Bild på författaren.

Joseph Wood Krutch (1893–1970)

Författare till The Desert Year

42+ verk 1,133 medlemmar 10 recensioner 4 favoritmärkta

Om författaren

Joseph Wood Krutch demonstrated that the Renaissance man was not someone merely to read about. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he studied science and received his B.A. from the University of Tennessee. Afraid that society's emphasis on science and technology was a threat to our wilderness and visa mer wildlife, he went on to study humanities. After receiving his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University, he remained there to teach as a member of the English department and later occupied an endowed chair of dramatic literature. He was also an editor and a drama critic. When Krutch retired in 1952 because of respiratory problems, he moved to the southern Arizona desert, where, inspired by the natural beauty of the desert and its wildlife, he began to write about nature and conservation. Although his biographical work includes books on Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Johnson, and Henry David Thoreau, here we will be concerned with some of his writings in natural history. (Bowker Author Biography) visa färre
Foto taget av: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)

Verk av Joseph Wood Krutch

The Desert Year (1951) 121 exemplar
Samuel Johnson (1944) 75 exemplar
The Great Chain of Life (1702) 68 exemplar
Herbal (1965) 49 exemplar
Henry David Thoreau (1948) 48 exemplar
A treasury of birdlore (1962) 46 exemplar
Great American Nature Writing (1949) 42 exemplar
The gardener's world (1959) 25 exemplar
If You Don't Mind My Saying So (1964) 13 exemplar
More Lives Than One. (1962) 12 exemplar
Experience and Art (1932) 10 exemplar
American Drama Since 1918 (1939) 10 exemplar
The Best of Two Worlds (1953) 6 exemplar
Selected Works 2 exemplar
Wildlife in Danger 1 exemplar

Associerade verk

Walden and Other Writings (1854) — Redaktör, vissa utgåvor1,480 exemplar
Darwin (Norton Critical Edition) (1970) — Bidragsgivare — 652 exemplar
Nine Plays (1932) — Inledning, vissa utgåvor444 exemplar
Eight Great Tragedies (1957) — Bidragsgivare, vissa utgåvor386 exemplar
Ants, Indians, and little dinosaurs (1975) — Bidragsgivare — 191 exemplar
Literary history of the United States (1946) — Bidragsgivare — 190 exemplar
American Heritage: A Reader (2011) — Bidragsgivare — 81 exemplar
Selected Works (Modern Library - Kronenberger, ed.) (1777) — Förord, vissa utgåvor70 exemplar
In Search of the Simple Life: American Voices, Past and Present (1986) — Bidragsgivare — 34 exemplar

Taggad

Allmänna fakta

Födelsedag
1893-11-25
Avled
1970-05-22
Kön
male
Nationalitet
USA
Födelseort
Knoxville, Kentucky, USA
Dödsort
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Bostadsorter
Arizona, USA
Knoxville, Kentucky, USA (birth)
Tucson, Arizona, USA (death)
Utbildning
University of Tennessee
Columbia University
Yrken
critic
naturalist
science writer
professor
Organisationer
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 1937)
The Nation
Columbia University
Priser och utmärkelser
Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1967)
Kort biografi
Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970), twentieth-century humanist and individualist, scholar and writer, drama critic and teacher, was an ardent, eloquent admirer of the natural world and an articulate, angry critic of its despoilers. He devoted the last two decades of a versatile and productive life to writing books and essays on natural history and conservation. Krutch wrote not only for personal pleasure but also to remind his readers of the need to preserve the world in its natural state. Krutch was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he attended public schools and where he remained to attend the University of Tennessee which granted him the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1915. He subsequently enrolled in the graduate school of Columbia University, where he received the Master of Arts degree in literature in 1916 and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English literature in 1923. After graduation he joined the staff of The Nation as a literary and drama critic and remained in that position for twenty-eight years. From 1937 to 1953 he was also affiliated with the faculty or Columbia University. The highlight of his academic career came in 1943 when he was appointed to the Brander Matthews Chair or Dramatic Literature. During the late 1940's Krutch's life took a dramatic turn from his dual careers as critic and academician. His growing interest in nature and in the writings of Henry David Thoreau prompted him to write a biography of the nineteenth-century Transcendentalist. Consequently, he spent the remainder of his life writing in the fields or natural history and conservation. In 1952, plagued by 111 health and disenchanted with the city, Krutch and his wife, Marcelle, moved from New York City to Tucson, Arizona. There, emulating Thoreau at Walden Pond, Krutch formulated and articulated the major premises of his humanistic philosophy of man and nature. Krutch believed that man was both identified with and estranged from nature, the foundation or human existence. Man was alienated by a technological society which worshipped the machine and material progress. and he ascribed to a mechanistic, deterministic philosophy which stripped him of his dignity. As an environmentalist, Krutch deplored the systematic exploitation or the natural world which he reared would lead to the destruction of all organic life. He attributed this exploitation to technology, selfishness, greed, man's philosophy of progress and an irresistible impulse to destroy. Krutch knew that all life was interrelated, and as the earth lived or died, so, too, would man. On the other hand, man was identified with the natural world through the biological evolutionary process, by a mystical affinity with nature, and by the common possession of life with all other creatures on earth. Man shared consciousness, purpose, imagination, courage, and freedom with nature. If man would reclaim his identity with the natural world he would receive its rewards and exalt both nature and himself. Ultimately the survival of man and the world depended upon the development of a radically new attitude toward nature. Krutch advised man to learn to love, admire, and respect the earth for its own sake, because in the final analysis it was identity with nature that sustained the human spirit.

