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Woodland Tales

by Ernest Thompson Seton

The book is not quite as I had imagined it, and does not really live up to my admiration of this author. It is a collection of short fables and tales about how many animals and plants got their particular traits, relative to the northeast region of the United States. Origin tales, if you will. Some appear to be created by Seton himself, many are based on Native American folklore, although I could never discern what tribe they might have originated from. I was interested in the details of plant characteristics because I live near the area the stories focus on, but unfortunately did not recognize many. It would have helped to have illustrations, but while the text referred to many, none were included in my e-reader edition. (A double disappointment, there were points where tunes or old songs were referenced, and with a link provided to listen, but they didn\’t work).

Nevertheless, the stories unfolded a richness in the plant and animal life around me that I was unaware of before. It sent me many times to the computer to look things up, especially plants which the stories claim are edible or good for other uses. Besides origin stories there are also some folk tales, which I enjoyed to a limited extent. It is obvious that Seton viewed Native American skills and lore as a perfection to aspire to, but the way he conveyed it in the stories often used language that could be found offensive to modern readers. Even when he was admiring \”the red man\” his phrasing was frequently condescending or overly simplistic.

There are also lots of activities described, by which you can teach children about nature, or test your skills in finding constellations, recognizing species in the woods or creating small crafts using various plant items and things found in the woods. It was this last group that interested me, particularly the description on how to make a fish figure from a young pinecone and brown paper. But although this bit of \”woodcraft\” was interesting, I know I will probably only try a few and ultimately found it tiresome.

I did appreciate that at the end a listing was provided of all Seton\’s published works, along with brief descriptions of each. So now I know which books of his are more about \”woodcrafting\” and also which titles are simplified \”junior\” versions of the originals I have so enjoyed. I intend to keep searching for Seton\’s works, but know to avoid these two types as they won\’t hold my interest.

Rating: 2/5 212 pages, 1921

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic, Nature

The Biography of a Silver Fox

by Ernest Thompson Seton

This Seton book tells the life story of a beautiful, rare melanistic phase of red fox with unusually dark fur. Like most animal stories it starts with the fox\’s childhood, shows how he grows up and learns the ways of wild foxes. Much of the story is about his evasions of man\’s attempts to trap him, and of dogs that hunt him, especially one particular hound. There\’s also an interesting bit about a deer. The dark fox happens upon a fawn hidden in the grass one day, and is surprised because where he lives deer are rare, so he\’s never seen one. The doe attacks him with ferocity, and when she runs across him again later in the story, her aggressiveness this time is good fortune for him.

The fox becomes noted in the local community for his beautiful dark fur, and is a particular target for trappers and small boys alike who try to catch him over and over again. He finds a mate and raises cubs, and the last few chapters describe a particularly long hunt in which he must flee for his life from not one but two packs of hounds (he escapes one group to run into another in a different area far from home) then finally when exhausted is tracked by his nemesis the loud-voiced hound dog. Happily the fox escapes with his life (I won\’t tell you how though, in case you read the book- it\’s quite a dramatic scene!) which is not always the case at the end of Seton\’s animal stories.

My copy of this book is an older edition as pictured above, but I do like the cover of this one, which shows the notable dark fox standing next to his mate with the more common red fur coat. As always I really enjoyed the artwork in the book; Seton was an accomplished wildlife artist and illustrated all his own stories. There are beautiful plates of drawings (I cannot quite tell if these are paintings which have been reproduced in black-and-white, or etchings, or very fine pencil drawings. If they were originally paintings I would dearly like to see the works in color!) and the margins are decorated all over with line drawings in his remarkably spare, descriptive style. Some of these are purely academic showing poses or footprints of the animals, others are more humorous, all wonderful to look at.

I didn\’t find the story quite as amusing and engaging as the prior collection I read, but it\’s still a very good book and one that will have a permanent place in my collection. Curiously, I read in the little forward that Seton published this book at the same time that Charles Roberts published his story Red Fox. Seton defended the case that some of the incidents in the lives of the foxes in these two books were very similar, saying that Neither has read the other\’s story and This means simply that we have independently learned of traits and adventures that were common to the Foxes of New Brunswick, New England, and farther west. I happen to have a copy of Roberts\’ Red Fox and have read it a few times myself, but I don\’t recall any particular adventures the two books have in common. I\’m curious now to re-read Red Fox yet again and see if I can pick out the episodes that other readers noticed similarities in, so long ago!

