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The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century of Biology
From Bernd Heinrich, the bestselling author of Winter World , comes the remarkable story of his father's life, his family's past, and how the forces of history and nature have shaped his own life. Although Bernd Heinrich's father, Gerd, a devoted naturalist, specialized in wasps, Bernd tried to distance himself from his “old-fashioned” father, becoming a a modern, experimental biologist with a naturalist's sensibilities. In this remarkable memoir, the award-winning author shares the ways in which his relationship with his father, combined with his unique childhood, molded him into the scientist, and man, he is today. From Gerd's days as a soldier in Europe to the family's daring escape from the Red Army in 1945 to the rustic Maine farm they came to call home, Heinrich relates it all in his trademark style, making science accessible and awe-inspiring.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
60 people are currently reading
1487 people want to read
About the author
Bernd Heinrich
67 books684 followersBernd Heinrich was born in Germany (April 19, 1940) and moved to Wilton, Maine as a child. He studied at the University of Maine and UCLA and is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Vermont.
He is the author of many books including Winter World, Ravens in Winter, Mind of the Raven, and Why We Run. Many of his books focus on the natural world just outside the cabin door.
Heinrich has won numerous awards for his writing and is a world class ultra-marathon runner.
He spends much of the year at a rustic cabin that he built himself in the woods near Weld, Maine.
He is the author of many books including Winter World, Ravens in Winter, Mind of the Raven, and Why We Run. Many of his books focus on the natural world just outside the cabin door.
Heinrich has won numerous awards for his writing and is a world class ultra-marathon runner.
He spends much of the year at a rustic cabin that he built himself in the woods near Weld, Maine.
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February 24, 2023
“Admittedly, he[the author’s father] was never fair. He neglected his daughters. He saw me, as his only son, not as a unique individual but as someone to be valued in terms of whether I would become an extension of him. I received advantages despite his intentions. I think I even benefited from our arguments–which focused my thoughts and helped me clarify and articulate them. He saved me from being condemned to fifty years of boredom. Despite my resistance to him, he instilled in me the mind and the values of a naturalist: to be open to all possibilities, to be a close and careful observer, to discipline my interpretations with facts, and to work hard army passions so that they might bear fruit.”
The Snoring Bird is part memoir, part nature study. Bernd Heinrich’s father, Gerd Heinrich, was a devoted naturalist and ichneumon wasp collector. He served as an army officer (not a Nazi) during World War II, because he felt that was the way to survive. He employed British prisoners at his farm, but also saved the family blacksmith from the Nazi death camp. To his family, he was a tyrant. Bernd Heinrich tried hard to present his father in a full, multi-colored way. I wonder what the man was like from the daughters or wives’ point of view. The eldest daughter, who never forgave her father, commented on her father’s relationship with multiple women: “Anybody who stayed close to Gerd for any length of time had to become very manipulative and sort of twisted. That seemed to be a sort of prerequisite of survival with him.”
The author did not have a close relationship with his mother. Both parents seemed to be too immersed in their own world to care much about the kids. Yet the kids grew up like wild trees and birds.
The book is also a history of 20th century biology study, a period when the old generation naturalists found the ground underneath disappearing and a new generation emerged, and when wild life changed from abundance to scarcity. The author summarized their 1961 African expedition:
“It would be the last of the classic zoological expeditions, the end of a tradition that stretched back over 100 years through the Victorian era, and it encompassed my heroes–Darwin, Wallace, Humboldt, Audubon. Such older fieldwork was giving away to the beginning of modern biology. In a few short years there would be virtually no new birds to discover, except by new methods of DNA analysis of already collected museum specimens in closely related species. Then in only a few more years, the unimaginable would happen: people would stop talking about new species. Instead they would be talking of ecological destruction and the extinction of even well-known species on a global scale.”
The Snoring Bird is part memoir, part nature study. Bernd Heinrich’s father, Gerd Heinrich, was a devoted naturalist and ichneumon wasp collector. He served as an army officer (not a Nazi) during World War II, because he felt that was the way to survive. He employed British prisoners at his farm, but also saved the family blacksmith from the Nazi death camp. To his family, he was a tyrant. Bernd Heinrich tried hard to present his father in a full, multi-colored way. I wonder what the man was like from the daughters or wives’ point of view. The eldest daughter, who never forgave her father, commented on her father’s relationship with multiple women: “Anybody who stayed close to Gerd for any length of time had to become very manipulative and sort of twisted. That seemed to be a sort of prerequisite of survival with him.”
The author did not have a close relationship with his mother. Both parents seemed to be too immersed in their own world to care much about the kids. Yet the kids grew up like wild trees and birds.
The book is also a history of 20th century biology study, a period when the old generation naturalists found the ground underneath disappearing and a new generation emerged, and when wild life changed from abundance to scarcity. The author summarized their 1961 African expedition:
“It would be the last of the classic zoological expeditions, the end of a tradition that stretched back over 100 years through the Victorian era, and it encompassed my heroes–Darwin, Wallace, Humboldt, Audubon. Such older fieldwork was giving away to the beginning of modern biology. In a few short years there would be virtually no new birds to discover, except by new methods of DNA analysis of already collected museum specimens in closely related species. Then in only a few more years, the unimaginable would happen: people would stop talking about new species. Instead they would be talking of ecological destruction and the extinction of even well-known species on a global scale.”
August 4, 2021
You'll probably need to be quite a Bernd Heinrich fan to begin with in order to get the most from this family memoir. It is a lengthy and reflective look back, not just at Bernd's life but also his father's (Gerd Heinrich). It outlines the family's origins from their small estate near a Polish-German village to their incredible escape from the advancing Russian army at the end of WWII.
