Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

TALES FROM THE ICE-FREE ZONE, by Robert E. Lee, was seriously and soberly written to inform anyone who might pick up the book about life in the Driftless Area of America's Upper Midwest. Here lies the portion of our country that the great glaciers bypassed, though glacial activity completely surrounded it -- on one side at a time -- during at least four advances of the ice sheet. The bulk of this anomaly lies over the southwestern quarter (approximately) of the State of Wisconsin, though its edges slop across state lines into the adjacent corners of the neighboring Sister States of Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Tracks of the great ice sheets can be seen all around the "Ice-free Zone" -- with plenty of glacial till of sand, gravel, and boulders in the landscape. The principal signs of glaciation within the Driftless Area lie in the bottoms and on the banks of rivers such as the Mississippi, Wisconsin, and Black Rivers that completely traversed the Ice-free Zone. The beds of such streams are filled with glacial till that was dropped as the melt-water flooding subsided. Such material is dug from gravel pits today and used as the aggregate in the mixing of concrete. On the other side of the glacial coin, it seems reasonable to suppose that much more of the pre-glacial topography adjacent to the Driftless Area must have looked much like the unglaciated terrain does now. Therefore, one might very well say that we have a living museum of ancient landforms right in front of us today. Only the life forms upon it have changed. These life forms are the principal subjects of this book. Here are the flora and fauna, depicted as the author has met them. He sees subjects of interest wherever he goes. Almost all of them are commonplace individuals of ordinary species, yet each one seems to tell a story by doing something that many folks miss. Every individual plant, mammal, bird, amphibian, or reptile has its own individuality and beauty, too. And the things that some of them do Within these pages you will meet the Lone Ranger, The Sandbank Blues, and the Ugly All-American. You will be introduced to an "Odd Couple" that you have probably never dreamt of before. Their true story could probably be turned into a novel, especially in this era of cartoon style feature films of everything from bugs and chickens to superheros. Read further, and you will learn both when and why "Pink" is also "Violet." You will visit the perfumed ballerina fields of deep summer, and you could also see surprising summer snow. On a hot August afternoon, without a breath of air stirring, you might see a flowering plant doing a wildly gyrating dance -- and, later, find out why That same evening, with luck, you could hear a loud and clattering "Midsummer Night's Chorus"-- of what? Again, the answer may surprise you. October nights in the Ice-free Zone may bring you the sound of the voice of the "Hob-goblin of Frosty Nights," a sound that might make your hackles rise. You will find out why this same month came to be called the "Crazy Moon" and who the "crazies" are. Get to know why November is likely to have a "Touch of Scarlet" at a season of the year when the rest of the world is a dull gray. Do you know why December sometimes brings us "Big Yellow Birds"? Or why January is an excellent time to track the Sub-arctic Snow Snake? Have you ever met the "Tiny Terror of the Tabletop"? One must really pay attention to see this fellow, but a visit with him is worth your time. Inside information on all of these subjects and many others will be revealed to you if you but open the covers of "Tales from the Ice-free Zone." The author is an old hand at spinning a yarn, and there are a lot of those yarns in this book. It should be mentioned that the great majority of the subjects of the stories in this volume are native to the great northeastern section of the United States from Virginia into Canada and west to the 100th Meri

Vonnie Roudette has created a seminal work of Caribbean Nature writings revealing creative messages for community transformation through daily observation. Compiled largely from five-minute weekly radio commentaries that were aired in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on the WEFM Radio Viewpoint program between June 2004-June 2009, The Nature of Belonging is a Collection of Short Essays that are beautifully interspersed with Roudette's poetic drawings and meditations on Nature. Through The Nature of Belonging, Roudette seeks to facilitate personal healing from social and cultural programming through the practical application of resilient natural wisdom that nurtures cooperative relationships within our personal and working lives, community and natural environment. "There is a dialogue in these pages between two or more ways of thinking. That is the point of the book: to share in real stories the Roudette compassion for life, for nature, for people who can become open to others. These essays are the testimony of an urgent, loving spirit." - Oscar Allen, author, social commentator. "It requires a great combination of skills to produce a work of such range of themes and quality of perception. Be the subject Vincentian architecture, carnival, the role of the landscape in shaping consciousness, Caribbean regional cuisine and the art of healthy living: Ms. Roudette's meditations provide us with a manual of instruction for teachers and learners with an interest in the art of seeing and listening. This translation of weekly broadcasts on St. Vincent and the Grenadines radio into an anthology of essays bears the mark of editorial distinction which could only have been achieved by a creative teacher for whom "there is great satisfaction in being able to step back and see something not only continue but continue to grow." -George Lamming, scholar, author, critic.