Rating: 3/5 …….. 218 pages, 1909

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads

Lives of the Hunted

by Ernest Thompson Seton

This is a delightful collection of animal stories from what is quickly becoming one of my favorite, hard-to-find authors. I have a handful of his books, purchased at a dear price on a ridiculous splurge at a used bookstore, one which I\’ve never yet regretted. My copy itself would be valuable if it weren\’t in such miserable condition. It\’s a hardbound first edition, and even though the spine is loosening, the pages wrinkled and the entire book swollen with long-ago moisture damage, I can still feel the rich texture of the fine paper that was used, and enjoy the numerous drawings and illustrations.

The stories are engaging and informative. They are about animals, comprised from true events Seton observed (in a few cases he even includes himself in the stories) and while revealing a lot about wildlife behavior and animal nature, they are also just darn good stories in and of themselves. Seton was a very good storyteller. Sometimes the tales reflect their times, in ways that might be upsetting to some readers. For example, in a story about bears in Yellowstone park, the author has no qualms telling how garbage was routinely dumped in a large open pile, and people seemed pleased that the bears would gather here to eat. Even when they recognized one particular bear cub was sickly from eating trash, they blamed the mother bear for allowing him to eat whatever he chose, rather than taking responsibility themselves for giving the bears access to garbage!

There\’s a story about a bighorn ram who leads a determined hunter in a pursuit that lasted- according to Seton\’s account- several months. There\’s a charming story about a mother blue-winged teal who must lead her ducklings a fair distance over land to their first water source when the pond near her nest dries up. The chapter about kangaroo rats was mostly the author\’s observations of one he captured and kept in a large box with dirt to tunnel in, as well as digging up its nest to see the layout of the tunnels. I enjoyed the story about a sparrow who was raised by canaries, resulting in some confusing behavior. There are two stories that feature dogs and coyotes. The first was about a rather foolish dog who was teased by wild coyotes; the second about a poor coyote pup who was captured and tormented in every way thinkable by children and grown men alike until she escaped. Having learned all the hurts mankind was capable of inflicting, this coyote was particularly wise when she finally made her own way in the wild and raised a family of even smarter coyotes (not without difficulty!) Her story was my favorite of the lot.

Rating: 4/5 ……. 360 pages, 1901

more opinions:
The Locavore Hunter
anyone else?

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Current Reads

unicorn books

I have a new favorite place.

About once a year we take a little drive (well, four hours- seems pretty long with the baby) through Maryland to Ocean City to spend a few days at the beach. I usually make the effort to visit Mason Books which is just a few blocks from the beach, but as it was easter sunday this time the shop was closed. I was pretty disappointed. So this time we plotted to stop at a used bookstore I\’ve always seen from the highway. Every other year we\’ve been either too tired to stop, or didn\’t see the building until it was too late to slow down. This time we used my husband\’s navigation tool on his iphone to see exactly where were were in relation to the shop so we could find it.

It\’s in a little town called Trappe. Unicorn Bookshop looks like a small building, but inside it is just amazing. The rooms are simply crammed with books- shelves to the ceiling, cases and stacks on the floor. It\’s the kind of place you could poke around in for hours and never notice the time going by. It\’s very well-organized too, which I really appreciated- everywhere in the shop are signs posted telling you just where to find which kinds of books. The first room of interest I found had a wall of children\’s books and there I came upon my first treasures- a group of old books by Ernest Thompson Seton!

This is an author I have long admired, but seldom had the chance to read- most of his stuff is out of print. And several of the titles here were ones I\’d in particular been wanting to get my hands on- Two Little Savages (boys\’ adventures in the woods) and Lives of the Hunted. I simply snatched them all.

Nearby found a Thornton Burgess- I\’m amassing quite a collection of those. I have about fourteen of his books of animal stories, now, and keep looking for more. Then I stepped across the aisle and found myself facing the shelves of nature writing. There was Gerald Durrell! and Hal Borland! and Sally Carrighar! and I simply had to stop before I went even further. I didn\’t even go into any other rooms, or dig through any of the stacks on the floor (though regretfully I feel certain I could have found more Burgess there) because I knew what was in my hands would already cost me a pretty penny.