A key but perhaps somewhat delicate and understated part of the writing, is where Bernd explores the forceful character of his very traditional father with a somewhat delicate and reverential tone. Nonetheless, he portrays a man who would seem nowadays to be a rather self-centered philanderer. Heinrich senior typically relied on the women in his life as both assistant taxidermists and lovers whilst being married to another. In fact, it was notable that Bernd's mother was happy to leave her children with Gerd's original wife while she and Gerd went off on exotic specimen-collecting expeditions. It wasn't until the family emigrated to the US that a choice had to be made as to who was ultimately the wife going forward! It was also interesting to see some reflections in Bernd's own struggles with his relationships with women. Again, this was an understated part of the memoir, and the focus truly was on the family's interest and Bernd's informal and formal education in naturalist biology.
Putting my psychologist's hat away, the stories of both Gerd's and Bernd's naturalist explorations around the world are quite fascinating and somewhat historical, as Bernd describes how his father's generation started shifting away from the specimen collecting strategy of the 19th century to the more complex scientific modeling and DNA sampling approach of the 20th. Readers looking for Bernd Heinrich's immersive descriptions of natural settings won't be disappointed. These are just not as common as they are in his other naturalist books, which focus on specifc topics such as ravens or a particular small eco-system over studied over time.
This is well worth the read if you are a lover of nature studies, 20th century history, but a must read if you want to understand the author, Bernd Heinrich.
A key but perhaps somewhat delicate and understated part of the writing, is where Bernd explores the forceful character of his very traditional father with a somewhat delicate and reverential tone. Nonetheless, he portrays a man who would seem nowadays to be a rather self-centered philanderer. Heinrich senior typically relied on the women in his life as both assistant taxidermists and lovers whilst being married to another. In fact, it was notable that Bernd's mother was happy to leave her children with Gerd's original wife while she and Gerd went off on exotic specimen-collecting expeditions. It wasn't until the family emigrated to the US that a choice had to be made as to who was ultimately the wife going forward! It was also interesting to see some reflections in Bernd's own struggles with his relationships with women. Again, this was an understated part of the memoir, and the focus truly was on the family's interest and Bernd's informal and formal education in naturalist biology.
Putting my psychologist's hat away, the stories of both Gerd's and Bernd's naturalist explorations around the world are quite fascinating and somewhat historical, as Bernd describes how his father's generation started shifting away from the specimen collecting strategy of the 19th century to the more complex scientific modeling and DNA sampling approach of the 20th. Readers looking for Bernd Heinrich's immersive descriptions of natural settings won't be disappointed. These are just not as common as they are in his other naturalist books, which focus on specifc topics such as ravens or a particular small eco-system over studied over time.
This is well worth the read if you are a lover of nature studies, 20th century history, but a must read if you want to understand the author, Bernd Heinrich.
December 29, 2020
Memoirs don’t usually strike me as fast paced and action packed, but this one was. From stories of specimen collecting in Africa to the account of two women’s flight from the Red Army after WWII with two toddlers in tow, this story is breathtaking. I found it difficult to put down.
I initially picked up this book after reading The Mind of the Raven by the same author. It left me intrigued about Bernd Heinrich’s story — what sort of person spends his life studying wildlife with such intensity — even to the point of physical hardship? As I made my way through the pages of this narrative, I found that Bernd’s story couldn’t be fully understood without the history of his family as well. The memoir is equally about the author’s father — an avid taxonomist who lived in Germany during both world wars and eventually immigrated to America. I found it to be riveting on many levels: as a glimpse into the life of a German family during the first half of the twentieth century, as an account of two men whose lives were committed to the natural world around them despite the changing trends and practices of the scientific world, and most of all as a vivid portrait of remarkable people living out lives that would seem utterly implausible in the pages of a novel.
I initially picked up this book after reading The Mind of the Raven by the same author. It left me intrigued about Bernd Heinrich’s story — what sort of person spends his life studying wildlife with such intensity — even to the point of physical hardship? As I made my way through the pages of this narrative, I found that Bernd’s story couldn’t be fully understood without the history of his family as well. The memoir is equally about the author’s father — an avid taxonomist who lived in Germany during both world wars and eventually immigrated to America. I found it to be riveting on many levels: as a glimpse into the life of a German family during the first half of the twentieth century, as an account of two men whose lives were committed to the natural world around them despite the changing trends and practices of the scientific world, and most of all as a vivid portrait of remarkable people living out lives that would seem utterly implausible in the pages of a novel.
January 12, 2019
When reading "Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death", one of Heinrich's earlier books, he mentions in passing things he saw or did in the forest shortly after World War 2, when his family was living there and had to scavenge food. He does not elaborate, as his topic then was more nature and less humanity. But, it did pique one's interest. Here he gives us the rest of the story, and it is a whopper.
Heinrich begins near the end, with a visit to his mother ("mamushka"), living alone as an old lady (well, she has cats and other animals). In the barn, he comes across possessions of his now-deceased father, and it inspires him to write his father's life story. Heinrich the Elder was, among other things:
1) one of the world's experts on ichneumon wasps
2) a WW1 fighter pilot
3) a WW2 veteran
4) an immigrant who had to sneak out of Poland and back into Germany, with his family, evading both the retreating Nazis, the very-angry-at-Germans Poles, the also-angry-at-Germans Soviets, and find a way to get himself and his family to America
5) a grumpy old man who did not entirely approve of the turn of late 20th century biology from field research into mathematically-oriented lab work
But this, of course, leaves out a great deal, and it takes over 400 well-written pages for Heinrich the Younger to do it so I won't try to summarize more here. It is, of course, also the tale of the author's life, and in particular the ways in which it paralleled and diverged from his father's. There is a point, often around middle-age, when a man often starts to think differently about his parents. Instead of being an authoritative and often unreasonable source of frustration, you are more able to see them as people who are often just making it up as they go along, just like you.
Heinrich the Elder managed to survive a very turbulent part of the 20th century, in the part of Europe where it was at its most turbulent, and brought his wife (or more than one, it's kind of complicated) and several children alive with him. Some of this was good luck. Some of this was good planning. Some of it was things like using his position to rescue a Polish welder from a concentration camp, and discovering later that people can be very grateful for that kind of thing, and you may find their help immensely useful when the tables are turned. The story, or several parallel ones, are told skillfully and with a great combination of humor and empathy, both honest and forgiving about flaws (his father's or his own or anyone else's).
