Ahab's Trade: The Saga of South Seas Whaling

Book Description

Gladiator one minute, galley slave the next. Danger, abuse, excitement and tedium, these were the lot of open boat whalemen in the South Seas for two centuries. The Nantucketers, the first and the best, taught the world how whaling should be done. Ahab's Trade tracks the rise and fall of this first global industry and tells the story of the men who made it. Although they whaled in American, British, French, Australian and New Zealand ships, their calling made them citizens of a closed and isolated world unlike that of other seamen. The good, the mad and the ugly: they are all here to tell their stories and describe a way of life so strange that its survival into our century is almost incomprehensible.

Customer Reviews:

A Gem of a Book About Whaling.......2004-09-05

Mawer's splendid "Ahab's Trade" tells the incredible story of South Seas (i.e. Pacific) whaling during the 19th and 20th centuries. The principal character in this book does not have a particular name; the names themselves shift from voyage to voyage - but the constant heroic icon that keeps appearing is the longboat's crewman; the sailor who ventures out onto the high seas in little but a glorified rowboat, harpoon in hand, ready to do battle with a beast that could easily smash the boat to bits. Whatever you think of whaling, you can't deny the bravery of these men.

Mawer does not stop with a strict rendition of whaling, however: he takes the opportunity to share with the reader many a story about the Pacific in general during this fateful period, from the discovery of the Bounty mutineers on Pitcairn island, to the "ExEx" expedition of the 1830s (recently given its own entire history), to the exploits of Confederate raiders during the 1860s. The narrative ends with the (comparatively recent) international ban on whaling - a ban that Mawer does not entirely embrace. Immaculately researched and superbly written.

Great whaling history........2000-03-23

This is a really good piece of work. I'm a maritime history buff and I enjoyed it a lot. If you're at all interested in the early history of the New England states or especially interested in Nantucket and the way people there made their fortunes, I'd give this book a try. It's a good history that reads like a good novel in places. Highly recommended.

Meet Mr Grizzly: A Saga on the Passing of the Grizzly Bear

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Meet Mr Grizzly
Western Americana Classic
Grizzly Bears, Hounds and an iconoclastic Englishman

Meet Mr Grizzly: A Saga on the Passing of the Grizzly Bear
Montague Stevens
Manufacturer: High Lonesome Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0944383092

Book Description

First published in 1943 but long out of print, "Meet Mr. Grizzly" was rated by J. Frank Dobie in "Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest as "...the most mature yet published by a ranchman." Now this singular reminiscence by a remarkable man is drawing a whole new generation of readers.

Montague Stevens was much more than a one-armed British remittance man with a passion for bear hunting. Educated at Cambridge, he was one of the most literate chroniclers of New Mexico's rural history. That he lived in a time when grizzlies still roamed the wilds of southwest New Mexico makes Steven's observations of great interest to today's bear enthusiasts. His well reasoned comments on natural history, dog training, and the life of an early day cattleman are an invaluable reference.

Customer Reviews:

Meet Mr Grizzly.......2003-06-30

An outstanding and well written book. This book is an absolute must for those who love the great bear. Even though it relates to hunting of the grizzly, it offers terrific insight into the personality and intelligence of this great animal that once roamed so much of the American west.

Western Americana Classic.......2003-04-20

Meet Mr. Grizzly is a great classic of Western Americana. It is also the best book on training dogs and horses that I have ever read. Montague Stevens was an Englishman who took up ranching in New Mexico in the late 1800's. Among the problems he faced in learning the business of cattle and sheep ranching were Apaches, rustlers, and stock-killing grizzlies. While this book provides a colorful and highly literate description of ranch life on the western frontier, it focuses primarily on the methods he developed for hunting marauding bears. These, in turn, depended largely on his genius in training dogs and horses. For me, the most fascinating aspect of this book is the gentle creativity and the shrewd experimental approach he applied in working with his animals. His experiences are described with clarity, modesty, and humor.

Grizzly Bears, Hounds and an iconoclastic Englishman.......2000-10-30

Montague Stevens (the author) lightly mentions losing an arm in an accident and then never returns to the subject or the difficulties it must have caused as he chronicles his joyous escapades of hunting Grizzly bears near his ranch in New Mexico. This combined with his quote "Any good horse would be insulted by spurs" typifies his iconoclastic personality.

This book (non fiction) is about a man (Stevens) who lived in the late 1800's and early 1900's on a ranch in New Mexico near the Arizona border. The author spent a good portion of his life hunting Grizzly's by what he terms the "hit and miss method" before learning to catch grizzly's with "reasonable certainty". Written with the feel of a "fireside chat", "Meet Mr. Grizzly" discusses Stevens' many adventures of hunting bears, training hounds, ranch life and interesting people he met along the way. His opportunities to hunt with Teddy Roosevelt and several prominent Military men of his day are intriguing.

