Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Showing 1 - 4 of 4 matches in All Departments
The collaboration of two friends-one a novelist, one a novelist,
one a marine biologist-produced a volume in which fascinating
popular science is woven into a narrative of man's dreams, his
ideals, and his accomplishments through the centuries. "Sea of
Cortez" is one of those rare books that are all things to all
readers. Actually the record of a brief collecting expedition in
the lonely GUlf of California, it will be science to the scientist,
philosophy to the philosopher, and to the average man an adventure
in living and thinking.
One of the classic works of marine biology, a favorite for
generations, has now been completely revised and expanded. "Between
Pacific Tides" is a book for all who find the shore a place of
excitement, wonder, and beauty, and an unsurpassed introductory
text for both students and professionals.
Trailblazing marine biologist, visionary conservationist, deep ecology philosopher, Edward F. Ricketts (1897-1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ahead of his time, Ricketts was a scientist who worked in passionate collaboration with many of his friends - artists, writers, and influential intellectual figures - including, perhaps most famously, John Steinbeck, who once said that Ricketts' mind 'had no horizons.' This unprecedented collection, featuring previously unpublished pieces as well as others available for the first time in their original form, reflects the wide scope of Ricketts' scientific, philosophical, and literary interests during the years he lived and worked on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. These writings, which together illuminate the evolution of Ricketts' unique, holistic approach to science, include 'Verbatim transcription of notes on the Gulf of California trip,' the basic manuscript for Steinbeck's and Ricketts' Log from the Sea of Cortez; the essays "The Philosophy of Breaking Through" and "A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry;" several shorter pieces on topics including collecting invertebrates and the impact of modernization on Mexican village life; and more. An engaging critical biography and a number of rare photographs offer a new and richly detailed view of Ricketts' life.
This portrait of one of John Steinbeck's closest friends illuminates the life and work of a figure central to the development of scientific and literary thought in the 20th century. Marine biologist Edward F. Ricketts is perhaps best known as the inspiration for John Steinbeck's most empathic literary characters Doc in "Cannery Row," Slim in "Of Mice and Men," Jim Casy in "The Grapes of Wrath," and Lee in "East of Eden." The correspondence of this accomplished scientist, writer, and philosopher reveals the influential exchange of ideas he shared with such prominent thinkers and artists as Henry Miller, Joseph Campbell, Ellwood Graham, and James Fitzgerald, in addition to Steinbeck, all of whom were drawn to Ricketts's Monterey Bay laboratory, a haven of intellectual discourse and Bohemian culture in the 1930s and 1940s. The 125 previously unpublished letters of this collection, housed at the Stanford University Library, document the broad range of Ricketts's interests and accomplishments during the last 12 and most productive years of his life. His handbook on Pacific marine life, "Between Pacific Tides," is still in print, now in its fifth edition. The biologist's devotion to ecological conservation and his evolving philosophy of science as a cross-disciplinary, holistic pursuit led to the publication of "The Sea of Cortez." Many of Ricketts's letters discuss his studies of the Pacific littoral and his theories of "phalanx" and transcendence. Epistles to family members, often tender and humorous, add dimension and depth to Steinbeck's mythologized depictions of Ricketts. Katharine A. Rodger has enriched the correspondence with an introductory biographical essay and a list of works cited.
|
You may like...
|