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Tales of Adam
Ever since the publication of Ishmael in 1992, readers have yearned for a glimpse into a dimension of spiritual revelation the author only hinted at in that and later books. Now at long last they have it in seven profound but delightfully simple tales that illuminate the world in which humans became humans. This is a world seen through animist as friendly to human life as it was to the life of gazelles, lions, lizards, mosquitos, jellyfish, and seals — not a world in which humans lived like trespassers who must conquer and subdue an alien territory. It's a world in which humans have a place in the community of life — not as rulers but as equals — with the paths of all held together in the hand of god.This is not an ancient world or a lost world. It exists as surely today as it ever did — for those who have eyes to see it. Tales of Adam, delightfully illustrated by Michael McCurdy, is a book that will come to be shelved alongside The Prophet , Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and The Alchemist .
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
16 people are currently reading
762 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Quinn
53 books1,895 followersI had and did the usual things -- childhood, schools, universities (St. Louis, Vienna, Loyola of Chicago), then embarked on a career in publishing in Chicago. Within a few years I was the head of the Biography & Fine Arts Department of the American Peoples Encyclopedia; when that was subsumed by a larger outfit and moved to New York, I stayed behind and moved into educational publishing, beginning at Science Research Associates (a division of IBM) and ending as Editorial Director of The Society for Vision Education (a division of the Singer Corporation).
In 1977 I walked away from SVE and this very successful career when it became clear that I was not going to able to do there what I really wanted to do...which was not entirely clear. A few months later I set my feet on a path that would change my life completely. It was a path made up of books -- or rather versions of a book that, after twelve years, would turn out to be ISHMAEL.
The first version, written in 1977-78, called MAN AND ALIEN, didn't turn out to be quite what I wanted, so wrote a second, called THE GENESIS TRANSCRIPT. Like the first version, this didn't satisfy me, so I wrote a third with the same title. THE BOOK OF NAHASH, abandoned unfinished, was the fourth version.
When I started writing version five, THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED in 1981, I was sure I'd found the book I was born to write. The versions that came before had been like rainy days with moments of sunshine. THIS was a thunderstorm, and the lines crossed my pages like flashes of lightning. When, after a few thousand words I came to a clear climax, I said, "This MUST be seen," so I put Part One into print. Parts Two and Three followed, and I began searching for the switch that would turn on Part Four... but it just wasn't there. What I'd done was terrific -- and complete in its own way -- but at last I faced the fact that the whole thing just couldn't be done in lightning strikes.
And so, on to versions six and seven (both called ANOTHER STORY TO BE IN). I knew I was close, and version eight was it -- the first and only version to be a novel and the first and only version inhabited by a telepathic gorilla named Ishmael.
ISHMAEL was a life-changing book. It began by winning the Turner Tomorrow Award, the largest prize ever given to a single literary work. It would come to be read in some 25 languages and used in classrooms from mid-school to graduate school in courses as varied as history philosophy, geography, archaeology, religion, biology, zoology, ecology, anthropology, political science, economics, and sociology.
But in 1992, when ISHMAEL was published, I had no idea what I might do next. My readers decided this for me. In letters that arrived by the bushel they demanded to know where this strange book came from, what "made" me write it. To answer these questions I wrote PROVIDENCE: THE STORY OF A FIFTY-YEAR VISION QUEST (1995).
But there were even more urgently important questions to be answered, particularly this one: "With ISHMAEL you've undermined the religious beliefs of a lifetime. What am I supposed to replace them with?" I replied to this with THE STORY OF B (1996).
The questions (and books) kept coming: Why did Ishmael have to die? This gave rise to MY ISHMAEL: A SEQUEL (1997), in which it's revealed that Ishmael was not only far from being dead but far from being finished with his work as a teacher. The question "Where do we go from here?" was the inspiration for BEYOND CIVILIZATION: HUMANITY'S NEXT GREAT ADVENTURE (1999), a very different kind of book.
