The Book of Naturalists

by William Beebe (Editor)

Anyone curious about animals, nature, or the history of biology will find much of interest in this ample and varied collection. Reflecting his infectious enthusiasm for "the best natural history," Beebe's personal assortment of favorites includes excerpts from massive sources, such as Audubon and Darwin, and intriguing pieces from lesser known authors most of us would not normally encounter. Arranged in chronological order, the small masterpieces here range from Aristotle to Rachel Carson. Each of them is introduced by an incisive and sometimes humorous description of its author.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Natural History

520 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Numerous expeditions of Charles William Beebe, American naturalist, explorer, and author, include a record oceanic descent in a bathysphere, which he helped to design in 1934.

William Beebe worked as a marine biologist and entomologist. For the zoological society of New York, he conducted his deep dives, and people remember his prolific scientific writing for both academic and popular audiences.

He also wrote under the names Charles William and C. William Beebe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

Reviews

[Joe Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book I read a long time ago and have recently reread. Some of the essays are excellent. John Muir on the Water Ouzel, for instance. Others are terrible, unless you get off on depictions of polar bears and elephants being gunned down. The worst is probably Julian Huxley's chauvinistic peon to the exceptionalism of "Man," among the animal kingdom. Almost everything he says a modern evolutionary biologist recognizes as wrong. (His grandfather T.H.'s essay is much better.) Gerald Heard's "Emergence of the Half-Men" is terrible as well. One of the strangest, and to my mind best essays is Gustav Eckstein's account of the white rat pair who lived in the drawers of his writing desk. Darwin and Thoreau are here, along with some more obscure naturalists who deserve to be better known. An interesting anthology but very uneven in quality.

[Cassandra Lashae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could give this book a 5-star rating, except the collection suffers from some pretty severe blindness:

1.) Plant blindness, for it to be "the" book of naturalists it focuses more on animals and bugs than any other topic, and honestly mostly animals.

2.) Gender/Race blindness, there are no authors from any other background that European/White male

Now, as far as the writings about shooting animals and the superiority of man, and the stuff that we know is flat wrong by today's standards, I say, duh. It was published in 1944, you don't pick up this anthology hoping for the latest and greatest science. Rather, for me it was a fun dive into a history of science, a chance to read some things by authors I'd not heard of before, and at times just pure fun and entertainment! I've been teasing my friends that I have new standards for the men in my life to meet. If they aren't willing to "Wrestle sea monsters to be-dangle my ears with pearls" as Pliny, or capture a sloth for my personal edification as Watterton, or climb el capitan as Muir, or ... or... or.... these pioneer scientists with the type of equipment and training or lack thereof, should definitely be admired for their bravery if nothing else. Science writing was a lot more like poetry to them, too, which I think we could do with a bit more of these days, too. I'm all for the facts and proper information, but reading these selections also reminds me that there's something that sparks curiosity and wonder in them that is definitely missing from today's work by naturalists.

[Katrinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aristotle's thoughts, Charles Waterton's "The Sloth," and especially Gustav Eckstein's "Two Lives" were incredible. Generally good otherwise, but I really could have done without the white man's burden stuff (the collection was published in 1944), and a few scenes of just shooting everything in sight, for museum collections or just because.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a really lovely time working through this slowly.

[for-much-deliberation ...]

... focusing on the beginnings of the field of natural history and also exploring the work of the exemplar of such, Charles Darwin...

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading if only for Huxley's classic "On a piece of chalk."