Stevens' unorthodox methods of training hounds to trail bears is both thought provoking and entertaining. Stevens understood dogs better than most dog trainers. He was able to train "liason dogs" to trail the hunting pack once the hunting pack were out of hearing. Stevens was an animal lover with a personality and demeanor similar to James Herriot. His analytical approach to problem solving allowed him to kindly train and own what was probably the worlds most successful pack of hunting dogs. His simple explanations of training methods make the reader feel as though anyone can expertly train dogs to do anything desired.

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Celebrated for his stirring, clear-eyed memoirs and novels of Montana--Dancing at the Rascal Fair, This House of Sky, and most recently Bucking the Sun--Ivan Doig vaults over the mountains in his new novel and lands in the midst of Seattle's fin-de-siècle coffee and computer culture. Mitch Rozier is an oversized, Montana-born, divorced, fiftysomething environmental columnist for a once-hip weekly newspaper on the verge of going under. Lexa McCaskill is his scrappy, earthy, no-nonsense "spousal equivalent"--a "compact Stetsoned woman in blue jeans," also from Montana and divorced, who makes a handsome living catering swanky parties for Seattle's software plutocrats. Doig has a fine time satirizing the excesses and absurdities of "Cyberia" before he abruptly shoos his characters back to Montana: Lyle Rozier, Mitch's Stegner-esque father, wants to involve his son in one more ransack-the-land scheme before leukemia kills him.

The wary standoff between father and son works on many levels: as a deeply realistic clash between two fierce, disappointed men; as a symbolic confrontation between the Old West and the new--Lyle's frank, freewheeling exploitation of Montana's vastness versus Mitch's helpless reverence for the environment; and as a brief, brilliant history of how people have lived off and with the land in 20th-century Montana. All of these strands come together in a stunning climax played out against the glorious backdrop of the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

One of the great novelists of the American West, Doig proves here that he is just as adept at conjuring up the vagaries of our shiny new cities as he is at taking the measure of rough, tough, old Montana. Mountain Time has everything going for it--great characters, breathtaking scenery, heartbreaking family feuds, wicked humor, a page-turning love story, prose so perfectly pitched you'll want to read it out loud. And there's something new for Doig aside from setting--a serene, twinkling levity. This is the work of a master having a hell of a good time. --David Laskin

Book Description

At fifty-something, environmental reporter Mitch Rozier has grown estranged from Seattle's coffee shop and cyber culture. His newspaper is going under, and his relationship with Lexa McCaskill is stalled at "just living together." Then, he is summoned by his sly, exasperating father, Lyle, back to the family land, which Lyle plans to sell in the latest of his get-rich schemes before dying. Lexa follows, accompanied by her sister Mariah, and the stage is set for long-overdue confrontations -- between lovers, sisters, and father and son. Mountain Time is distinguished by humor and a wry insight into the power of family feuds to mark individuals and endure. Set against the glorious backdrop of Montana mountain country, it is a dazzling novel of love, family, and the contemporary West.

Customer Reviews:

Love the unpredictability of human behavior and the outstanding story.......2006-10-29

This story provides the reader with characters that are so real, so unpredictable, so human, that the world around you is mirrored in each one. Not always pretty, not always rational, not always logical, just the kind of story that I love. And Doig weaves a fantastic story as he always does and it is one highly worth reading. I would not miss this modern look at Montana and its people.

Mountain Time by Ivan Doig.......2006-04-10

Ivan Doig is an excellent writer and Mountain Time rates as one of his best. He bases his books in Montana and provides outstanding pictures of the people, attitudes, landscape, and scenery of the state. I am a native Montanan and know both Seattle and Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. Both are accurately depicted here. Doig's description of a cafe that is "somewhere between unfinished and deteriorating" would fit any number of cafes in small-town Montana. On a plot level, Mountain Time presents some unique twists and many poignant moments that will keep the reader involved from the beginning to the end. This is not a book where you will guess the ending before you get there.

story interuptus.......2005-05-14

Scanning some of the reviews, I notice I felt many of the same impressions as other readers with this book. I just finished the trilogy, _Dancing at the Rascal Fair_, _English Creek_, and _Ride with Me, Mariah Montana_. The first two were the best, the last was so-so, and _Mountain Time_ just fell flat.

I found the conversations annoying, especially between Mitch's daughter and Mitch.The jargon was forced and very unflattering to the characters. The book was somewhat stiff to get into, but my respect for Mr. Doig encouraged me on. When the story line gets to Montana, it does pick up a bit and become more promising. The best part was the 3 day back pack trek into the mountains to scatter the ashes of Mitch's dad. Unfortunately, the cadence did not sustain itself, and the ending was spiritless.