Equally interesting is the enormous contrast between the pre-war Poland and Germany which the story begins in, and the post-WW2 America (especially Maine) which it ends up in. The contrast between the two worlds is enormous, and the ability of anyone who manages to live life in both of them is to be admired. There is also a similar distance between the earlier world of biology in which hunting (literally) for new species in the remotest wildernesses of the world, was what was called for (and paid for), and the later portion in which lab analysis was instead. Here, the author made the leap better than his father, and it adds a very human touch to the scientific part of the tale. It is said sometimes that science advances one tombstone at a time, as the opponents of new ideas are not so much convinced as outlasted. There is some truth to it, but it adds a new dimension to the saying, to read the story of one scientist, never at home in the new world, who was nevertheless (like all the scientists of his generation) a necessary precondition for it.
Heinrich begins near the end, with a visit to his mother ("mamushka"), living alone as an old lady (well, she has cats and other animals). In the barn, he comes across possessions of his now-deceased father, and it inspires him to write his father's life story. Heinrich the Elder was, among other things:
1) one of the world's experts on ichneumon wasps
2) a WW1 fighter pilot
3) a WW2 veteran
4) an immigrant who had to sneak out of Poland and back into Germany, with his family, evading both the retreating Nazis, the very-angry-at-Germans Poles, the also-angry-at-Germans Soviets, and find a way to get himself and his family to America
5) a grumpy old man who did not entirely approve of the turn of late 20th century biology from field research into mathematically-oriented lab work
But this, of course, leaves out a great deal, and it takes over 400 well-written pages for Heinrich the Younger to do it so I won't try to summarize more here. It is, of course, also the tale of the author's life, and in particular the ways in which it paralleled and diverged from his father's. There is a point, often around middle-age, when a man often starts to think differently about his parents. Instead of being an authoritative and often unreasonable source of frustration, you are more able to see them as people who are often just making it up as they go along, just like you.
Heinrich the Elder managed to survive a very turbulent part of the 20th century, in the part of Europe where it was at its most turbulent, and brought his wife (or more than one, it's kind of complicated) and several children alive with him. Some of this was good luck. Some of this was good planning. Some of it was things like using his position to rescue a Polish welder from a concentration camp, and discovering later that people can be very grateful for that kind of thing, and you may find their help immensely useful when the tables are turned. The story, or several parallel ones, are told skillfully and with a great combination of humor and empathy, both honest and forgiving about flaws (his father's or his own or anyone else's).
Equally interesting is the enormous contrast between the pre-war Poland and Germany which the story begins in, and the post-WW2 America (especially Maine) which it ends up in. The contrast between the two worlds is enormous, and the ability of anyone who manages to live life in both of them is to be admired. There is also a similar distance between the earlier world of biology in which hunting (literally) for new species in the remotest wildernesses of the world, was what was called for (and paid for), and the later portion in which lab analysis was instead. Here, the author made the leap better than his father, and it adds a very human touch to the scientific part of the tale. It is said sometimes that science advances one tombstone at a time, as the opponents of new ideas are not so much convinced as outlasted. There is some truth to it, but it adds a new dimension to the saying, to read the story of one scientist, never at home in the new world, who was nevertheless (like all the scientists of his generation) a necessary precondition for it.
January 5, 2009
This is an amazing book. It covers a lot of ground, and does so thoroughly. I enjoyed reading about the author's father's coming of age and history, and learned a lot about World War I while doing so. I learned a lot about taxidermy, and natural history, and wasps, and Expeditions. Then we moved into the story of the family, and as Bernd was growing up I was fascinated by the experiences he had as a young boy growing up in as an immigrant American. It was especially fun to read about Maine and Vermont as outlandish places. And then to read of his life as a young man, and a father himself. I am amazed by how much the family as a whole was able to accomplish despite siginificant adversity. Many times they lived in conditions that I would not think conducive to survival, and yet they thrived. Tremendous.
My favorite parts were the descriptions of Bernd's work as a graduate student. I think I will be reading some of his other work soon. I loved everything he had to say about ravens and honeybees!
For some reason it took me a dreadfully long time to read this book. Even though I really enjoyed all the parts, it did seem awfully easy to set it aside. I believe that is due to the scope of the subject matter. Each time I put it down and came back, it was almost as though I was reading a different book by the same author. It felt like it went on forever. The parts were all tied together as a family history, but they were quite disparate.
My favorite parts were the descriptions of Bernd's work as a graduate student. I think I will be reading some of his other work soon. I loved everything he had to say about ravens and honeybees!
For some reason it took me a dreadfully long time to read this book. Even though I really enjoyed all the parts, it did seem awfully easy to set it aside. I believe that is due to the scope of the subject matter. Each time I put it down and came back, it was almost as though I was reading a different book by the same author. It felt like it went on forever. The parts were all tied together as a family history, but they were quite disparate.
May 16, 2018
There has not been a Heinrich book I’ve read that I was totally captivated by it. This book is certainly no different though quite different in the nature of its subject from his other work.
This book deals with two subjects, his father’s life and how he himself became the writer and scientist he is. Both are fascinating stories in themselves.
Gerd Heinrich was born in 1896 in Berlin. His father was a physician and his mother the heiress to a 3300 acre farm in Borowke, Poland. Borowke was a beautiful setting for him to grow up in especially with his budding interest in everything in nature.
After his graduation from the Gymnasium in Berlin, he visited the curator of entomology at a museum and asked him what insect was least study. He was told the parasitic wasps of the Ichneumonidae family.
During the reading of the book, I had come to the conclusion Bernd’s father was not a very good man but by the end of the book I had amended my judgement of him. He was a highly unusual, difficult and obsessed human being.
During the First World War, he enlisted as a cavalryman fighting along the eastern front and by the end of the war was flying planes.
At the end of the war, he married and with his wife and her sister made several excursions across the world including a very hard trip to Burma collection skins of birds, shrews, mice, rats and other animals for museums around the world but each trip had another reason which was the main reason, collecting hundreds and hundreds of Ichneumon species, studying them, pinning them and eventually cataloguing them.
