The Thunder Tree

by Pyle, Robert Michael; Louv, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780870716027
• ISBN10: 0870716026
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-01
• Publisher: Oregon State Univ Pr

Summary

An engrossing memoir and eloquent portrait of place, The Thunder Treeshows how powerful the relationship between people and the natural world can be. "When people connect with nature, it happens somewhere,"Pyle writes. "My own point of intimate contact with the land was a ditch... Without a doubt, most of the elements of my life flowed from that canal." The High Line Canal, originally built outside of Denver as part of an ambitious plan to bring water to eastern Colorado for irrigation, became the author's place of sanctuary and play, and his birthplace as a naturalist. This reprint of the classic book, updated with a new foreword by Richard Louv and a preface to this edition, makes one of Pyle's important early works once again available. For a new generation of readers, it offers a powerful argument for preserving opportunities for exploring nature.

Author Biography

Robert Michael Pyle, Called one of America's finest natural history writers by Sue Hubbell, is the author of fifteen books, including Mariposa Road, Chasing Monarchs, Where Bigfoot Walks, and Wintergreen, which won the John Burroughs Medal. A Yale-trained ecologist and a Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in southwestern Washington.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. x
Prologue: Everybody's Ditch	p. 1
Lifeline	p. 5
The Hailstorm	p. 7
Watercourse	p. 20
The Rivers of April	p. 40
Landmarks	p. 55
Lilacs and Crossflowers	p. 57
Magpie Days	p. 74
Mile Roads	p. 87
City Limits	p. 97
Snodgrass, Tatum, and Beasley	p. 99
Of Grass and Growth	p. 111
The Extinction of Experience	p. 130
Still Life	p. 143
Butterflies in Winter	p. 145
A Grand Surprise	p. 1594
The Thunder Tree	p. 174
Epilogue: Travels in the Aftermath	p. 189
Afterword to the 2011 Edition	p. 199
Acknowledgments	p. 204
Sources	p. 207
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