With these questions answered (and 500 more on my website), I felt I was fundamentally finished with what might be called my teachings and ready to move on.
I had always taken as my guiding principle these words from André Gide: "What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it, written as well as you, do not write it.
In 1977 I walked away from SVE and this very successful career when it became clear that I was not going to able to do there what I really wanted to do...which was not entirely clear. A few months later I set my feet on a path that would change my life completely. It was a path made up of books -- or rather versions of a book that, after twelve years, would turn out to be ISHMAEL.
The first version, written in 1977-78, called MAN AND ALIEN, didn't turn out to be quite what I wanted, so wrote a second, called THE GENESIS TRANSCRIPT. Like the first version, this didn't satisfy me, so I wrote a third with the same title. THE BOOK OF NAHASH, abandoned unfinished, was the fourth version.
When I started writing version five, THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED in 1981, I was sure I'd found the book I was born to write. The versions that came before had been like rainy days with moments of sunshine. THIS was a thunderstorm, and the lines crossed my pages like flashes of lightning. When, after a few thousand words I came to a clear climax, I said, "This MUST be seen," so I put Part One into print. Parts Two and Three followed, and I began searching for the switch that would turn on Part Four... but it just wasn't there. What I'd done was terrific -- and complete in its own way -- but at last I faced the fact that the whole thing just couldn't be done in lightning strikes.
And so, on to versions six and seven (both called ANOTHER STORY TO BE IN). I knew I was close, and version eight was it -- the first and only version to be a novel and the first and only version inhabited by a telepathic gorilla named Ishmael.
ISHMAEL was a life-changing book. It began by winning the Turner Tomorrow Award, the largest prize ever given to a single literary work. It would come to be read in some 25 languages and used in classrooms from mid-school to graduate school in courses as varied as history philosophy, geography, archaeology, religion, biology, zoology, ecology, anthropology, political science, economics, and sociology.
But in 1992, when ISHMAEL was published, I had no idea what I might do next. My readers decided this for me. In letters that arrived by the bushel they demanded to know where this strange book came from, what "made" me write it. To answer these questions I wrote PROVIDENCE: THE STORY OF A FIFTY-YEAR VISION QUEST (1995).
But there were even more urgently important questions to be answered, particularly this one: "With ISHMAEL you've undermined the religious beliefs of a lifetime. What am I supposed to replace them with?" I replied to this with THE STORY OF B (1996).
The questions (and books) kept coming: Why did Ishmael have to die? This gave rise to MY ISHMAEL: A SEQUEL (1997), in which it's revealed that Ishmael was not only far from being dead but far from being finished with his work as a teacher. The question "Where do we go from here?" was the inspiration for BEYOND CIVILIZATION: HUMANITY'S NEXT GREAT ADVENTURE (1999), a very different kind of book.
With these questions answered (and 500 more on my website), I felt I was fundamentally finished with what might be called my teachings and ready to move on.
I had always taken as my guiding principle these words from André Gide: "What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it, written as well as you, do not write it.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
June 28, 2022
We've several titles by Quinn at Heirloom Books. I've wondered how to classify them, whether to treat them with general fiction or put them in the fantasy and science fiction section. This particular title--big print punctuated by graphics in 92 pages and sold for $12.95(!)--is very, very short, so I gave it the half-hour or so it took to read.
Tales of Adam reminded me a bit of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and of Gibran's Prophet, though not as prettily written as the latter. It's supposed to be about becoming wise and has, in this regard, concern for the place of our species in the broader environment. I applaud such sentiments, but found this series of fables rather saccharine and certainly not worth the money.
Tales of Adam reminded me a bit of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and of Gibran's Prophet, though not as prettily written as the latter. It's supposed to be about becoming wise and has, in this regard, concern for the place of our species in the broader environment. I applaud such sentiments, but found this series of fables rather saccharine and certainly not worth the money.
