If only the eleventh chapter of Elizabeth J. Rosenthal’s Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson was the entirety of the book, it would still be well worth the cover price; for it is in this chapter, titled “DDT, the Osprey, and the Old Lyme Offspring,” that Rosenthal recounts in exquisite detail what is all too often neglected or underplayed when the life story of Peterson is told. Fortunately, Rosenthal has chosen a somewhat unusual style for her biography of Peterson; one more thematic than strictly chronologic and from this is able to draw more focused attention to threads that spanned years and even decades throughout his life.
In truth, the recollection of the life of a person of so many great accomplishments as Peterson is by no means an easy task. Known throughout the world and elevated to eponymous stature by naturalists both professional as well as amateur, through the application of his keen mind and gifted artistic hand to the very structure of the field guide itself he revolutionized the way in which not only birds but virtually all the flora and fauna could be identified in the field. Since the original publication of A Field Guide to the Birds in 1934, through regional division and in subsequent editions, the work has to this day never been out of print. It was the model for dozens of other titles, all following the Peterson Method. When a budding naturalist, be they bird watcher, rock hound, or butterfly collector, acquires a first field guide, the odds are it will carry the Peterson name.
For most, such an accomplishment in and of itself would more than serve to stand as a monument to a life’s work. As Rosenthal clearly depicts in Birdwatcher, Peterson was not content “only” to be the originator of the modern field guide and by it the person responsible for leading untold millions into the study of the natural world. He was also a dedicated conservationist, a pioneer in the modern environmental movement, a masterful photographer, an inspired teacher, and a tireless evangelist for the personal experience of nature by all.
Yet it was Peterson’s involvement in the tragic story of chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides, known far more widely by the name of one specific form, Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane – DDT – that must never be forgotten, and in Birdwatcher is not, when the name of Peterson is mentioned. From his original, “innocent” assignment by the U.S. Army as a monitor in early experiments with the chemical through his testimony before the Ribicoff Senate subcommittee on pesticides just days after the untimely death of Rachel Carson, and onward to the eventual prohibition of the chemicals in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, Peterson was there. He was one of the few, like Carson, who suspected early on that something detrimental was happening from the indiscriminate use of these chemicals, and who worked tirelessly to establish the scientific evidence to bring about their prohibition.
Thus through Birdwatcher, the reader comes to understand that not only did Peterson provide the world with the books by which to understand nature, he was also integral in the continuing struggle to ensure that successive generations would be able to live in a world where there was still nature left to understand. As we are just past the 100th anniversary of the birth of the “Great Man,” it is indeed fitting that his life’s work be remembered in its many-faceted brilliance; Birdwatcher plays its part well in paying to his legacy the respect it deserves.
Title: Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson
Author: Elizabeth J. Rosenthal
Format: hardcover: 437 pages
Publisher: Lyons Press
Publication Date: May, 2008 (a trade paperback edition is expected to be published in March, 2010)
ISBN10: 1-59921-294-3
ISBN: 978-1-59921-294-4
This review was written for and first appeared in Bird Watcher’s Digest. In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce it was provided gratis to the reviewer by the editorial staff of that magazine.
