The Wingless Crow
Will be published approx. on 15. September 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
170 pages
978-0-271-03303-7 (ISBN)
Description
The Wingless Crow joins together thirty-three superb short essays on nature, science, country living, and self. They are written by a man who-watchful, inquisitive, at times prickly-is animated by delight, wonder, and love for the rural places and wildlife of Pennsylvania. Charles Fergus wrote these insightful pieces for his monthly column, "Thornapples," which ran in Pennsylvania Game News magazine from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. They are based on many hours spent hiking, skiing, botanizing, and observing wild creatures, as well as trips to libraries and hours spent with books, teasing out information about the objects of his interest.
The writing is simple and vivid, rendered dramatic through the delivery of carefully chosen details. Fergus scrutinizes a captured dragonfly and sees "a bubble of a hide through which organs glimmer." He recalls a night in a tent when lightning shook the ground. He tells about topographic maps and deerflies and auctions and poisonous mushrooms and crows. Propelled by an unrelenting curiosity, a wry sense of humor, and the tough heart of a born curmudgeon, Fergus is astonished at how little he sees at first-and how much, with care and dedication, there is to see. Readers will delight in his observations of and insights into the everyday life, both human and wild, animating the wooded mountains and farmed valleys of the author's central Pennsylvania home.
The writing is simple and vivid, rendered dramatic through the delivery of carefully chosen details. Fergus scrutinizes a captured dragonfly and sees "a bubble of a hide through which organs glimmer." He recalls a night in a tent when lightning shook the ground. He tells about topographic maps and deerflies and auctions and poisonous mushrooms and crows. Propelled by an unrelenting curiosity, a wry sense of humor, and the tough heart of a born curmudgeon, Fergus is astonished at how little he sees at first-and how much, with care and dedication, there is to see. Readers will delight in his observations of and insights into the everyday life, both human and wild, animating the wooded mountains and farmed valleys of the author's central Pennsylvania home.
Reviews / Votes
"Charles Fergus is a watcher, a listener. That he thinks of nature as a gift, and that he wants us to share his enthusiasm, is communicated on every page. . . . He possesses a child's sense of wonder, an adult's ability to assemble matter into perspective, and a craftsmanlike prose that has rendered it all into a very fine book."-James Kaufmann Christian Science Monitor "Charles Fergus knows how to keep a reader's interest in all that is wild and wonderful with this collection of short, lyrical essays on nature, country living and the hunting life."
-Marcia Bonta, Tyrone, PA, author of Outbound Journeys in Pennsylvania and More Outbound Journeys in Pennsylvania both published by Penn State Press "The Wingless Crow is a wise and heartfelt book, with just as much relevance today as when these essays were first written. The word 'classic' is overused, but in this case, it's the only one that fits."
-Scott Weidensaul, Schuylkill Haven, PA, Author of Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search for the Continent's Natural Soul (2005) and Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds (1999) "The Wingless Crow is a collection of nature-related essays that brilliantly blend woodland lore with wisdom, anecdotes, philosophy, humor and much more. Each page offers fresh surprises. If you are not a nature lover now, you most likely will be after reading this delightful book."
-Bill Russell, author of Field Guide to Wild Mushrooms of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic published by Penn State Press
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Pennsylvania
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
0 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
259 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-271-03303-7 (9780271033037)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Charles Fergus is the author of seventeen books, most of them about nature and the outdoors. He was born in central Pennsylvania and lived there for many years before moving, in 2003, to a small hill-country farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.
Content
Contents
Preface
Stump-sitting
On being a curmudgeon
Paper traveling
A four-star shower
Arteries
The way a mind wended
My old man
The vulgar bird
Hiking on your stomach
The showing is nightly
The decoy
Sulfur in the air
Cast iron, basic black
A fair day for hunters
Country matters
Destroying angels
To eat crow
The power of flies
An hour's hunt
Upsik and siqoq
Stolen moments
Expectations
A rogues' gallery of bats
Sleeping out
Crow
Stoltzfus consignment sale
The perfect hat
A small brown package
Mr. Detwiler
Holding infinity at bay
Three incidents
Lord and master of June
Fetch
Preface
Stump-sitting
On being a curmudgeon
Paper traveling
A four-star shower
Arteries
The way a mind wended
My old man
The vulgar bird
Hiking on your stomach
The showing is nightly
The decoy
Sulfur in the air
Cast iron, basic black
A fair day for hunters
Country matters
Destroying angels
To eat crow
The power of flies
An hour's hunt
Upsik and siqoq
Stolen moments
Expectations
A rogues' gallery of bats
Sleeping out
Crow
Stoltzfus consignment sale
The perfect hat
A small brown package
Mr. Detwiler
Holding infinity at bay
Three incidents
Lord and master of June
Fetch