He published books on his finds which, of course, by nature of the subject matter had few readers.
The rise of Hitler alarmed him and he immediately began making plans as he sensed another world war was coming. With the war, though in his forties, he was drafted into the army. Due to his age and ability with languages he never had to see battle and through his administrative abilities was able to save several others from having to go near the fighting.
After the war he had to protect his family from the invading Russian army, a seemingly unsurmountable task and what an amazing tale of survival it was.
Eventually he was able to get his wife, sister-in-law and children (Bernd was one of them) safely away with the help of scientific friends across Europe and the United States but he lost Borowke.
After years of impoverishment, he was able to immigrate to the US and settled in Maine, a place that shaped the life of his son, Bernd.
Bernd’s tale is as fascinating as that of his father. Without formal scientific training, he was drawn to the study of animal behavior. After years of study, the ability to ask the interesting questions began to emerge which has given us all the wonderful books he has written.
A quote from Sir Peter Medawar he includes sums up the reason for his own success:
“One does not have to be terribly brainy to be a good scientist. One would do better for owning some of those old fashion virtues—application, diligence, a sense of purpose, the power to concentrate, to preserver and not to be cast down by adversity.”
The relationship between father and son was never cordial. There was always a strain that often led to arguments. Both were obsessed by their scientific work and since those obsessions seldom overlapped, they seldom collaborated with the exception of one last trip to Africa in 1963 in which Bernd took a year off of college to help him collect.
But toward the end of the book, Bernd is defending his father from those who work with DNA that labeled him (quite unkindly and sometimes to his face) as nothing but a stamp collector. By the end of Gerd’s life collecting had gone out of vogue.
Here is a quote from Bernd’s defense of his father’s work:
“The DNA shows us we are all kin, to varying degrees, but what matters—differentiating species is no so much how much DNA is shared or not shared, but more important, what the DNA does. At least theoretically, there is no lower limit to the number of base sequences that need to differ to differentiate species according to the ecological concept that is the ultimate basis that defines a species.”
After he scatters his father’s ashes across the fields on the small, family farm in Maine begins summing up the lives of all the people mentioned in the book that were involved with him and his father. It should come as no surprise that all four of Bernd’s children by three marriages are scientists.
The legacy continues.
This book deals with two subjects, his father’s life and how he himself became the writer and scientist he is. Both are fascinating stories in themselves.
Gerd Heinrich was born in 1896 in Berlin. His father was a physician and his mother the heiress to a 3300 acre farm in Borowke, Poland. Borowke was a beautiful setting for him to grow up in especially with his budding interest in everything in nature.
After his graduation from the Gymnasium in Berlin, he visited the curator of entomology at a museum and asked him what insect was least study. He was told the parasitic wasps of the Ichneumonidae family.
During the reading of the book, I had come to the conclusion Bernd’s father was not a very good man but by the end of the book I had amended my judgement of him. He was a highly unusual, difficult and obsessed human being.
During the First World War, he enlisted as a cavalryman fighting along the eastern front and by the end of the war was flying planes.
At the end of the war, he married and with his wife and her sister made several excursions across the world including a very hard trip to Burma collection skins of birds, shrews, mice, rats and other animals for museums around the world but each trip had another reason which was the main reason, collecting hundreds and hundreds of Ichneumon species, studying them, pinning them and eventually cataloguing them.
He published books on his finds which, of course, by nature of the subject matter had few readers.
The rise of Hitler alarmed him and he immediately began making plans as he sensed another world war was coming. With the war, though in his forties, he was drafted into the army. Due to his age and ability with languages he never had to see battle and through his administrative abilities was able to save several others from having to go near the fighting.
After the war he had to protect his family from the invading Russian army, a seemingly unsurmountable task and what an amazing tale of survival it was.
Eventually he was able to get his wife, sister-in-law and children (Bernd was one of them) safely away with the help of scientific friends across Europe and the United States but he lost Borowke.
After years of impoverishment, he was able to immigrate to the US and settled in Maine, a place that shaped the life of his son, Bernd.
Bernd’s tale is as fascinating as that of his father. Without formal scientific training, he was drawn to the study of animal behavior. After years of study, the ability to ask the interesting questions began to emerge which has given us all the wonderful books he has written.
A quote from Sir Peter Medawar he includes sums up the reason for his own success:
“One does not have to be terribly brainy to be a good scientist. One would do better for owning some of those old fashion virtues—application, diligence, a sense of purpose, the power to concentrate, to preserver and not to be cast down by adversity.”
The relationship between father and son was never cordial. There was always a strain that often led to arguments. Both were obsessed by their scientific work and since those obsessions seldom overlapped, they seldom collaborated with the exception of one last trip to Africa in 1963 in which Bernd took a year off of college to help him collect.
But toward the end of the book, Bernd is defending his father from those who work with DNA that labeled him (quite unkindly and sometimes to his face) as nothing but a stamp collector. By the end of Gerd’s life collecting had gone out of vogue.
Here is a quote from Bernd’s defense of his father’s work:
“The DNA shows us we are all kin, to varying degrees, but what matters—differentiating species is no so much how much DNA is shared or not shared, but more important, what the DNA does. At least theoretically, there is no lower limit to the number of base sequences that need to differ to differentiate species according to the ecological concept that is the ultimate basis that defines a species.”
After he scatters his father’s ashes across the fields on the small, family farm in Maine begins summing up the lives of all the people mentioned in the book that were involved with him and his father. It should come as no surprise that all four of Bernd’s children by three marriages are scientists.
The legacy continues.
August 11, 2018
I started the book yesterday and finished it this evening. That says more than any words I can write. I was carried along by the fascinating biographical details, the firsthand account of the horrors of World War II, and by the interesting descriptions of nature and the inhabitants of the natural world.