Medlemmar

Recensioner

Deprived of paradise, men finds the purest of his pleasures and the greatest source of his wisdom in the garden, the first creation Of God. It was the belief of the Herbalists that everything in the universe has a purpose, that each plant was created specifically to cure certain illnesses, and that wisdom is the ability to recognize the purpose for which things are intended. In this delightful and unique book, Joseph Wood Krutch, one of America’s best loved and most distinguished naturalists and scholars, examines the theories and discoveries of herbalists from ancient times to the present day. Poetry, science, philosophy and humour can be found in the descriptions of one hundred plants and six creatures, each accompanied by a full-page reproduction of a magnificent sixteenth-century woodcut. Among the curious beliefs of medieval herbalists was the notion that daffodils have the power to exterminate rats, protect against evil spirits and provoke urination. If reduced to ashes and poured into the left ear they are able to ease pain in a tooth on the right side of the mouth. Lettuce was used to cure Emperor Augustus of a fatal illness and as a remedy for insomnia. Smelling basil can cause a scorpion in the brain. Blinded by superstition and erring in many beliefs, the herbalists were, nevertheless, the fathers of medicine, pharmacology, horticulture and scientific botany. They used a considerable number of plants whose physiological effects were genuine, are still recognized, and in some cases, still commonly prescribed. Indeed, some of our most dramatic modem drugs—tranquillizers, digitalis, LSD, antibiotics, to name a few-—are derived from plants they used. This charming HERBAL, with its skilful blend of scholarship, grace and wit, Will fascinate and entertain a wide variety of readers, whether their interest is in medicine, botany, gardening or cookery.

The cover may not look so inviting but inside this book are lovely woodcut reproductions from the 16th century. I found this book in the Science stacks while examining some reference books for display. This book, by naturalist Joesph Wood Krutch looks at theories and discoveries of Herbalists from ancient times to present day. 100 plants and 6 creatures are detailed within.
Herbalists were the fathers of medicine, pharmacology and horticulture and herein lies their many beliefs in text and illustration. Beautifully detailed are lettuce, mistletoe, juniper, nasturtiums, oats, and nutmeg along with many other plants. Included are illustrations of animals these herbalists felt could be used in treatment of disease. Herein lies a beautiful book.
“The illustrations in this book are taken from the woodcuts in Pierandrea Mattioli’s huge folio volume, Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides, issued in Prague in 1563 and Venice in 1565. The work was first published in 1544 and appeared in some fifty editions in several languages, but all of those prior to 1563 had very much smaller plates.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Asko_Tolonen | 1 annan recension | Mar 27, 2020 |
There are passages in this book that make it worthwhile to read, in particular, the amateur naturalist's observations about the desert and humans. It has the feeling of a book that Edward Abbey might have written if he had been writing in 1951.

But it is also infused with a distracting and naive pantheism and anthropomorphism from an earlier time. It could also stand editing to remove some of the more random unrelated thoughts. I had higher expectations.

I recommend that you read it and mark the best passages with Book Darts. Don't worry about the other parts. The book is short.… (mer)
 
Flaggad
Michael_Lilly | 1 annan recension | Nov 11, 2015 |
How do you like a desert? The book with photographs by Eliot Porter and text by Joseph Wood Krutch swipes a shallow perception and assumption about the desert. The book takes the readers to surprising discovery that there is not everything so rude and hopeless in the arid lands. It teaches not to look at landscape but to see and understand it. The Geography of Hope is in the title of the book and it brings the Hope of seeing the desert through the liberated thinking mind. By my opinion, if one is able to change negative attitudes toward desert, he is able to change his life to the best. Therefore, this book is one of the most valuable items in the Arizona prison library collection.… (mer)
 
Flaggad
PrisonLib | 1 annan recension | Nov 28, 2010 |
This book is a joyous introduction to the exciting world of North American birds as seen through the eyes and ears of almost every significant naturalist from Columbus's time to the present.
32pp. of B&W illustrations; circa 80 bird articles by noted authors, including Audubon, Burroughs, Mark Catesby, John Muir, Edwin Way Teale, John Kieran, Donald Culross Peatre and many others. The book is organized in five parts: Flight,Family matters, Birds of a Feather, Birds and Men, Extinction and Conservation.… (mer)
 
Flaggad
cherrys-books | Feb 5, 2007 |

Listor

Priser

Du skulle kanske också gilla

Associerade författare

Statistik

Verk
42
Även av
10
Medlemmar
1,133
Popularitet
#22,652
Betyg
4.0
Recensioner
10
ISBN
62
Språk
1
Favoritmärkt
4

Tabeller & diagram