The Pekingese - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: The New Book Of The Dog by Robert Leighton (1907), Dogs And How To Know Them by Edward C. Ash (1925), Hutchinson's Dog Encyclopaedia by Walter Hutchinson (1935) and many others.

With a new afterword, Why You Are Here: A speech on the opening of the COP26 climate summit As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day - the loss of our planet's wild places, its biodiversity. I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet contains my witness statement, and my vision for the future - the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. We have the opportunity to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the wonderful world we inherited. All we need is the will do so.

This book should become the "Camper's Guide" for anyone interested in staying at any of the state parks and waysides in Minnesota. It is filled with details of each of the parks and waysides; what facilities are available from one park to the next, descriptions of the campgrounds and the campsites, and what points of interest may be nearby. Along with all of the information, there are maps of the campgrounds and a map of each of the parks included. But, that is only one part of the book. Another part of the book describes the adventure that was had by the author and his wife as they traveled the highways and back roads of Minnesota getting from one park to the next. There is detailed information concerning the history of many of the parks because the diversity of the state parks is just a mirror of nature's diversity here in the great state of Minnesota.

Beatty's Cabin journeys back to an amazing time when the Pecos high country of northern New Mexico was still wild and free. George Beatty, an old-time prospector, built his two-room log cabin on a grassy flat, beside the upper Pecos River, an area Elliott Barker grew to love. Beatty's cabin is the pivotal axis for Barker's thrilling memoir of his experiences and rugged adventures, many happy, a few tragic. He gets his first inspiring glimpse of the remote Pecos high country on the very same adventuresome trip when he first explores Beatty's old cabin and prospect holes. With the babble of the upper Pecos water and the whispers of the mountain breezes among the spruces, he begins chronicling his adventures, starting with his first wilderness pack trip in 1896 at the age of ten and continuing with the awe-inspiring glimpses of mountain meadows and rugged peaks. Elliott relates tales of grizzly bear hunts, capturing outlaws, and a perilous winter rescue of a bunch of snow-trapped horses, among others. The historical development of the Santa Fe National Forest and the Pecos Wilderness area, so dear to Barker's heart, form the foundation for this unprecedented memoir of the beauty and the glory of wild New Mexico.

This follow-up to Naturally Curious, a National Outdoor Book Award winner, is a day-by-day account of nature observations throughout the year. Daily entries include entertaining and enlightening observations about specific animal or plant activity happening in eastern North America on that date. Set up as a naturalist's journal, entries describe in detail sightings and events in the natural world and are accompanied by stunning color photographs of birds, animals, insects, plants, and more. Essays throughout describe specific events in nature happening during each month, while sidebars supply natural history facts and information pertinent to the topics of the month or the time of year.

John Muir (1838- 1914) was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and the modern day "patron saint of ecology." His writings on his adventures in the various wildernesses of America have been enjoyed by millions. His ecological activism helped to preserve many of the national parks, enabling others to enjoy nature. He founded the Sierra Club, which is one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. Although his upbringing put him off religion for life he was an immensely spiritual man, and this quality and enthusiasm pervades all his writings, inspiring his readers, including politicians to preserve the natural landscapes. For this reason he is known as the "Father of the National Parks." Author William Anderson, said that Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth," and biographer Donald Worster said he believed his mission was ..".saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism." The Mountains of California (1894) draws on his many, decades of exploration, describing with poetic beauty and awe the lakes, mountains, plants and animals. Stickeen (1909) is Muir's most popular book, describing his adventures in Alaska with a dog. My First Summer in the Sierra (1911) is Muir's description of his spiritual awakening when he first encountered the mountains and valleys of central California. The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913) is Muir's autobiography, detailing his strict upbringing in Scotland, his emigration with his family to America, aged eleven, and of his first delight with the natural world. Travels in Alaska (1915), In the late 1800s, Muir made several trips to the pristine, unspoilt territory of Alaska, drawn to its beauty and purity, its glaciers and its wild animals - bears, bald eagles, wolves, and whales. The Cruise of the Corwin (1917), In 1881, the steamship Thomas Corwin voyaged into the treacherous Arctic seas to search for the lost ship Jeannette, which had been lost. The ship was not found, but Muir's account of this expedition is poetic and magical, describing the glaciers, vegetation and seas of this mysterious land. Steep Trails(1919), This book was derived from letters, articles and local publications written by John Muir, arranged in roughly chronological sequence. The chapters describing Nevada, San Gabriel and Utah were written in the field, and have great immediacy, describing Muir's first impressions. The Yosemite(1920), In this book Muir recounts his adventures during the years he lived in the Yosemite Valley's spectacular scenery. Muir captures the breath-taking beauty of the area alongside his most ambitious adventures; looking over the brink of Yosemite Falls, climbing a hundred feet up into a high, hollow ice-cone, and climbing to the top of Half Dome, covered with a fresh blanket of snow.

