$10,000 Reward
To anyone capable of documenting a live Ivory-bill Woodpecker!
Good Luck!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Need Cash Now?!?
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (copy)
It was known by many different names: Kent, White-Back, Pate, Poule de bois, Van Dyke, etc.. It depended on which part of the South one dwelt. In the late 1800s one name began to take prominence. From the Eastern seaboard to the Mississippi Gulf it became known as the Lord God Bird after one dumbstruck observer announced, “Lord God, what a bird!”
Notice, I am using the past tense, for this bird is now extinct. The last official sighting of an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker or Campephilus principalis was 1944. Local ornithologists were checking on a female daily at John’s Bayou in the Singer Tract of Louisiana when a windstorm blew down her ash tree home, and she was never seen again.
There were two main factors which led to the demise of this magnificent species. One factor was attributed to the bird itself. If only its plumage and size were not so incredible. Ladies wanted to decorate their hair and hats with the long black and white feathers as was the style. The other factor was our growing need in America for wood. The rebuilding of Chicago after the 1871 fire left only 10 years of lumber in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The Yankees looked southward for the housing boom.
To some extent, the researchers also played a role in the bird’s extinction. In the early years of birding, scientist had to kill the birds in order to study them. They did not have the luxury of photography, moving pictures, or recorded sound. Hunters were paid four or five dollars for a specimen by a middleman who then charged 10 to 12 dollars to scientists or curators. The white-bill brought in many greenbacks which led to hundreds slaughtered in a week’s time. John James Audubon once took delivery of an adult male and female, plus juvenile along with the tree trunk and nest in which they lived.
I gleaned all this knowledge and more from Phillip Hoose’s The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. Written for high school students, the book is filled with over 70 photographs including one taken of Audubon’s painting of the woodpecker family mentioned earlier.
According to this book, published in 2004, the bird is extinct, but some birdwatchers feel differently. There are three books written on an adult level dealing with this subject: Ivorybill Hunters by Geoffrey E. Hill, Stalking the Ghost Bird by Michael K. Steinberg, and The Grail Bird by Tim Gallagher.
How nice it would be to rediscover this bird in the wilds!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Mississippi Autobiographies (copy)
Reading Richard Wright’s autobiography Black Boy this week, I was suddenly hit with an epiphany. Many writers have found their upbringing in Mississippi as either idyllic or horrific, but all have written excellently about their experience; thus, the state of Mississippi produces quality autobiographies!
As a new manager of the Como Public Library in 1996, I found myself in uncharted waters. I grew up in Tennessee and was unfamiliar with my new adopted state. To gain knowledge, I decided to ask patrons about Mississippi authors or books about the state. A lovely woman suggested Mildred Topp’s Smile Please.
What a state treasure! Mildred’s mother found herself a widow after only five years of marriage and forced to move back to her hometown of Greenwood, MS, in 1907. In order to support herself and her two girls, she opened a photography shop using her late husband’s equipment.
Little Mildred had a keen eye for the characters of Greenwood. Nowhere else will one read about a conjure woman named Mammy Lou, or a cowboy who came to town to steal a widow’s heart. Published in 1948, copies are rare but still available at your public library. Within the book’s cover, readers will be rewarded with photos taken at the studio.
Another excellent autobiography is Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings. Eudora was that little fly on the wall constantly hiding under tables, behind chairs, and in closets waiting for the chance to hear adult conversation. She took those forbidden stories and created the truest characters in the South. Plus, who would not enjoy skating up and down the halls of our state’s Capitol along with young Eudora.
Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi will have you on razor’s edge as she fights for her rights. I consider Anne, a humble sharecropper’s daughter who raised attitude to a new level, to be a modern day hero. Many Mississippian’s can learn from her experiences as she faces the harsh realities of being black and female during the Civil Rights Movement in Woodville, MS.
Two newer autobiographies worth mentioning are Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums and The Peddler’s Grandson by Edward Cohen. Kevin speaks of growing up gay in Forest, MS, and Edward writes of his experiences feeling like the only Jewish man in Jackson, MS.
What would your Mississippi story be if you could write one?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A Guy, A Rope, & A Redwood Tree
Jim plays a small part in The Wild Trees. The unnamed naturists, of which he speaks, play an important role in the book. Michael and Chris hike into the unknown almost every weekend in search of the tallest tree. If one finds an undiscovered giant they are allowed to name it. Michael has probably named the most!