When I got to the counter I promptly said: \”I love your shop!\” and the man smiled at my stack of books and said \”I can see that you do.\” He who rung up my purchase was a little old man with a stooped back but quite spry. He did everything old-school. He wrote down each title and price in a huge ledger book, by hand, humming the titles and numbers quietly to himself. Then he added it up on an adding machine, used a carbon-copy to take my card and wrote the receipt by hand, too. There was a new-looking flatscreen Apple monitor on the book-cluttered desk, but otherwise no sign of modern technology. It was completely charming. The ledger book was held open by a heavy clasp in the figure of a unicorn, too. I came out of that place simply beaming with delight.

I begged my husband to forgive the cost, promised I would not make any more extravagant book purchases this year, and that we must come back next time!

If you visit the bookshop\’s website, there\’s a nice little video there. I didn\’t even notice the clocks when I went in! And if you\’re so inclined, you can see a few pictures of our little beach vacation here. I probably should have named this post The Splurge, ha ha!

Wild Animals I Have Known

by Ernest Thompson Seton

This is one of those books I read time and time again as a kid at the public library, but until very recently only had vague memories of. I remember often enough turning the pages of the borrowed book, an edition with pawprints running up and down each page margin and lots of pen-and-ink illustrations. I mentioned this book once before when I read the author\’s autobiography, and now finally had a chance to read it again, after finding a used copy.

Wild Animals I Have Known is a collection of stories about animals that the author claims are based on true events. One tells about a wolf famed for preying on livestock, that cleverly evaded all attempts to poison him. There is also the story of a partridge, a savvy crow that leads a large band, and a beautiful wild horse that can outrun anything. I recognized part of the story about the fox- where a vixen tried to free her captive cub by burying the chain it was tied to. And I was a bit incredulous at the rabbit story- would a mother rabbit really kick a snake to free her young? Just as interesting as the wild animal stories were two about dogs- which might just as well be called wild. The first was a dog that ran around free on the prairie, grappling with wolves and eating off dead livestock himself, in one marvelous incident assisting the author when he got caught in his own wolf traps! the other was about a \”yaller dog\” which had been trained to faithfully care for sheep, and when his owner ditched him on a journey, the dog waited ages at a ferry for him to return. By the time he managed to attach himself to a new master, the dog\’s temperament had changed entirely, and although he protected his own flock dutifully enough, he proved to be a terror to the neighboring farms. Anyhow, the stories are not all pretty. Most of them have some violent doings, animals being torn apart by gunshots or something like. There are quite a few sad or ironic endings. I liked them all the same.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 283 pages, 1941

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Re-reads, Short Stories

Trail of an Artist Naturalist

by Ernest Thompson Seton

I happened across this volume in a used bookstore while on a recent trip, and snatched it up at once. I recognized the author\’s name from a book I read many times over as a child at the public library: Wild Animals I Have Known. Here, in Trail of an Artist Naturalist, is Ernest Thompson Seton\’s autobiography. Seton was the son of Scots immigrants who settled on a farm in the backwoods of Canada. The first half of the book describes his rough upbringing there, learning the craft of a woodsman and hankering after knowledge of wildlife, an interest none of his family shared. Determined to squelch his desires to become a naturalist, Seton\’s father pushed him into an artistic career. Seton turned this to his own bent, becoming one of the most renowned wildlife artists of his day. He studied art in London and Paris, worked as a freelance artist and writer in New York City, and when he felt the need to escape to natural haunts, spent time tramping around northern Canada and the American West. He worked on cattle ranches and remote prairie homesteads, taking any opportunity to roam through the wilderness and study with great scrutiny any wild animals he could find. His greatest interest was birds.

While Seton admired and was enthralled by the beauty of nature, he was also avid about collecting birds\’ eggs from nests, shooting specimens for their skins and dissecting them for study. While a student in London he would acquire dead dogs from the pound, dissect them to study and draw in his rented rooms, then puzzle over how to safely dispose of the remains when he was done- in one instance he almost got accused of a murder! He was very good at hunting animals, due to having studied their habits in depth, and in one famous incident rid an area of New Mexico of a wolf called Lobo, famed for its depredations on cattle. He had no qualms about pitting his wits against the wolf to exterminate it, but at the same time felt sympathy for the animals and hated to see poison used on them.

