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Archives of Natural History (1989) (1) : 101-120 Book Reviews C. HUNTER (Editor). The life and letters of Alexander Wilson. (Memoir of the American Philosophical Society 154.) American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia: 1983. Pp xxii, 456; illustrated. Price: US $40. ISBN 0-87169-154-x. "Nature is present to naturalists the way God is to saints or the past is to humanistsâ simply as a matter of fact but as an insistent and live reality" (D.S.Wilson (1978) In the presence of nature. University of Massachusetts Press, Boston, p. 1.) This describes the outlook of Alexander Wilson, and Clark Hunter captures the passion of Wilson's character in his account of the "lad o' pairts" Scotsman-turnedAmerican's life. He spends only 100 pages weaving the substantial cloth of a biography of the "weaver, pedlar, poet, reformer, pioneering ornithologist, and remarkable traveler, not to mention artist and writer," and leaves the 150 letters that complete the bulk of the book to add colour and texture to the fabric. A further recommendation is the book's fine index and bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The editor wisely printed documents in the appendix that bear on the legal situation that surrounded "The Hollander", particularly since the troubles pursuant
Archives of Natural History – Edinburgh University Press
Published: Feb 1, 1989
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