| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen |
The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon by Allan W. Eckert |
The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species by Scott Weidensaul |
Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder by Kenn Kaufman |
by Fred Bodsworth
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Merwin found this slim 1955 novel on a shelf in the house of friends, and, struck with the "plain, succinct evocation and beauty" of Fred Bodsworth's writing, suggested its reissue to a publisher. This is a quick, elegant, devastating read. The Eskimo curlew was a species of shorebird that migrated (and perhaps, in extremely small numbers, still migrates) south from arctic Canada every fall, in a flight that took it eastward across Canada, and then, after feeding, south over the Atlantic to South America--this latter journey nearly 2,500 miles of nonstop flight. The curlew was almost unique among shorebirds for its ability to make this grueling passage.
Bodsworth, a respected ornithologist, makes us care about his fictional bird protagonist--a lone curlew in search of a mate--while still cautiously riding the line between description and anthropomorphism. Of his curlew preparing for a mate, he writes: "He waited within the borders of his territory, flying in tightening circles and calling excitedly as the other bird came nearer. The female was coming. The three empty summers that the male had waited vainly and alone on his breeding territory were a vague, tormenting memory, now almost lost in a brain so keenly keyed to instinctive responses that there was little capacity for conscious thought or memory."
The demise of this species at the hands of hunters and hungry consumers was so rapid and thorough that the "millions that darkened the sky" in Newfoundland in the 1870s during their annual migration were reduced to only a few lone fliers by the 1890s. An afterword by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann and line drawings by Abigail Rorer add context to this remarkable book. --Maria Dolan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The Eskimo curlew, which once made its migration from Patagonia to the Arctic in flocks so dense that they darkened the sky, was brought to the verge of extinction by the wanton slaughter of game-hunters.
Following the doomed search of a solitary curlew for a female of its kind, Fred Bodsworth’s novel is a haunting indictment of man’s destruction of the natural world. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Following the doomed search of a solitary curlew for a female of its kind, Fred Bodsworth’s novel is a haunting indictment of man’s destruction of the natural world. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
› Visit Amazon's Fred Bodsworth Page
› Visit Amazon's Fred Bodsworth Page
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
By June the arctic night has dwindled to a brief interval of grey dusk and throughout the long days mosquitoes swarm up like clouds of smoke from the potholes of the thawing tundra. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
male curlew, migratory urge, other shorebirds, courtship feeding, golden plover, breast muscles, flight speed Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
South America, North American, Gulf of Mexico, Last of the Curlews New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
By June the arctic night has dwindled to a brief interval of grey dusk and throughout the long days mosquitoes swarm up like clouds of smoke from the potholes of the thawing tundra. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
male curlew, migratory urge, other shorebirds, courtship feeding, golden plover, breast muscles, flight speed Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
South America, North American, Gulf of Mexico, Last of the Curlews New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 6
books:
See all 6 books this book cites
4
books
cite this book:
- Vanished Species by David Day in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Extinct Birds (Comstock books) by Errol Fuller in Back Matter
- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton in Back Matter
- Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections) by Aldo Leopold in Front Matter
- Birds to Watch: The World List of Threatened Birds No. 2 (Birdlife Conservation Series) by N.J. Collar in Back Matter
See all 6 books this book cites
- No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species by Richard Ellis on page 179, and Back Matter
- The Birdwatcher's Companion (A Think Book) by Malcolm Tait on page 62
- Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm by Jane Brox in Back Matter
- Hanna-Barbera Cartoons by Michael Mallory in Back Matter
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
96% buy the item featured on this page: Last of the Curlews (The Edwin Way Teale Library of Nature Classics) |
 |
2% buy The Strange One |
 |
1% buy The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon $16.95 |
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Listmania!
|
|
So You'd Like to...
Product Information from the Amapedia Community
Beta (What's this?)Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.
› See featured Amapedia.com articles
Look for Similar Items by Category
Look for Similar Items by Subject
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. |