February 10, 2008
some short tales omitted from Ishmael during the process of writing the final version... sort of like the 'deleted scenes' you get on dvds these days. Adam teaches his son Abel about living in harmony with the world through a series of stories within these stories. (not the biblical Adam, an early hunter gatherer)
August 14, 2008
One of Daniel Quinn's better books I believe. Short....biblical in a sense, but read beyond the words and there is something much more to learn there. I definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting a taste of Quinn's writing.....maybe to then get them ready for "Ishmael."
January 5, 2023
Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Daniel Quinn, best know for his Ishmael trilogy (Ishmael, My Ishmael & The Story of B), has released some more writings in this vein of thought. That is the good news; the bad news is, the book is only about a hundred pages long.
For those fans of Quinn’s earlier writings it will be a treat, a little treasure to be savored over and over again. I have already read it twice and got even more out of it the second time. The book is broken into seven teaching stories, much like the stories used to illustrate points in the trilogy, except they are not woven into a larger story.
The stories are each told by ‘Adam’ to his son Able. The stories teach lessons on sustainability, greed, wisdom and knowledge. They teach Able and us our place in the universe and our responsibility as creatures of reason. In teaching about ecology, Adam states, “Every track begins and ends in the hand of god. Every track is a lifetime long.” P.22.
In talking about place Adam says: “No Place where there is life is a desert except to man.” P8. This sentiment on place echoes much of Terry Tempest Williams’ thought. Towards the end, Adam tells his son, “We are seekers of holy places.” P.74, and that is true of many of us. We are questers on a journey to find out who we are and our place in the universe. These sorts of stories might help us along the path.
(First published in Imprint 2005-11-05 as ‘Teaching from Adam’)
For those fans of Quinn’s earlier writings it will be a treat, a little treasure to be savored over and over again. I have already read it twice and got even more out of it the second time. The book is broken into seven teaching stories, much like the stories used to illustrate points in the trilogy, except they are not woven into a larger story.
The stories are each told by ‘Adam’ to his son Able. The stories teach lessons on sustainability, greed, wisdom and knowledge. They teach Able and us our place in the universe and our responsibility as creatures of reason. In teaching about ecology, Adam states, “Every track begins and ends in the hand of god. Every track is a lifetime long.” P.22.
In talking about place Adam says: “No Place where there is life is a desert except to man.” P8. This sentiment on place echoes much of Terry Tempest Williams’ thought. Towards the end, Adam tells his son, “We are seekers of holy places.” P.74, and that is true of many of us. We are questers on a journey to find out who we are and our place in the universe. These sorts of stories might help us along the path.
(First published in Imprint 2005-11-05 as ‘Teaching from Adam’)
June 12, 2023
Tales of Adam is a sequel to Israel (written in 1992). Adam, at the beginning of all, teaches his son, Abel, the wisdom he has learned in seven stories. Because God created everything...every tree, blade of grass, insect, animal, and human being is connected to each other and to the Creator. Care must be taken to protect and respect this creation. They were all given for the care of the other. There is a Law of Life that every creature understands. This wisdom/knowledge never wears out and will go on for a thousand generations.
December 22, 2025
A quick, one-day read that will make you think. Not as thought-provoking as Ishmael, it's an early draft of Ishmael actually, but still enjoyable. The first story is the best in my opinion. The last one is very good as well. In the middle there are some blah ones, but still solid.
May 5, 2017
Valuable lessons to be had from this read.
April 20, 2021
I actually did read this book in a day. It’s very short. The reason I gave it three stars was that it wasn’t worth the $7.99 that it cost.
August 21, 2022
Read this while sitting in a hammock, and the birds had stopped raising the alarm.
June 23, 2023
Very nice little stories that connect us to ourselves in a primal sense.
September 6, 2024
Se me hizo muy interesante. Está lleno de ideas, unas que comparto y un par que no tanto, pero todas me dejaron pensando.
