Wild America Book Read
Come join us for an exciting discussion of Wild America and the three additional books it inspired, led by RTPI Scholar-in-Residence, Jenn Lodi-Smith. This four-part program is part of this year’s first main floor exhibition, Art that Matters to the Planet: Wild America, which celebrates the 70th anniversary of this classic in environmental literature. Reviewed for the New York Times in 1955 by Edwin Way Teale, an extraordinary nature author in his own right, Teale concluded, “Wild America is a bountiful book in both in text and illustrations, the latter superb examples of Mr. Peterson’s scratchboard art. The reader ends with the feeling of having been one of the party, of having joined two fortunate naturalists during the great days of their lives.” An instance classic, Wild American has inspired countless artists and naturalists, including the likes of Kenn Kaufmann, Lyn Hancock and Scott Weidensaul.
All four program sessions will be held via Zoom. One book per session. Read each book in advance (or as much as you can.) Jenn will lead the discussion for each book. Bring your questions, your insights and your curiosity for a fun and lively discussion.
Monday, April 28, 6pm-7:30pm EST Wild America, Roger Tory Peterson & James Fisher
Tuesday, July 8, 6pm-7:30pm EST Kingbird Highway, Kenn Kaufman
Wednesday, September 17, 6pm-7:30pm EST Looking for the Wild, Lyn Hancock
Thursday, December 4, 6pm-7:30pm EST Return to Wild America, Scott Weidensaul
Jenn Lodi-Smith, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Canisius University. She is a personality developmental psychologist who uses mixed methods research to study identity development over time. She serves on the executive board for the Association for Research in Personality, as associate editor of the Journal of Personality, and mentors the Western New York Young Birders Club. Her spark birds are her kiddos who helped her notice birds and then fall in love with birding. Since then, she has had transformative moments with a fledgling Great Horned Owl, flocks of Atlantic Puffins, a friendly Black-throated Green Warbler, and a fishing Barred Owl!
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of Wild America, the chronicle of an epic, 100-day, 30,000-mile trip undertaken by Roger Tory Peterson and famed British ornithologist, James Fischer. Reviewed for the New York Times in 1955 by Edwin Way Teale, an extraordinary nature author in his own right, Teale concluded, “Wild America is a bountiful book in both in text and illustrations, the latter superb examples of Mr. Peterson’s scratchboard art. The reader ends with the feeling of having been one of the party, of having joined two fortunate naturalists during the great days of their lives.” An instance classic, Wild American has inspired countless artists and naturalists, including the likes of Kenn Kaufmann, Lyn Hancock and Scott Weidensaul.
Inspired by WIld America, Kenn Kaufman out of the high school and hit the road, hitching back and forth across America, from Alaska to Florida, Maine to Mexico. His goal was to set a record – most North American species seen in a year – but along the way he began to realize that at this breakneck pace he was only looking, not seeing. What had been a game became a quest for a deeper understanding of the natural world. Kingbird Highway is a unique coming-of-age story, combining a lyrical celebration of nature with wild, and sometimes dangerous, adventures, starring a colorful cast of characters.
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Looking for the Wild chronicles Australian naturalist Lyn Hancock and her colleagues as they traveled the same North American route that Peterson and Fischer took in Wild America, noting changes in the various landscapes and their inhabitants. While noting the loss of wildness in some areas, she was encouraged by the fact that much is still quite wild, though it is now a managed wild. The growth of a grassroots conservationist movement has pressured governments at all levels to provide parks and sanctuaries to protect wildlife from encroachment. Moreover, the spirit of cooperation among different interest groups has brought more balanced conservation decisions
On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of Wild America, naturalist Scott Weidensaul retraces Peterson and Fisher’s steps to tell the story of wild America today. How has the continent’s natural landscape changed over the past fifty years? How have the wildlife, the rivers, and the rugged, untouched terrain fared? The journey takes Weidensaul to the coastal communities of Newfoundland, where he examines the devastating impact of the Atlantic cod fishery’s collapse on the ecosystem; to Florida, where he charts the virtual extinction of the great wading bird colonies that Peterson and Fisher once documented; to the Mexican tropics of Xilitla, which have become a growing center of ecotourism since Fisher and Peterson’s exposition. And perhaps most surprising of all, Weidensaul finds that much of what Peterson and Fisher discovered remains untouched by the industrial developments of the last fifty years. Poised to become a classic in its own right, Return to Wild America is a sweeping survey of the natural soul of North America today.