Some considerations bothered me. For instance, I kept waiting to find out the cryptic reason Lyle was so intent on making Mitch promise to scatter his ashes up on the look out tower. I expected some message to be written on the walls, or some other justification for such an insistent request by the father, Lyle to be fulfilled by his son, Mitch. Another let down was the bit about the torn up camp site that the 3 characters come upon during their hike up the mountain, allegedly by a grizzly bear. We have torn up sleeping bags, (where's the bodies?) and a ripped up teepee. Alas, I thought!! A little action, mystery, hey, the story is going to pick up now..!!

But..,not exactly..

It looked promising for a while when they scuffled over the old man's ashes, and Mitch got seriously hurt. Lexa made the brave decision to be the one to hike out off the mountain for help, against the odds of time, weather and the elements to save her lover. Leaving her cutie sister, Mariah up in the watch tower as the nurse, the story alludes very suddenly to romance between her and Mitch. What? He has a broken leg, little food, stinky armpits and no alcohol. This was just too hard to swallow.. but it did suggest the story might improve.

But, ok, now Lexa is hiking down, the weather is worsening, food is low, she is exhausted and what is lurking in the woods but that big huge woolly grizzley bear. OK!! ACTION!

But, noooo.....

Suddenly the story is about over, Mitch is saved, Lexa is on the outs in favor of Mariah, and one feels the story can't get much worse when you have to read these side line reflections of Bob Marshall. (Who is Bob, many of you may ask?)

The last 15 pages you hope for some kind of conclusion to all these loose ends.. does Mitch repair his relationship with his kids, and if there is no furthur mention of them, why bring them in at all? There is the rushed explainations of the hobby buisnesses of Lyle and how he makes his tire irons (I didn't care) and this abrupt resumption of Mitch's and Lexa's love affair. All this in a fatal gasping ending.

Mr Doig, I loved your personal history books, _Heart Earth_ and _This House of Shy_. They were exquisite representations of the beautiful Montana area and a wonderful accounting of your incredible family. I promise not to let this book disappoint me so much that I won't read you again, indeed I am going to start your other books next.

It is just that this story was, well, a story interuptus..

Top notch storytelling.......2000-07-13

It's true this is not Ivan Doig's best work. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to top my favorite, Dancing at the Rascal Fair. Mr. Doig's storytelling is honest and straightforward; his wordsmithing in high form. Some of the reviews indicate trite characterization of western Washington, and an uninvolving story with unsurprising revelations. Not true if you come to this story with different expectations. Life in Washington isn't the point of this story (and what may seem trite seemed all to real to what I've seen here in Seattle. Mr. Doig writes issues many Baby Boomers may be facing or have confronted: a dying parent; coming to gripes with a parent's choices; life changes, in this case, the impact of divorce on self; loss of job. Having experienced aspects of what this story covered, I found the novel a good depiction of these issues and relationships. Yes, it takes a while to get into the story, but once in I found it quite satisfying.

Still one of the West's best.......2000-05-11

In Montana, not far from where Ivan Doig grew up beneath a big sky that still haunts him, three rivers flow together to form the deep and wide Missouri, lacing through both time and landscape, the old West and the new. And like the brawny Missouri, Doig has channeled three deep literary tributaries into "Mountain Time," a coda to his McCaskill family trilogy.

Three people, three intense relationships, three rivers. "Mountain Time" is the confluence: The very real familial clash between Lyle and Mitch echoes the clash between the historic and contemporary West, where exploitation has always been at odds with environmental anxiety.

Book Description

For hundreds of years black-tailed prairie dogs inhabited the Great Plains by the millions, improving the grazing for bison and pronghorn antelope, digging escape holes and homes for burrowing owls and rodents, and serving as prey for badgers, coyotes, hawks, and bobcats. This book by the renowned naturalist and writer Paul A. Johnsgard tells the complex biological and environmental story of the western Great Plains under the prairie dog’s reign—and then under a brief but devastating century of human dominion.

An indispensable and highly readable introduction to the ecosystem of the shortgrass prairie, Prairie Dog Empire describes in clear and detailed terms the habitat and habits of black-tailed prairie dogs; their subsistence, seasonal behavior, and the makeup of their vast colonies; and the ways in which their “towns” transform the surrounding terrain—for better or worse. Johnsgard recounts how this terrain was in turn transformed over the past century by the destruction of prairie dogs and their grassland habitats, together with the removal of the bison and their replacement with domestic livestock. A disturbing look at profound ecological alterations in the environment, this book also offers a rare and invaluable close-up view of the rich history and threatened future of the creature once considered the “keystone” species of the western plains.