June 12, 2021
This isn't bad. It's not one of Quinn's "core" books (I consider those to be "Ishmael," "The Story of B," and "My Ishmael"). It's sort of an "extras," book, a collection of outtakes, if you will.
Quinn says that most of the short pieces in this very short book (93 pages, big type, big pictures; you can read it in less than an hour) were in an earlier version of "Ishmael." He decided not to include them in that book, but felt they were good enough to publish. Apparently he thought they were good enough to publish twice-- several of these stories are included in "The Story of B," in some places almost word for word. I didn't notice that the first time I read this book (5 years ago, roughly) but having read the two books back to back this time, I was surprised how many bits from "Tales of Adam" were previously used in "B."
This is a decent book, but I don't know that it would be a great read for someone who hasn't read Quinn's more important books. I've read some reviews by people who clearly didn't get the point of the book, and I can see why. This is a little collection of parables and fables, without the context that makes them more meaningful. If you haven't read Quinn, you might, like one reviewer, think that his constant references to "the gods" was some sort of New Age Paganism thing, when it very much isn't that at all (he's just using a style, going for that Biblical feel).
Worth the read, because, really, it's only an hour of your life, and it gives you that little dose of Quinn philosophy when you're in between some of his better books.
UPDATE
Just finished reading this book again. Looked over my previous review and I guess I'm feeling more fond of it this time around.
On this read, I found myself really connecting with this little book in a bigger way.
Could be the context.
This time, I read it while sitting in a small, quiet cabin, in the middle of the woods, no other people close by, the sounds of birds and rain all around, the smell of pine trees, the feel of cool air. In certain environments, it's easy to feel connected to the wider world, to experience the "oneness" that Quinn talks about in a tangible way.
In other places, Quinn expresses a low opinion of what he calls the "salvific" religions, and he lumps Buddhism in with those. I can see where he's coming from with that, I suppose, but reading this again it strikes me how very similar his writing is to a lot of Buddhist and Taoist thought. Throw in some Haudeonsaunee worldview and you have something pretty close to Quinn's animism.
For Quinn, "morality" and "virtue" are necessary only when we've failed to follow the much more basic and important Law of Life. That's an echo of the Tao Teh Ching.
For Quinn, suffering comes when we "refuse" what is before us. When we fight the cold, we suffer from the cold. When we allow the cold, we no longer have to fear it. That's right out of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths.
"My death is the life of another," his Adam says, "and I will stand again in the windswept grasses and look through the eyes of the fox..." And, again, "The leaf that falls to the ground a thousand miles away touches your life. The impress of your foot in the soil is felt through a thousand generations." I hear in that Thich Nhat Hanh's "interbeing."
Wonderful little book.
The world is full of abundance, life.
We are not separate from the rest of the world, but like all other lives we exist in the "hand of the gods."
Like all other things, we must follow the Law of Life, a law that is hard to describe, but can be boiled down to a certain sort of surrender, a rule to take more than what is needed, and to "stand in our own tracks."
Those who resist the Law of Life have been stricken with a kind of madness. Resisting the Law of Life leads to suffering and destruction. Those who go this path want to make themselves untouchable, separate from nature, more powerful than the gods, eternal; in the end, they only succeed in bringing pain.
Quinn says that most of the short pieces in this very short book (93 pages, big type, big pictures; you can read it in less than an hour) were in an earlier version of "Ishmael." He decided not to include them in that book, but felt they were good enough to publish. Apparently he thought they were good enough to publish twice-- several of these stories are included in "The Story of B," in some places almost word for word. I didn't notice that the first time I read this book (5 years ago, roughly) but having read the two books back to back this time, I was surprised how many bits from "Tales of Adam" were previously used in "B."
This is a decent book, but I don't know that it would be a great read for someone who hasn't read Quinn's more important books. I've read some reviews by people who clearly didn't get the point of the book, and I can see why. This is a little collection of parables and fables, without the context that makes them more meaningful. If you haven't read Quinn, you might, like one reviewer, think that his constant references to "the gods" was some sort of New Age Paganism thing, when it very much isn't that at all (he's just using a style, going for that Biblical feel).