Seton knew and met many notable persons. Robert Henri was his fellow art student in Paris, and later in life he met Frederic Remington- two artists I have always admired. He was acquainted with James Barrie and Mark Twain, and his animal stories- sympathetic, novelistic writings based on true accounts and behavioral studies- inspired Rudyard Kipling\’s Jungle Book stories. A man of surpassing energy and enthusiasm for his chosen work, Seton also faced his share of hardships. He suffered from debilitating childhood illnesses until in his twenties finally found a cure via surgery. He survived harsh weather and blizzards in the northern lands, once having to help dig out his own train on a journey from snowed-in tracks, another time nearly dying of malaria on a remote farm. His book – based on extensive journals he kept and full of sketches, drawings and plates of paintings – depicts a way of life in the late 1800\’s rougher and closer to the earth, and outlines one man\’s path to become a skillful artist and natural scientist. If I say any more about it, I\’ll be writing all night! I suppose his books are rather obscure now, but when first published they were very popular. You can read more about Seton here and here.

Rating: 3/5 …….. 412 pages, 1940

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Nonfiction, Art, Bios / Memoirs, Current Reads

Bevis

the Story of a Boy

by Richard Jeffries

Marvelous (but also disturbing) book from the 1800’s- others have described it as something like Tom Sawyer or Lord of the Flies and I heartily agree. It also reminded me a lot of Ernest Thompson Seton’s Two Little Savages. Bevis is the son of a landowner in rural England- and he pretty much runs around doing whatever he pleases. When the story opens, it drives straight into his efforts to build a raft out of odds and ends- I was baffled for a few pages wondering who this kid was, where he lived, what the heck he was doing, but then caught up in his unwavering intent to find items that would work to make what he wanted- because I’m a bit like that myself, when building something or other for the garden. After making the raft he goes on to rig a little (and very awkward it sounds) sailboat, he and his friend carve a boomerang, make a matchlock gun (!!), practice with bows and arrows, shoot targets with their various weapons, learn how to swim, roam around hunting rabbits and birds with their dog, stage a battle with a bunch of other boys- taking sides and planning strategies the whole nine yards, and so on and on and on.

The part I remember best is middle to the end, where Bevis and his friend Mark build a camp on an island in a lake near home, lie to their parents that they’re at someone else’s house for a visit, and live rough for a week or so. They fish, hunt small game, make pitiful attempts at cooking over a fire (with supplies filched from home like flour, potatoes, matches etc), construct a sundial, track animals pretending everything is exotic- the other kids trying to find their secret place are ‘savages’, the rabbits are ‘kangaroos’ the wood doves are ‘parrots’ you get the idea. They have to solve a little mystery of what is coming into their camp when they’re away stealing food, and another about what animal makes a wave just under the water’s surface (I thought it would be the otter but it was a type of diving bird). I was very sad when they shot the otter. It really is a story from a different time- the kids live in casual abundance- the pages are swarming with beautiful descriptions of nature, lush plant growth, myraid small wild things- which the boys delight in tracking, chasing and killing. They shoot birds for their feathers with no remorse, and are really proud of the otter skin. When they finally go home everyone praises their accomplishments and the father teaches them how to improve their shooting skills (this went on for way too many pages in my opinion). I was rather fascinated by the descriptions of sailing, though. Amazed at how ingenious the kids were at making things from observation and experiment alone. Appalled at how often they beat and kicked their dog to make it behave, and how they ignored the abject poverty the workmen’s children lived in, right alongside them on the farm but their suffering unseen.

It’s lively, full of adventure, boy’s squabbles and petty cruelties, and the richness of nature. I found it a compelling read, even though some things bothered me.

Some quotes I marked- the boys’ explanation of hindsight: “That’s just the thing”, said Bevis. “You sail forty thousand miles to find a thing, and when you get there you can see you left it at home.”

Their surprise at seeing a yellowed fern leaf, where they were sure it was an animal in the grass: when intent on one subject the mind is ready to construe everything as relating to it, and disallows the plain evidence of the senses.

The father’s appraisal of how important it was for them to learn things by experience:

He considered it best that they should teach themselves, and find out little by little where they were wrong. Besides which he knew that the greatest pleasure is always obtained from inferior and incomplete instruments. Present a perfect yacht, a beautiful horse, a fine gun, or anything complete to a beginner, and the edge of his enjoyment is dulled with too speedy possession. The best way to learn to ride is on a rough pony, to sail in an open ill-built boat, because by encountering difficulties the learner comes to understand and appreciate the perfect instrument, and to wield it with fifty times more power than if he had been born to the purple.