Included are maps, drawings, and listings of more than two hundred natural grassland preserves where many of the region’s native plants and animals may still be seen and studied.

The Striped Bass Chronicles: The Saga of America's Great Game Fish

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An addictive book about a noble fish

The Striped Bass Chronicles: The Saga of America's Great Game Fish
George Reiger
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1592288456

Book Description

The striped bass sustained American colonists throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and went west with nineteenth-century pioneers. During the past one hundred years, however, Atlantic coastal stocks have been overfished three times to the brink of recreational extinction.

Today, the stripers are back in such numbers that they're the center of a saltwater fly-fishing revival. Author George Reiger recounts his own relationship to the striped bass, and traces the history of the great sport fish through such angling writers as Henry William Herbert and Robert Barnwell Roosevelt in the nineteenth century, to Joe Brooks and Lefty Kreh in more recent decades. The book also demonstrates that despite today's bounty, the striper could be heading for another collapse unless prevailing fisheries turn to better conservation policies. The Striped Bass Chronicles is a paean to a remarkable fish--and a prayer for its future.

Customer Reviews:

An addictive book about a noble fish.......2001-05-02

I found this book by chance, and as soon as I started reading it I couldn't put it down. By the time I was finished, I agreed that maybe the STRIPED BASS should be our national symbol, not the bald eagle. It's a fascinating fish, and an unknown player in American history and politics. It's also HUGE. Who knew that 150 pound monsters lurked in the East River? Reiger is a great writer, period. And he makes a compelling case for the gentlemanly art of catch and release fishing.

The California Condor: A Saga of Natural History and Conservation (Ap Natural World)

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The landmark work on the California condor

The California Condor: A Saga of Natural History and Conservation (Ap Natural World)
Noel F. R. Snyder , and Helen Snyder
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0126540055

Book Description

As the largest flying bird of North America, and one of the most endangered, the California Condor has been a source of tremendous interest and awe. This book offers up-to-date information on both the biology and conservation of the condor, as analyzed by the two most knowledgeable field biologists to have studied the species. The authors present first a thorough review of the history of condor studies and conservation efforts, then a detailed examination of the biology and recent decline of the species, and finally a hopeful plan for ultimate restoration of the species as a viable member of wild ecosystems. The book is illustrated with over a hundred superb color photographs covering numerous aspects of natural history of the species and recent conservation efforts on its behalf. Conservation of the California Condor has always been highly controversial, and this book does not shrink from controversy. Instead it offers a broad and insightful, but nevertheless sympathetic treatment of the many political conflicts of the past century.

Key Features:

Reviews historical account of condor biology and conservation
Analyzes nest site characteristics and limitations
Studies breeding behavior and analyzes breeding effort and success
Discusses mortality rates and the causes for their decline and efforts to improve reproduction
Discusses the techniques, problems, and results of captive breeding and release programs

Customer Reviews:

The landmark work on the California condor.......2000-06-20

Noel and Helen Snyder have done an incredible job, of capturing the history of the condor, its biology and much of the essence of the politics of high-profile endangered species recovery. While this meticulously researched book that will fulfill a scientist's needs for accuracy and detail, they have managed to relate that information with a personal touch that provides the lay reader with the sense of the adventure that the authors are recounting. They have tiptoed through a political mine field to bring out the stories and facts so necessarily missed or mis-understood by the media and distant observors. While many books are available on the condor, not since Carl Koford's work in the 50's has someone so close to this species told its story.

City Peregrines: A Ten-Year Saga of New York City Falcons

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Frank, a dedicated raptor enthusiast who kept fine records.

City Peregrines: A Ten-Year Saga of New York City Falcons
Frank Saul , and Saul Frank
Manufacturer: Hancock House Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 088839330X

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Frank, a dedicated raptor enthusiast who kept fine records........1998-11-22

The late Saul Frank was dedicated to the study and preservation of peregrines in New York City. He climbed into bridge towers, overhangs of various skyscrapers, and bell towers of City churches. His friend, Ted LeViness, accompanied him on these frequent field trips, and together these men shared in the work of preserving nesting sites by advising those living or working in these areas to leave the peregrines undisturbed. Their work is most commendable and it is a pity that Mr. Saul died before his book could be widely read and praised. His work with the peregrines is a legacy for raptor lovers to continue.

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A conservation saga
Ernest Swift
Manufacturer: National Wildlife Federation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006BTAYA

A Conservation Saga The Past, Present and Future of Outdoor America

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A Conservation Saga The Past, Present and Future of Outdoor America
Swift Ernest F
Manufacturer: National Wildlife Federation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LCCI9S

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A Conservation Saga: The Past, Present and Future of Outdoor America...
Ernest F. Swift
Manufacturer: Washington, D.C. National Wildlife Federation 1967.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O7XS3K

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