Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography (Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology)
by Douglas Carlson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Douglas CarlsonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-01
ISBN: 029271680X
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Book Reviews of Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography (Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology)
Book Review: The Tragic Irony of Roger Tory Peterson
Summary: 5 Stars
Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography (Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology) (Hardcover)by Douglas Carlson, University of Texas Press, October 1, 2007, ISBN-10: 029271680X, # ISBN-13: 978-0292716803 is a surprisingly enjoyable read for someone like myself whose knowledge of the natural flying world is limited to appreciating that birds have feathers and bugs do not. Carlson's subject, that of a famous ornithologist's life's work, is not for birders only. No, Carlson's biography of the field guide guru is an especially enlightening read for those of an awakening mind, for shining through Carlson's study of the professional Peterson are the universal themes, love, genius, art, joy, freedom and peace. Carlson's studied account of Peterson's life makes articulate for the philosophically-inclined what these abstractions mean, and for this naming treasure Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography is a treat to read. To articulate, love is the movement toward knowing what is, which is to say love is infinite. Genius is the acute awareness of what is. Art is the representation of what is. Joy is the surrender to what is. Freedom is the expression of what is. Peace is the reflection of what is.
Roger Tory Peterson loved birds because, he imagined as a boy full of romantic notions, birds were the ultimate expression of freedom (Carlson, 8). Peterson's idealization recalls the famous claim by the Christian guru of freedom, Jesus of Nazareth: "Behold the fowls of the air" who do not sow nor reap; neither do they store for tomorrow and yet they have enough food to eat, Matthew 6:26. Peterson, who as a child was brought up, baptized and confirmed Lutheran, his mother a Sunday school teacher, (Carlson, 4) was no doubt influenced by this of all lies. This of all lies: birds are not carefree. Birds are bound, rather, by their need to gather the resources to live, theirs being a subsistence existence. And yet for young Peterson birds represented "the physical freedom to go anywhere they wanted" (Carlson, 260).
Peterson eventually discovered that birds did not satisfy as a symbol of freedom because they are "captives of environmental factors and genetically encoded behaviors" (Carlson, 18), which is ironic because so was Peterson bound--bound by cultural expectations of man as provider. Like the birds he studied, thought about, wrote about, and painted, Peterson himself was confined first to earn a living for the clothing, feeding and nesting of his family, and finally to establish his legacy. Publishing revised editions of what became for him his "dreaded" Field Guide, Peterson was not free. Freedom to him was to luxuriate in his studio with paint brush and bird subject (Carlson, 233), but he had little time to let loose the floodgates of his vision with the demands of his life's work, the work that brought him fame and a modest fortune, pressing down upon him. He was, to put it bluntly, no more free than the fowls of the air. Carlson's biography of Roger Tory Peterson builds brilliantly the tragic irony of Peterson's life. And for this too, a cautionary tale equal to the opening scenes of The Bhagavad Gita in which the warrior, Arjuna, because of his attachment, cannot see reality, Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography is an eye-opening read.
Summary of Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography (Mildred Wyatt-Wold Series in Ornithology)
Beginning with his 1934 Field Guide to the Birds, Roger Tory Peterson introduced literally millions of people to the pleasures of observing birds in the wild. His field guide, which has gone through five editions and sold more than four million copies, fostered an appreciation for the natural world that set the stage for the contemporary environmental movement. When Rachel Carson's Silent Spring sounded a warning about the threat to birds and their habitats in the 1960s, the Peterson field guides had already prepared the public and the scientific community to heed the warning and fight to save habitat and protect endangered species-a result that Peterson wholeheartedly approved.
In this authoritative, highly readable biography of Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996), Douglas Carlson creates a fascinating portrait of the complex, often conflicted man behind the brand name. He describes how Peterson's obsession with birds began in boyhood and continued throughout a multifaceted career as a painter, writer, educator, environmentalist, and photographer. Carlson traces Peterson's long struggle to become both an accomplished bird artist and a scientific naturalist-competing goals that drove Peterson to work to the point of exhaustion and that also deprived him of many aspects of a normal personal life. Carlson also records Peterson's many lasting achievements, from the phenomenal success of the field guides, to the bird paintings that brought him renown as "the twentieth century's Audubon," to the establishment of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute to carry on his work in conservation and education.
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