January 15, 2016
This memoir tells multiple stories. The first (and, for me, by far the most fascinating) is an account of the author's family history. His grandparents were owners of an estate in a part of Prussia that was given to Poland after World War I, became German again during World War II, and was transformed into a communist collective after the Yalta Conference. His father was a World War I flying ace (invited to join the Red Baron's squadron), a naturalist and fiercely intrepid explorer, and an autocrat in personal life. The author himself, along with his family, barely managed to escape falling into the hands of the Red Army (by whom they would most likely have been shot because of their social status and education) or being stuck behind the Iron Curtain after World War II.
The second tale is that of the author's own education and upbringing in 1950's and '60's America.
The third is that of the author's adult scientific career and discoveries, plus reflections on the relationship between his father's life work as a naturalist and his own career.
I recommend the first section of the book. The history is fascinating. The second was also somewhat interesting, but the third felt as if it should have been more heavily edited and abbreviated. I also found myself liking the author less and less as he revealed that, like his father before him, he was not very good at maintaining personal family relationships or of staying faithful to a wife. I also found his mini-lectures on politics and evolution to be more annoying than illuminating. Overall, however, I'm glad I read this.
The second tale is that of the author's own education and upbringing in 1950's and '60's America.
The third is that of the author's adult scientific career and discoveries, plus reflections on the relationship between his father's life work as a naturalist and his own career.
I recommend the first section of the book. The history is fascinating. The second was also somewhat interesting, but the third felt as if it should have been more heavily edited and abbreviated. I also found myself liking the author less and less as he revealed that, like his father before him, he was not very good at maintaining personal family relationships or of staying faithful to a wife. I also found his mini-lectures on politics and evolution to be more annoying than illuminating. Overall, however, I'm glad I read this.
July 30, 2016
My three star rating is a bit misleading because The Snoring Bird is written in two parts; and part one is a very different book than part two. Part one of this book is outstanding.
Part One, "The Old World," details the author's family history that led toward emigration to America. This journey spans two world wars from the perspective of, as the author says, "the losing side." The result is a fascinating mix of natural and political history that should not be missed. If this book concluded after part one, I would rate this book five stars. Reading part one is well worth it.
Part Two, "The New World," leaves something to be desired. Much of the details in this section have already been told in the author's other book, "Why We Run." I therefore did not need the repetition. I was also disappointed because I love Bernd Heinrich's work. However, part two of this book caused me to walk away with a lesser opinion of this author as a person. Many of us have difficult relationships (for various reasons) with our parents. However, the author's one-sided telling of his own relationship with "Papa" left a sour taste in my mouth. Particularly because, as we subtly learn from brief revelations about the author's own relationships with his wives and children, the author himself is perhaps quite similar to his own father; a father he works hard to criticize in a tone that often comes across as mere whining.
Part One, "The Old World," details the author's family history that led toward emigration to America. This journey spans two world wars from the perspective of, as the author says, "the losing side." The result is a fascinating mix of natural and political history that should not be missed. If this book concluded after part one, I would rate this book five stars. Reading part one is well worth it.
Part Two, "The New World," leaves something to be desired. Much of the details in this section have already been told in the author's other book, "Why We Run." I therefore did not need the repetition. I was also disappointed because I love Bernd Heinrich's work. However, part two of this book caused me to walk away with a lesser opinion of this author as a person. Many of us have difficult relationships (for various reasons) with our parents. However, the author's one-sided telling of his own relationship with "Papa" left a sour taste in my mouth. Particularly because, as we subtly learn from brief revelations about the author's own relationships with his wives and children, the author himself is perhaps quite similar to his own father; a father he works hard to criticize in a tone that often comes across as mere whining.
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November 26, 2014Fascinating and wide ranging. Natural history, WWII Poland/Germany, growing up in Maine, studying the temperature regulation of bees, the cataloging of wasps, running for 24 hours. So much.
I do wish I could find a recording of the "distinctive seven-note Heinrich whistle" that the family used as signal when separated in the woods - it intrigues me.
I do wish I could find a recording of the "distinctive seven-note Heinrich whistle" that the family used as signal when separated in the woods - it intrigues me.
August 3, 2022
This is a book well worth reading, if you have any interest in natural history, the methods of biological research, and how people of particular interests have navigated the past century.
To explain: Bernd Heinrich is a biologist, an entomologist, and an ornithologist, and the author of a number of books on bumblebees, ravens, and other topics. He was born in Germany but moved to Maine as a child. He grew up and was educated in the United States. In many ways, his career has been typically academic. But he has done a lot of field research. I mean, an enormous amount of field research.
His father, Gerd Heinrich, was also a naturalist, who spent much of his live on expeditions all over the world searching out specimens for museums. Gerd Heinrich's career differed from his son's partly in that Gerd lack advanced academic degrees, and therefore was never a tenured professor or a holder of a position requiring those credentials.
This book is mostly about Bernd's development of a coherent account of his father's life and career, with lots of comparisons to Bernd's own career. One thing that the two men had in common was promiscuity. Both of them had a number of wives and or lovers, and this related to their careers in natural history in the following way. In order to pursue information about a particular research project, either Heinrich would pick up, move out into the wilderness or to a distant country, and apparently totally ignore their wives and children.
It doesn't seem to occur to Bernd Heinrich that his going off into the North Woods for months on end, having little or no contact with his family, was the reason that one day, when he came home, his wife announced that she was leaving him. Even though he emphasizes his disagreements with his father on many subjects, and pictures himself as a new, updated model of scientist, in fact Bernd is just like Gerd in giving absolute priority to his research, and his expectation that everyone else will accommodate his choices.
There may be many things left unsaid here, but at no point does Bernd Heinrich mention that he, any more than his father, sat down with his current wife, laid out his proposed research project, and asked her for her opinion. He decides it is a useful project and takes off, leaving her what used to be called a "grass widow."
Interesting book, with lots of interesting anecdotes, but I can't say that either Gerd or Bernd Heinrich comes across as a person with whom one would want to make friends.
To explain: Bernd Heinrich is a biologist, an entomologist, and an ornithologist, and the author of a number of books on bumblebees, ravens, and other topics. He was born in Germany but moved to Maine as a child. He grew up and was educated in the United States. In many ways, his career has been typically academic. But he has done a lot of field research. I mean, an enormous amount of field research.