Watching this National Geographic segment will introduce you to the main characters mentioned in The Wild Trees. Enjoy!
The Wild Trees (copy)
Open season starts September 16 for climbing trees. Not just any trees, but giant coastal redwoods, or Sequoia Sempervirens as they are known to the handful of scientist who currently study in them. Things were different in 1987 when a group of college students ascended one of these giants on a dare. As far as anyone knew, the redwoods had never been climbed.
Brothers Scott and Steve Sillett and best buddy Marwood Harris were on fall break in 1987 from their respective universities. Traveling the National Parks of Oregon and California in a beat-up, blue Honda Civic, they stopped for a break in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. This trio, as always, was low on funds. They decided to ditch the car to avoid permit fees, and hiked into an unpopulated part of the park.
When the meager trail narrowed, Steve ran ahead and began bushwhacking a new path. By the time the others caught up, Steve was staring at one of the largest trees he had ever seen. Marwood and Steve began circling the tree as Scott scouted out a campsite in the redwood grove.
With a little nod between men, Steve murmured, “I’m lusting for this tree.” He took a running jump and landed 8 feet into a neighboring redwood. This redwood was young and it took Steve ten minutes to reach the top as Marwood followed suit.
Transitioning to the giant tree would be tricky. Steve began to sway on the smaller tree’s leader, a top part of any redwood which resembles an arm stretching to the sun, with the idea to catch a limb on the giant’s trunk.
Scott was in a panic at the bottom. He understood a man might die from a 15 foot fall, and here was his brother and friend 50 feet in the air. At this height a falling man will become an inverted arrow with no way to protect his head or spine from certain tragic consequences.
Scott was now out of his mind as he watched his brother swing the smaller tree close and jump 8 feet of open space. Steve grabbed onto an epicormic branch (a flimsy, fan-shaped spray of needles) that developed out of a scar on the larger tree’s trunk. It held.
Once aspiring botanists Steve and Marwood entered the redwood’s canopy, they recognized it as a never before seen habitat.
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston is a remarkable piece of narrative nonfiction from the author of The Hot Zone.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Mule Time!
Hubby blurted out, "Five!" on his way to the volunteer fire fighters meeting tonight!
Congratulations, Wisteria of A Bookworm's Dinner! You are the winner of a slightly read, first edition Dirty Work by Larry Brown.
When hubby gets back we will draw for Southern books! Stay Tuned!
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (copy)
22nd May, 1946Stephens & Stark Ltd.
21 St. James’s Place
London S. W. 1
England
Dear Sidney,
There is so much to tell you. I have been on the island less than 20 hours, but needn’t introductions. Everyone looks as I pictured them through their letters and have been able to call them by their first names without err. Our new friend Dawsey, the Charles Lamb reader, actually favors the great writer. Oh, and the eccentric Isola, wore a glittering brooch, purple shawl, and mad hat worthy of any respectable witch. She jumped the gang plank and gave me the biggest hug!
Why, why, do I not listen to people? The crossing was a harrowing experience with seas high and boisterous. The mail boat, a mere cork bobbing to and fro in our English Channel, was rather uncomfortable. I can only guess to the lovely shade of green I must have presented the welcoming party. Remind me, when someone says take the ferry to heed, indeed.
The most amazing experience happened as we entered the harbor. The dull gray clouds and mist which seemed to follow me all the way from London lifted, and a ray of light shone on the cliffs of Guernsey. It was like God himself opened the door and welcomed me into the fold.
Thank you for this opportunity. I am sure the book will benefit greatly from the personal interviews this trip will allow. Already, the stories from my correspondence with islanders have added an intriguing air to the German Occupation of Guernsey during the war.
Thanks again and love,
Juliet
Juliet
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is not the suburban, wine-drinking bored housewives of other similarly titled books. The book, told through letters, begins with main character Juliet researching an article idea for The Times when a letter simultaneously arrives appropriate to the subject. As the article blossoms into a book, readers will fall in love with the characters and their island home.
Don't take my word for it! Read these fine reviews: A Book Lover Forever, Book Fan, CaribousMom, Lesley's Book Nook, My Random Acts of Reading, Reading Adventures, Stuck in a Book.
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