The Ash and The Beech The Drama of Woodland Change

John Fowles

The Tree

The classic meditation on creativity and the natural world"For years I have carried this book. . . with me on travels to reread, ponder, envy. In prose of classic gravity, precision, and delicacy, Fowles addresses matters of final importance." --W. S. Merwin, Los Angeles Times Book Review"The Tree is the fullest and finest exploration I've ever read of how the useless delights to be discovered in nature can ripen into the practice of art." --Lewis Hyde, author of The GiftFirst published a generation ago, The Tree is renowned English novelist John Fowles's provocative meditation on the connection between the natural world and human creativity, and a powerful argument against taming the wild. In it, Fowles recounts his own childhood in England and describes how he rebelled against his Edwardian father's obsession with the "quantifiable yield" of well-pruned fruit trees and came to prize instead the messy, purposeless beauty of nature left to its wildest.The Tree is an inspiring, even life-changing book, one that reaffirms our connection to nature and reminds us of the pleasure of getting lost, the merits of having no plan, and the wisdom of following one's nose wherever it may ...

Bernd Heinrich

Summer World: A Season of Bounty

How can cicadas survive--and thrive--at temperatures pushing 115 F? Do hummingbirds know what they're up against before they migrate over the Gulf of Mexico? Why do some trees stop growing taller even when three months of warm weather remain? With awe and unmatched expertise, Bernd Heinrich's Summer World never stops exploring the beautifully complex interactions of animals and plants with nature, giving extraordinary depth to the relationships between habitat and the warming of the earth.

Claude Clayton Smith

Ohio Outback: Learning to Love the Great Black Swamp

A collection that reveals the surprising variety of life in northwest Ohio Ohio Outback is a unique compilation of writings by Claude Clayton Smith about his experiences of living in Ohio for the past twenty-two years. Smith offers a vibrant, humorous portrait of life that focuses on individuals and events in out-of-the-way places throughout northwest Ohio. The pieces in this book reflect a growing curiosity and fondness for Ohio, with topics ranging from the manufacturing process of NFL footballs and the anatomy of ditches to an Ohio section of a ten-thousandmile drive by interstate highway across the forty-eight states and Smith's reflections as a licensed professional boxing judge. Ohio Outback also contains "Yard Wars of the Ohio Outback," a lighthearted piece that forms the book's narrative core with tales of bird, pool, and driveway battles. "Claude Clayton Smith, an Easterner who found himself transplanted to the 'outback' of northwest Ohio, has written a poignant and funny account of his longstanding attempt to feel at home there. The happy result of his struggle to come to terms with the region's landscape, customs, and history is a thoughtful meditation on the charms and ...