Odd as it may sound, I first became aware of Ed Ricketts many years before I knew who he was. Little did I know that as I was watching the 1982 film Cannery Row that the fascinating character of Doc being portrayed by Nick Nolte was inspired by an even more fascinating character: Edward F. Ricketts.
If I’m honest, when I hear the word “squid,” I don’t think of their remarkable predatory skills.
I don’t think of their millennia-old significance in mythologies from around the world.
I think of deep fried calamari and chips.
The number of books encompassed by the many natural history series published by Reaktion Books and distributed by University of Chicago Press is truly impressive. From Animal and Botanical through Kosmos and Earth, scores upon scores of volumes (Animal alone, by my count, presently contains ninety-nine books) take up a wide range of topics that will keep an interested naturalist reading for years.
While many may likely most readily recognize Rachel Carson as the author of “Silent Spring,” the 1962 environmental science book that successfully reached a wide reading audience and opened the eyes of millions to the risks of indiscriminate overuse of pesticides, it was as a marine biologist that she began her writing career and became a popularly read author.