-670

(born-April,9,1739,Kingsessing,Pa.-died July 22 1823,Kingsessing)

The son of John Bartram,considered the 'father of American botany',self-educated,and a friend of Benjamin Franklin and the botanist for the American colonies to GEORGE 111.William Bartram describes the abundant river swamps of the southeastern US in their primeval condition.An engaging read throughout.The writing is so graceful and genuine with that 'home spun'fragrance that usually are the attributes of a simple and gentle man doggedly pursuing the convictions of his heart.Judging from his writing it would of been a pleasure,permission granted, to have been his companion throughout his entire excursion through Florida,Georgia,and the Carolinas.This is an adventure full of suprises and gives one a sense of exploring the primordial landscapes of the souteastern United States 200 yrs ago.