His father, Gerd Heinrich, was also a naturalist, who spent much of his live on expeditions all over the world searching out specimens for museums. Gerd Heinrich's career differed from his son's partly in that Gerd lack advanced academic degrees, and therefore was never a tenured professor or a holder of a position requiring those credentials.
This book is mostly about Bernd's development of a coherent account of his father's life and career, with lots of comparisons to Bernd's own career. One thing that the two men had in common was promiscuity. Both of them had a number of wives and or lovers, and this related to their careers in natural history in the following way. In order to pursue information about a particular research project, either Heinrich would pick up, move out into the wilderness or to a distant country, and apparently totally ignore their wives and children.
It doesn't seem to occur to Bernd Heinrich that his going off into the North Woods for months on end, having little or no contact with his family, was the reason that one day, when he came home, his wife announced that she was leaving him. Even though he emphasizes his disagreements with his father on many subjects, and pictures himself as a new, updated model of scientist, in fact Bernd is just like Gerd in giving absolute priority to his research, and his expectation that everyone else will accommodate his choices.
There may be many things left unsaid here, but at no point does Bernd Heinrich mention that he, any more than his father, sat down with his current wife, laid out his proposed research project, and asked her for her opinion. He decides it is a useful project and takes off, leaving her what used to be called a "grass widow."
Interesting book, with lots of interesting anecdotes, but I can't say that either Gerd or Bernd Heinrich comes across as a person with whom one would want to make friends.
August 4, 2008
So engrossing that I've already ordered two other titles by Bernd Heinrich from the library: "Mind of the Raven," and "Ravens in Winter." And so engrossing that I finished all 461 pages (including every footnote and reference, cutline, intro and epilogue) in four nights of staying up late reading.
Bernd Heinrich's memoir combines high drama with astute observation and attention to detail, especially in the natural world. It's ostensibly the story of his father's charmed life on an almost magical country estate before and between both World Wars. Much of the story takes place within the shifting borders of Germany and Poland where the senior Heinrich is a naturalist whose speciality is wasps.
But he also goes on numerous expeditions around the world collecting assorted animals (dead and alive) for zoos, museums and his personal collections. The snoring bird of the book's title is one of them. His companions include his wife(s) and lovers and eventually his son in a menagerie that is as amazing as any of the experiences they encounter in jungles and on mountaintops.
It is also a story of war, devastation, displacement and starting life over in small-town New England after the family finally makes it out of Europe alive. The close calls and miraculous rescues that happen again and again could only occur in real life. They would be frowned upon in fiction as too improbable.
But perhaps, most of all, this the story of a son trying all his life to please his father, to understand him and finally to break away to pursue science in a world that's incomprehensible to his father.
One of Bernd Heinrich's talents is to make science and natural history understandable to the general reader. So while there is a fair amount of science, I usually could follow it and, more often than not, found it fascinating. (BH got two Golden Fleece awards from Proxmire!) for his research.
If nothing else, the book was eye-opening in the long quote by Hermann Goring (delivered at the Nuremberg Trials) about how you convince a nation to go to war. Karl Rove and company clearly knew where to look when they foisted Iraq on the American people.
Bernd Heinrich's memoir combines high drama with astute observation and attention to detail, especially in the natural world. It's ostensibly the story of his father's charmed life on an almost magical country estate before and between both World Wars. Much of the story takes place within the shifting borders of Germany and Poland where the senior Heinrich is a naturalist whose speciality is wasps.
But he also goes on numerous expeditions around the world collecting assorted animals (dead and alive) for zoos, museums and his personal collections. The snoring bird of the book's title is one of them. His companions include his wife(s) and lovers and eventually his son in a menagerie that is as amazing as any of the experiences they encounter in jungles and on mountaintops.
It is also a story of war, devastation, displacement and starting life over in small-town New England after the family finally makes it out of Europe alive. The close calls and miraculous rescues that happen again and again could only occur in real life. They would be frowned upon in fiction as too improbable.
But perhaps, most of all, this the story of a son trying all his life to please his father, to understand him and finally to break away to pursue science in a world that's incomprehensible to his father.
One of Bernd Heinrich's talents is to make science and natural history understandable to the general reader. So while there is a fair amount of science, I usually could follow it and, more often than not, found it fascinating. (BH got two Golden Fleece awards from Proxmire!) for his research.
If nothing else, the book was eye-opening in the long quote by Hermann Goring (delivered at the Nuremberg Trials) about how you convince a nation to go to war. Karl Rove and company clearly knew where to look when they foisted Iraq on the American people.
October 20, 2009
The writing is wonderful. Heinrich is very readable. The subject matter, on the other hand, is some of the most amazing characters, feats, and ideals of which I have heard. Heinrich discovers some of this history of his family himself for the first time,which heightens the emotional pull of the book. The history includes both the tragedy of war and the self-inflicted hardships of years of specimen collecting in distant, disease-plagued areas. The latter were undertaken when communication and transportation were so less developed than now that distant areas were truly remote and dangerous. Having not heard about these expeditions before, I really learned about the era when naturalists went on expeditions to collect for museums. Heinrich's father had fanatical dedication to these expeditions. He was happy only when he was exploring wild foreign land, even though the hardships are far beyond what I could take. I thought women of that time (mid 1900's) were adverse to any kind of outdoor roughing it, but the women that Heinrich's father took with him enjoyed the expeditions as much as he did, which is another story.
The war stories from both world wars show Heinrich's father, again, as an extraordinary person. They also show what civilian life was like during that time period, something I have never read much about before. I had not appreciated the difficulties normal people faced in Europe.
As a child, Heinrich learned much about nature from his father. Heinrich's father studied ichneumon wasps with astounding passion. However, he was absent for most of Heinrich's childhood, and showed very little interest in his son's well-being. On the other hand,he had almost brutally high expectations and he did write copious detailed letters to his son. He is difficult to understand, and Heinrich does a good job of sharing the fascination he engenders.