Worth the read, because, really, it's only an hour of your life, and it gives you that little dose of Quinn philosophy when you're in between some of his better books.
UPDATE
Just finished reading this book again. Looked over my previous review and I guess I'm feeling more fond of it this time around.
On this read, I found myself really connecting with this little book in a bigger way.
Could be the context.
This time, I read it while sitting in a small, quiet cabin, in the middle of the woods, no other people close by, the sounds of birds and rain all around, the smell of pine trees, the feel of cool air. In certain environments, it's easy to feel connected to the wider world, to experience the "oneness" that Quinn talks about in a tangible way.
In other places, Quinn expresses a low opinion of what he calls the "salvific" religions, and he lumps Buddhism in with those. I can see where he's coming from with that, I suppose, but reading this again it strikes me how very similar his writing is to a lot of Buddhist and Taoist thought. Throw in some Haudeonsaunee worldview and you have something pretty close to Quinn's animism.
For Quinn, "morality" and "virtue" are necessary only when we've failed to follow the much more basic and important Law of Life. That's an echo of the Tao Teh Ching.
For Quinn, suffering comes when we "refuse" what is before us. When we fight the cold, we suffer from the cold. When we allow the cold, we no longer have to fear it. That's right out of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths.
"My death is the life of another," his Adam says, "and I will stand again in the windswept grasses and look through the eyes of the fox..." And, again, "The leaf that falls to the ground a thousand miles away touches your life. The impress of your foot in the soil is felt through a thousand generations." I hear in that Thich Nhat Hanh's "interbeing."
Wonderful little book.
The world is full of abundance, life.
We are not separate from the rest of the world, but like all other lives we exist in the "hand of the gods."
Like all other things, we must follow the Law of Life, a law that is hard to describe, but can be boiled down to a certain sort of surrender, a rule to take more than what is needed, and to "stand in our own tracks."
Those who resist the Law of Life have been stricken with a kind of madness. Resisting the Law of Life leads to suffering and destruction. Those who go this path want to make themselves untouchable, separate from nature, more powerful than the gods, eternal; in the end, they only succeed in bringing pain.
December 7, 2015
This is a short collection of tales where Adam is teaching his son Abel things he needs to know in order to be a hunter and a man. In that regard, it rather reminded me of Aesop's Fables because each of Adam's tales has a lesson in it. However, this book is full of pagan/New Age ideas about "the gods" and how everything and everyone are part of "the gods" and are destined to return to "the flames" or the force of life and then return as something else, more or less. It also espouses the ideas of evolution within the idea of creation, which reduces man to being just another "predator," no different than any other animal. There are a few ideas in the book that saved it from a one star rating though, which I'll post right here so that you don't have to bother reading this novella.
"When you act, act wholeheartedly and with an undivided will, but leave your ears open to the message of events and don't force the gods to topple mountains onto you before you understand."
"...the person standing in your tracks is you. Never say, like a child, 'My brother made me do this' or 'My wife made me do this' or 'The gods made me do this.' The tracks you make are your own. Stand in them bravely."
"A child can no more learn to be an adult before he's an adult than a man can learn to be a hunter before he hunts. This is why everything is permitted to you today, because you're still a child. But tomorrow, when you're a man, the things permitted to you as a child will be permitted no longer. If today you smash your spear against a rock in a fit of temper, I will laugh and make you a new one because today you're still a child. But if you do the same tomorrow you'll make a new spear for yourself or go hungry, because tomorrow you'll be a man, even as I am, and must begin to be responsible for your life.
This is the meaning of the rites of initiation into adulthood: not that you have learned to be an adult, but that you must begin to learn. The day after your initiation, your thoughts will be the same as those of the day before, but you will nevertheless be accorded the rights of an adult and be expected to fulfill the obligations of an adult. And you will learn to cope with both in the same way you learned to be a hunter: by beginning."
