Charles William ("Will") Beebe (1877-1962) was an American naturalist, explorer, and author. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he went on to become Curator of Ornithology for the New York Zoological Society from 1899 to 1952. He was a self-styled naturalist and everything living seemed to hold a continuing fascination for him. In 1919 he was also made Director of the Department of Tropical Research. He wrote many popular books of his expeditions some of which became best-sellers ("my potboilers") in the 1920s and 1930s. He was also a regular contributor to the National Geographic Magazine. He also wrote his magnificent A Monograph of the Pheasants (1918-1922), which remains the classic reference on the subject. In 1950, when he was 73 years old, he bought with his own money 228 acres (92 hectares) of land in the Arima Valley which he named "Simla." This land became the New York Zoological Society's Tropical Research Station in Trinidad. Amongst his other works are: Two Bird-Lovers in Mexico (1905), The Bird (1906), Tropical Wild Life in British Guiana (1917), Jungle Peace (1919) and Edge of the Jungle (1921).
Charles William (Will) Beebe (1877-1962) was an American naturalist, explorer, and author. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he went on to become Curator of Ornithology for the New York Zoological Society from 1899 to 1952. He was a self-styled naturalist and everything living seemed to hold a continuing fascination for him. In 1919 he was also made Director of the Department of Tropical Research. He wrote many popular books of his expeditions some of which became best-sellers (my potboilers) in the 1920s and 1930s. He was also a regular contributor to the National Geographic Magazine. He also wrote his magnificent A Monograph of the Pheasants (1918-1922), which remains the classic reference on the subject. In 1950, when he was 73 years old, he bought with his own money 228 acres (92 hectares) of land in the Arima Valley which he named Simla. This land became the New York Zoological Society's Tropical Research Station in Trinidad. Amongst his other works are: Two Bird-Lovers in Mexico (1905), The Bird (1906), Tropical Wild Life in British Guiana (1917), Jungle Peace (1919) and Edge of the Jungle (1922).
Galápagos is a glorious book. It is high romance, exact science, fascinating history, wild adventure."—Nation The Galápagos Islands are famed for their remarkable wildlife, including land and marine iguanas, land tortoises, four-eyed fish, and flightless cormorants and albatross. In 1835, Charles Darwin observed variations among the islands' species that inspired him to formulate the theory of natural selection. Eighty-eight years later, in 1923, a scientific expedition sponsored by the New York Zoological Society followed in Darwin's wake. Led by renowned biologist and explorer William Beebe, the scientists visited the the islands to study and obtain specimens of indigenous plants and animals. This is Beebe's personal account of that fascinating expedition. Combining rare literary skill with careful research, Beebe produced an exceptionally readable volume, replete with youthful enthusiasm, a romantic's awe before the mysteries of nature, and a scientist's passion for accurate description. He recounts the expedition's enormously productive results, including specimens of 60 species previously unknown to science, and an unparalleled accumulation of data that stimulated many scientific papers and new avenues of naturalistic inquiry. Beebe's account is enhanced with more than 100 splendid illustrations, selected from hundreds of paintings, drawings, and photographs by expedition members. A classic of popular science, it is scientifically rigorous as well as exciting and accessible.
A revelatory collection of correspondence by the lauded author of titanic American classics such as The Recognitions and J R, shedding light on his staunchly private life. UPDATED WITH OVER TWO DOZEN NEW LETTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHS Now recognized as one of the giants of postwar American fiction, William Gaddis shunned the spotlight during his life, which makes this collection of his letters a revelation. Beginning in 1930 when Gaddis was at boarding school and ending in September 1998, a few months before his death, these letters function as a kind of autobiography, and also reveal the extent to which he drew upon events in his life for his fiction. Here we see him forging his first novel, The Recognitions (1955), while living in Mexico, fighting in a revolution in Costa Rica, and working in Spain, France, and North Africa. Over the next twenty years he struggles to find time to write the National Book Award–winning J R (1975) amid the complications of work and family; deals with divorce and disillusionment before reviving his career with Carpenter’s Gothic (1985); then teaches himself enough about the law to produce A Frolic of His Own (1994). Resuming his lifelong obsession with mechanization and the arts, he finishes a last novel, Agapē Agape (published in 2002), as he lies dying. This newly revised edition includes clarifying notes by Gaddis scholar Steven Moore, as well as an afterword by the author’s daughter, Sarah Gaddis.
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