It is hard to express how exciting this book is. Between Heinrich's and his family's extraordinary lives and the fortuitous twists and turns that bring Heinrich to the discovery of the part of this history that he didn't know, it is hard to put the book down.
The war stories from both world wars show Heinrich's father, again, as an extraordinary person. They also show what civilian life was like during that time period, something I have never read much about before. I had not appreciated the difficulties normal people faced in Europe.
As a child, Heinrich learned much about nature from his father. Heinrich's father studied ichneumon wasps with astounding passion. However, he was absent for most of Heinrich's childhood, and showed very little interest in his son's well-being. On the other hand,he had almost brutally high expectations and he did write copious detailed letters to his son. He is difficult to understand, and Heinrich does a good job of sharing the fascination he engenders.
It is hard to express how exciting this book is. Between Heinrich's and his family's extraordinary lives and the fortuitous twists and turns that bring Heinrich to the discovery of the part of this history that he didn't know, it is hard to put the book down.
July 3, 2021
After reading many of Bernd Heinrich books, I wondered how he balanced family life and his love of nature - he didn't. In the course of reading his other books, I got a picture of a man whose family life was disjointed because of his commitment to life alone in the woods. Now this book takes one back to Heinrich's childhood where he watched his father who was also a naturalist who also abandoned his family for long periods of time. Not only that - but if his wife was not available to join him on a year's long field research in maybe Asia or Africa - he brought along his wife's younger sister. Except for the lack of multiple marriage licenses, I think he would qualify as a bigamist. I really enjoyed this book because it filled in some holes I had, answered questions about how Heinrich managed relationships while his mind was obviously elsewhere.
There is another book about a the life of a naturalist in Germany/Poland in the decades between the wars that meshes nicely with The Snoring Bird - that's "The Zookeeper's Wife" by Ackerman.
There is another book about a the life of a naturalist in Germany/Poland in the decades between the wars that meshes nicely with The Snoring Bird - that's "The Zookeeper's Wife" by Ackerman.
September 1, 2012
Fantastic book, full of interesting biology, history, and human interest. The story of the author's complicated relationship with his father was poignant and frustrating in turns.
I came across Heinrich after reading a shorter account of his life in a collection of stories of children who survived the end of WW2 in Germany and realized that he only lived a few miles from me and was an author in his own right. I took a look at his books and saw they were right up my alley. I'm also reading Winter World and will undoubtedly pick up his others.
I came across Heinrich after reading a shorter account of his life in a collection of stories of children who survived the end of WW2 in Germany and realized that he only lived a few miles from me and was an author in his own right. I took a look at his books and saw they were right up my alley. I'm also reading Winter World and will undoubtedly pick up his others.
April 17, 2013
This is my most favorite book in the last 5 years by my most favorite writer. I have loved all his books about animals and nature but this one also brought in another view of personal history I had never been exposed to.
June 17, 2020
I’m pleasantly surprised at how interesting this book is. The author is good at making something that could be dry very interesting. It was interesting to read the family story & learn a lot of science.
July 4, 2020
Fascinating and completely engrossing. I couldn't put it down.
December 12, 2022
I decided to read Bernd Heinrich's 532-page tome, The Snoring Bird, after reading his delightful book One Bird at a Time. Intrigued by this author whose quirky personality and passion for nature spilled out all over onto his descriptions of bird behavior, I found a testimonial for The Snoring Bird describing it as Heinrich’s autobiography and a very well written one at that. I agree, and I find the book fascinating on so many levels - thought-provoking history of biology, sensory descriptions of nature, war adventures, unusual family relationships, treks to far-flung lands, personal and career development during the 1960’s, and more.
I love Bernd Heinrich's choice for the subtitle: My Family's Journey through a Century of Biology. The book indeed is part family memoir and part biological essay, and these themes are brilliantly interwoven. The family history begins in Europe, with adventurous tales of his father -- WW1 fighter pilot and (reluctant) WW2 Nazi soldier. It continues with harrowing stories of the family, while Bernd is only a small child, fleeing the Russian Army, and hiding out in a remote cabin in the forest. The family later emigrates to the USA, and the tales continue as Bernd grows up on their new homestead in Maine. As the author matures and enters university life, he makes his way to working his passion -- from molecular biology to physiological biology and ecological and environmental biology. The author explains these fields of study in an interesting way related to his own self-development as a student and scientist.
Throughout the book, Bernd explores, with extensive research, his relationship with his fascinating biologist father Gerd Heinrich, noting their similar passions yet dissimilar modes of study due to their different times and places in the history of biological studies. In fact, the book feels very much to be a son's reckoning of his relationship with his father, an extensive project of healing, and a serious and heartfelt tribute to his father. I found this endearing and poignant.
Most of all, I enjoyed in The Snoring Bird the copious descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural world. Bernd (and his father, revealed in his letters) are gifted writers whose words will transport you to the most lovely walks through jungle, desert, meadows, and woods.
I love Bernd Heinrich's choice for the subtitle: My Family's Journey through a Century of Biology. The book indeed is part family memoir and part biological essay, and these themes are brilliantly interwoven. The family history begins in Europe, with adventurous tales of his father -- WW1 fighter pilot and (reluctant) WW2 Nazi soldier. It continues with harrowing stories of the family, while Bernd is only a small child, fleeing the Russian Army, and hiding out in a remote cabin in the forest. The family later emigrates to the USA, and the tales continue as Bernd grows up on their new homestead in Maine. As the author matures and enters university life, he makes his way to working his passion -- from molecular biology to physiological biology and ecological and environmental biology. The author explains these fields of study in an interesting way related to his own self-development as a student and scientist.
Throughout the book, Bernd explores, with extensive research, his relationship with his fascinating biologist father Gerd Heinrich, noting their similar passions yet dissimilar modes of study due to their different times and places in the history of biological studies. In fact, the book feels very much to be a son's reckoning of his relationship with his father, an extensive project of healing, and a serious and heartfelt tribute to his father. I found this endearing and poignant.