"When you act, act wholeheartedly and with an undivided will, but leave your ears open to the message of events and don't force the gods to topple mountains onto you before you understand."
"...the person standing in your tracks is you. Never say, like a child, 'My brother made me do this' or 'My wife made me do this' or 'The gods made me do this.' The tracks you make are your own. Stand in them bravely."
"A child can no more learn to be an adult before he's an adult than a man can learn to be a hunter before he hunts. This is why everything is permitted to you today, because you're still a child. But tomorrow, when you're a man, the things permitted to you as a child will be permitted no longer. If today you smash your spear against a rock in a fit of temper, I will laugh and make you a new one because today you're still a child. But if you do the same tomorrow you'll make a new spear for yourself or go hungry, because tomorrow you'll be a man, even as I am, and must begin to be responsible for your life.
This is the meaning of the rites of initiation into adulthood: not that you have learned to be an adult, but that you must begin to learn. The day after your initiation, your thoughts will be the same as those of the day before, but you will nevertheless be accorded the rights of an adult and be expected to fulfill the obligations of an adult. And you will learn to cope with both in the same way you learned to be a hunter: by beginning."
January 28, 2016
As with all of Daniel Quinn's books, this was a wonderful representation of the human situation. A new take on the bible, "Tales of Adam" is told through seven short stories in which Adam teaches his son Abel about the path of life. Through fables and many clever metaphors, Quinn takes the reader on an escapade to follow the tracks of life, and this journey may just save us from carrying ourselves and the world out into the sea.
September 13, 2015
If you haven't read any Daniel Quinn, you can read this easily in one sitting and get a sense of the unique perspective of his longer works and whether or not it appeals to you. If you're interested in ecology and looking for a different slant on our present situation, it couldn't hurt to give this a whirl.
April 10, 2008
Tales of Adam is a really quick read. Written a little like Aesop's Fables. It is a story about a father teaching his son about the physical and spiritual world. A direct moral in each chapter. It was a littletoo boring and a little too full of morals for me.
July 1, 2012
3.5 stars. i felt that most of the parables in this book were very resourceful and can be interpreted for just about any walk of life. however, quinn's tendency to sound like a self appointed prophet is glaring at times, which is really the only downside of this book for me.
March 4, 2014
Not what I was expecting. But even so, the excessively simple stories return to me throughout daily life. Very practical. Stories to read to very little children, and to the little children within ourselves who need to be read to every once in a while.
April 8, 2015
The book was short, and I would have liked more of it. However, the stories clear up and explain more concepts that the book 'Ishmael' talks about. It was a quick read, I finished it in a couple of hours. I would recommend it to those who have read other books by Daniel Quinn!
August 15, 2007
anything and everything by daniel quinn are must reads for an ecological animist/philosopher
December 18, 2024
simple but enlightening; cute
June 26, 2008
Short read, wholesome tales and life lessons, cute story
October 16, 2008
This is a fantastic book! Great for young kids. Teaches kids some crucial things (human culture and how we got to this point) in a subtle way. It gets their minds churning.
July 26, 2008
I truly enjoyed this collection of short stories (myths?).
March 6, 2009
As far as Quinn's books go, I wasn't hugely into this one. It was a quick read and had some interesting stories in it, but just felt like it was lacking something...
March 10, 2010
I loved this book! I have been searching all the bookstores around to find a copy to send to my new nephew Jude......
August 15, 2010
This is a story about Adam teaching his son Abel how to live in accordance with the Law.
Really beautiful and inspiring.
Really beautiful and inspiring.
June 13, 2011
A beautiful set of parables written in conjunction with Ishmael, that unfortunately were left on the editing room floor.
June 13, 2011
A beautiful set of parables written in conjunction with Ishmael, that unfortunately were left on the editing room floor.
August 7, 2011
Same story again but not half as inspired as in Ishmael or the Story of B. A little disapointing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews