Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts (Hardcover)

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Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts By J. Drew Lanham Cover Image
$17.00
May be on our shelves (or available in 5-10 business days)
2 on hand, as of Nov 30 11:03pm
(Poetry)

Staff Reviews


I found myself underlining something on nearly every page of this slim volume—Lanham's distinctive voice sings with awe of the natural world and clear-eyed candor of the obstacles a Black man faces in engaging this awe. Here is a writer who can perfectly express the emotive effect of a wood thrush's 3-part song, someone who finds joy the exuberance of wrens, someone who finds solace in (and solidarity with) winged beings. This is a beautiful, necessary book.

— Hannah DeCamp

Description


"You are a rare bird, easy to see but invisible just the same." That thought is close at hand in Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, as renowned naturalist and writer J. Drew Lanham explores his obsession with birds and all things wild in a mixture of poetry and prose. He questions vital assumptions taken for granted by so many birdwatchers: can birding be an escape if the birder is not in a safe place? Who is watching him as he watches birds?

With a refreshing balance of reverence and candor, Lanham paints a unique portrait of the natural world: listening to cicadas, tracking sandpipers, towhees, wrens, and cataloging fellow birdwatchers at a conference where he is one of two black birders. The resulting insights are as honest as they are illuminating.

About the Author


J. Drew Lanham is the author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature. He is a birder, naturalist, hunter-conservationist, and an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University. He lives in Seneca, South Carolina.
Product Details
ISBN: 9781938235818
ISBN-10: 1938235819
Publisher: Hub City Press
Publication Date: April 20th, 2021
Pages: 104
Language: English