I have a copy of this book on my e-reader (it was a pleasure!)

Rating: 3/5

465 pages, 1882

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, General Fiction, Nature

The Dog with Golden Eyes

by Frances Wilbur

Thirteen-year-old Cassie is lonely and miserable. She gets teased about her weight, her best friend started hanging out with other girls, her parents are split and she suspects her mom is dating a new man. She feels like her mom criticizes her too much and at one point thinks of just running away. Then a big white dog shows up in her backyard. She starts feeding it, thinking it can become her pet. Does odd jobs for neighbors to earn money for dog food. Reads books about dogs from the school library, but \”her\” dog doesn\’t seem to fit any of the descriptions. Then a teacher loans her a book about wolves (it\’s Of Wolves and Men!) and she is shocked to find that the dog might actually be an arctic wolf. Now Cassie feels she has even more problems: what\’s a wolf doing in her neighborhood? can she really tame and keep it? is somebody looking for it?

I really liked some things about this book, and had issues with others. It\’s a very nice, refreshing depiction of wolves in a book for kids. Like Flight of the White Wolf, the animal\’s behavior is realistic and bucks stereotypes; in this case it highlights how friendly the wolf can be after it finally trusts Cassie, how mischievous and independent and also destructive, when at one point she coaxes it into the house. I liked that Cassie showed some character development, and it was rather subtle- she overcomes her shyness to find work, realizes she misjudged some people in her life, starts to socialize more with a kid at school, and even looses weight (taking long walks uphill with the wolf). However the writing style is rather flat and simple, and some aspects of the story I felt were way too obvious, as if put in there just to make a point. It really bothered me that when Cassie is upset about her mother going to dinner with a man and feels her problems are overwhelming, she briefly thinks of suicide- because she\’d heard a kid at school had done so the year before. The idea was immediately dismissed, but I found that upsetting: WHY throw that detail in there, if you\’re going to deal with it so casually? it didn\’t really fit in the story (the running away idea made more sense). The writing seems aimed at middle grade readers, but then the themes are much more mature- especially that one mention of suicide.

But it\’s a great story about a wolf. And the ending has some heightened drama which will appeal to kids- of course there are people with guns coming after the wolf (first hunters – including one of the girl\’s classmates – then police). There\’s an animal control office who chats with Cassie throughout the book, interested in catching the wolf to give to someone who trains wild animals. And then it looks like Cassie might actually track down the real owners- because this is obviously a wolf that\’s already been socialized to people. It has a good ending. Which is really nice after all the Ernest Thompson Seton I\’ve been reading (see the next post).

Rating: 3/5 193 pages, 1998

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic

Wild Heritage

by Sally Carrighar

In the sixties, field studies of animal behavior was a very new science. Sally Carrighar wrote this book to dispel many myths about animal behavior- particularly the Victorian notions that animals acted out of brutality or nobility etc., and the reactive ideas from the Industrial Age that attributed animal actions to mere mechanical response via insinct. The truth seems to lie somewhere in the middle- yes, animals are driven by instinct but they also have intelligence, basic emotions and individual preferences; thus Carrighar shows how similar animals\’ motives can be to our own. She divides her book into four main sections, exploring what were then-new observations on wildlife behavior in regards to parenting and raising the young, courtship and mating, the use of aggression and play or creativity. It\’s an intriguing collection of accounts, but somewhat dull because of its age. The book is solidly placed in its timeframe- when Carrighar wrote, Adolph Murie, George Schaller and Jane Goodall were currently young scientists conducting new field studies, with many of their significant discoveries yet to be made. Other great names which are only history to me, were contemporaries to her and spoken of as such: Nikolaas Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, Lois Crisler, Ernest Thompson Seton. For me the book was mostly a summary of things I\’ve already known or accounts I\’ve already read; the originals are much better sources. So the book is interesting in its historical aspect but very dated: a lot of its information is old hat now, and things she puzzled or wondered at have long since been explained. However I was surprised to find once again the incident of the boy in the badger\’s den once again related- although much briefer here. I wonder if she took her account straight from Seton\’s book.

Rating: 3/5 276 pages, 1965

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Nonfiction, Current Reads, Nature, Re-reads

the Story of a Boy

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