Winter is a withdrawal: quiet and dark and cold. But in the dim light frost shimmers, stars twinkle and hearths blaze as we come together to keep out the chill. In spite of the season, life persists: visiting birds fill our skies, familiar creatures find clever ways to survive, and the world reveals winter riches to those willing to venture outdoors. In prose and poetry spanning seven hundred years, Winter delights in the brisk pleasures and enduring beauty of the year's turning. Featuring new writing from Patrick Barkham, Satish Kumar and Anita Sethi, extracts from the work of Robert Macfarlane, James Joyce and Kathleen Jamie, and a range of exciting new voices from across the UK, this invigorating collection evokes the joys and the consolations of this magical time of year.

The Japanese bombing of Wake Island began a mere few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 8, 1941. Thirty-six Japanese aircraft blasted the atoll's US base and destroyed eight of twelve aircraft. For fifteen days American troops suffered endless bombardments until the second major Japanese offensive was launched on 23rd December. The battle took place on and around the atoll and its minor islets by the air, land, and naval forces of the Japanese Empire against those of the United States, with Marines playing a prominent role on both sides. Against overwhelming forces the Marines and other troops that were stationed on the island fought valiantly, but after forty-nine men had lost their lives in the fight, the remaining American men and civilians were captured by the Japanese.

The lower Mississippi River winds past the City of New Orleans between enormous levees and a rim of sand, mud, and trees called "the batture." On this remote and ignored piece of land thrives a humanity unique to the region-ramblers, artists, drinkers, fishers, rabbit hunters, dog walkers, sunset watchers, and refugees from Immigration, alimony, and other aspects of modern life.

Author Oliver A. Houck has frequented this place for the past twenty-five years. "Down on the Batture" describes a life, pastoral, at times marginal, but remarkably fecund and surprising. From this place he meditates on Louisiana, the state of the waterway, and its larger environs. He describes all the actors that have played lead roles on the edge of the mightiest river of the continent, and includes in his narrative plantations, pollution, murder, land grabs, keelboat brawlers, slave rebellions, the Corps of Engineers, and the oil industry.

Houck draws from his experience in New Orleans since the early 1970s in the practice and teaching of law. He has been a player in many of the issues he describes, although he does not undertake to argue them here. Instead, story by story, he uses the batture to explore the forces that have shaped and spell out the future of the region. The picture emerges of a place that---for all its tangle of undergrowth, drifting humanity, shifting dimensions in the rise and fall of floodwater---provides respite and sanctuary for values that are original to America and ever at risk from the homogenizing forces of civilization.

The Pointer - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: The Illustrated Book Of The Dog by Vero Shaw (1879)., Dogs Of The World by Arthur Craven (1931), The Dog In Sport by J. Wentworth Day (1938) and many others.

This early work on poultry husbandry is a fascinating read for any poultry enthusiast, but also contains much information that is still useful and practical today. It will prove of much interest to the amateur poultry keeper as well as those in the field of agriculture. Extensively illustrated with text and full page photographs. Contents Include: The Beginner; Breeds and Strains; Houses and Appliances; Foods and Feeding; Hatching; Rearing; Domestic Poultry Keeping; Intensive Poultry Keeping; Winter Egg-Production; Day-Old Chicks; Ducks; Turkeys; Geese; Guinea Fowls; Diseases of Poultry; Enemies of Poultry; Egg-Preserving; Killing and Shaping; Marketing; Accounts; and an Index. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.