Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks

This is a tale of Darwin's becoming a true naturalist. Haupt believes that this happened sometime during the five years he spent with the survey ship Beagle, mostly ashore. Darwin was intent on absorbing and recording everything as the ship ranged up and down both sides of South America. He wanted to learn the geology, the fossils, the animals and the plants wherever he went. Occasionally, Darwin even looked up from his studies and described the human inhabitants. By "true naturalist" Haupt means something more than a mere busybody, recording observations and collecting samples. She has used Darwin's notebooks of the Voyage (rather than his polished published account) to follow the changes in his attitudes from dutiful outside observer to a state that sometimes seemed to be a mind-meld with his subjects -- or really, by now, his fellow participants in life. Nothing was too small or ordinary to catch and hold Darwin's fascinated gaze. Perhaps, even as a young man still steeped in the traditional Chain of Being and the Christian doctrine of special creation, he tacitly believed that everything was important, everything held a clue to...what? Later, when he came to reflect philosophically on the Species Question, this great mass of detail, lightly and lovingly held, indeed served him well. Haupt is an excellent writer and, herself a bird expert, uses Darwin's awakening to the birds of South America to locate his transformation to Naturalist. This is a book of natural history, biography, and philosophical observation that makes no pretense to be definitive. Our author is really using Darwin as an exemplar of a certain type that she admires: someone who loves Nature in all her messy particularity. As a result we get to read more about that endlessly charming man and about nature, and we get Haupt's interesting and often pointed reflections on it all. I was afraid, at the start, that my rather low level of natural history ability would hamper my understanding. Not so: anyone who cares about nature or is just curious about Darwin can enjoy this book.

Both casual readers and high school to college level students of natural history and science will relish the beautifully written PILGRIM ON THE GREAT BIRD CONTINENT: THE IMPORTANCE OF EVERYTHING AND OTHER LESSONS FROM DARWIN'S LOST NOTEBOOKS. It's a different portrait which covers not just his works but the image of a naturalist who trusted his observations more than the political influences of his times or the research before him. Darwin was a bumbling amateur naturalist when he boarded the Beagle in 1831 to journey through the Galapagos. The young Darwin and his observations come to life in a survey rich with first-person reflections by the author, on her own wildlife observations. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

This is an amazing book. I am a biologist and a follower of Darwin, so I ordered this book right away when I saw it reviewed in the paper. Whether your interest is in Darwin or in science and nature more generally, this book is a stand-out. The author has a solid background in philosophy of science, but she's a creative nonfiction writer. Her prose and use of language are definitely a cut above the norm for these subjects. Haupt's focus on birds and her knowledge of ornithology will please any bird-lover. In addition to offering a unique, and endearing portrait of Darwin, this book is really about a way of seeing and understanding the human relationship to the natural world. It is a reminder, as Haupt says, that "we too are animals,connected to life, past and present...that nothing in the natural world is beneath our notice." A beautiful book that will give you fresh eyes.

I greatly enjoyed Haupt's first book "Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds" and ordered this one not knowing much about it. It was wonderful too! Haupt's warm, lyrical prose is well matched to her topic, which is to mine Darwin's little-known pocket notebooks for new insights. She paints a compelling story of him circumnavigating South America as a humble and patient observer, though as she puts it, "This book is not in any way meant to pose as a biography; it is a gleaning of those instances in Darwin's life and work that inspire a renewed vision of the relationship between the human and natural worlds." So... what meaning does Darwin's vision hold for us today? Haupt reminds us that there are lessons in Darwin's story, and especially in his approach, to inspire all of us - even those of us who had never read anything about him before!

Lyanda Lynn Haupt's fresh, new look at Darwin inspires one to take another look at our natural surroundings with eyes wide open, standing at full attention. Thoughtful details get more interesting as you read on. A very relevant and refreshing read!