Most of all, I enjoyed in The Snoring Bird the copious descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of the natural world. Bernd (and his father, revealed in his letters) are gifted writers whose words will transport you to the most lovely walks through jungle, desert, meadows, and woods.
March 21, 2025
A mostly wonderful book, but somewhat uneven.
This was primarily a tribute to the author's father, who did have an amazing life. Having started as an aristocrat in pre-war eastern Germany, he was one of the daring pilots (on the losing German side) in World War One. Because Germany lost, his estate ended up in Poland… and then back in Germany during World War II, only to end up on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain after WWII.
That stripped away the wealth of his aristocracy, and he became a scientists… of sorts. That is one of the themes of the book, ultimately. What he did was science when he started, but as more was learned, science itself evolved, and his passion became sidelined and lost a lot of respect. And he spent his last decades as an embittered and somewhat impoverished loner.
Our author struggles with that, since he still saw the value in what his father had pursued, but at the same time was quite the modern scientist himself. The last chapters of the book delve into his sometimes tortured thinking about that. I think that was a weak way of ending the book; ideally, this should have been worked into the meat of the story, not left to become a rather pedantic and long postscript.
The author’s own life is an entwined albeit secondary, story. His adventures as a child and a teenager were magical, and are amazing to read. (The closest book to this I've read is William O. Douglas’ autobiographical Of Men and Mountains.)
I enjoyed his Mind of the Raven more, frankly, but I’m glad I read this. I plan on diving into his Ravens in Winter soon.
This was primarily a tribute to the author's father, who did have an amazing life. Having started as an aristocrat in pre-war eastern Germany, he was one of the daring pilots (on the losing German side) in World War One. Because Germany lost, his estate ended up in Poland… and then back in Germany during World War II, only to end up on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain after WWII.
That stripped away the wealth of his aristocracy, and he became a scientists… of sorts. That is one of the themes of the book, ultimately. What he did was science when he started, but as more was learned, science itself evolved, and his passion became sidelined and lost a lot of respect. And he spent his last decades as an embittered and somewhat impoverished loner.
Our author struggles with that, since he still saw the value in what his father had pursued, but at the same time was quite the modern scientist himself. The last chapters of the book delve into his sometimes tortured thinking about that. I think that was a weak way of ending the book; ideally, this should have been worked into the meat of the story, not left to become a rather pedantic and long postscript.
The author’s own life is an entwined albeit secondary, story. His adventures as a child and a teenager were magical, and are amazing to read. (The closest book to this I've read is William O. Douglas’ autobiographical Of Men and Mountains.)
I enjoyed his Mind of the Raven more, frankly, but I’m glad I read this. I plan on diving into his Ravens in Winter soon.
November 17, 2024
Bernd Heinrich is an amazing human being with an amazing backstory. The frame for this auto/biography (both his father's story and his own) is Heinrich coming upon his deceased father's records in the family barn. From this point, he goes backward and like the good scientist he is, Heinrich pieces together the narrative of this father's and his own life together, and like a good story teller, Heinrich fills the narrative with well drawn characters and ample drama. There is his father, Gerd Heinrich, the WW I military pilot, the WW II survivor of the Russian front, the man who through skill and fortune saves his family at the end of the WW II, and later the collector of taxonomic specimens the world over. All wrapped up in this is the growing Bernd who rolls from one family and historical catastrophe to another and grows into a man who finds himself at odds with his indomitable father over the evolution of the biological sciences: Gerd the self-taught collector and taxonimist, Bernd the university trained physiological scientist. And this thumbnail only scratches the surface. For all this science and history, The Snoring Bird is also filled with honesty, humanity, and a deep love of nature. This is one biography where the lives and worlds described take on epic proportions.
April 13, 2019
Can't remember where I heard about this book, but somehow I thought it would be more biology-oriented with some memoir involved. Turned out it's much more of a memoir/biography with biology involved! What a disaster! Even so, definitely a great and worthwhile read, although it almost depressed me how much detail went into the first couple years of Heinrich's life, and then suddenly boom! we zoom through his young adulthood and barely say anything about his entire adulthood - maybe because the focus was more on his father, but that still means that his father's life had much less to speak about for a good forty years. Also a small review of the change of the very character of science (biology at least) over this century. So even though I only peripherally learned crazy biology facts, I suppose the rich personal and human history was worth it.
April 8, 2023
The heart of the book is the story of Heinrich’s family and his relationship with his father but as both he and his father were biologists, though in very different ways, biology gets a fair amount of play also. Very good; whether he’s discussing science or relating his father’s experiences during both world wars, things are always interesting.
December 11, 2021
Interesting to read about Germans during World War II. This book gets bogged down sometimes with scientific detail. But the insights into this odd family made it a page turner. I will seek out the author’s other books.
October 4, 2023
What can one say about Gerd Heinrich? Heinrich lived. He did more in one lifetime from fighting, to preserving, to surviving than most people would live if they had the”nine lives of a cat”. Thank you Bernd for sharing your complex and interesting family and love of nature with the world.
January 9, 2024
Well written lengthy historical autobiography. Noe as captivating as the authors other books but gives great insight to Bernds evolution into a fantastic biologist, naturalist and writer.
Sometimes plodding but altogether keeps you hooked.
Sometimes plodding but altogether keeps you hooked.
April 20, 2025
I enjoyed read vast parts of the book, about the family's escape from the Russians and existing in the woods until they could escape to the USA. However, I found myself skimming those parts that were heavily scientific. I also enjoyed the ending where the son returns to his previous home.
November 29, 2025
A deeply personal reflection on two lifetimes spent in the field of biology, wherein the important traditions of taxonomy and museum collections arduously lead to modern strides of natural science through the lens of Heinrich's storied family legacy.
July 31, 2020
Recommended by one of the local librarians. Travel, history, science, nature, running. Just an informative and fun read.
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October 20, 2020If you have enjoyed any of the authors other books - This is a must read. Fascinating story of his family's journey from Europe to America mixed with tales of academia and natural history.
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