Dark Waters Dancing to a Breeze: A Literary Companion to Rivers and Lakes

by Wayne Grady

Overview

Humans’ fascination with water finds full expression in this stellar collection. Included are writings from Mark Twain, who marvels at the teeming humanity on the Ganges; Henry Stanley, searching for Livingston and discovering instead Lake Albert Edward; selections from A Compleat Angler and A River Runs Through It; and more than a dozen other classic works by explorers, adventurers, natural historians, and novelists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781926685120
Publisher:	Greystone Books
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	160
File size:	290 KB

About the Author

Wayne Grady is one of Canada's foremost popular science writers and the winner of three Science in Society awards from the Canadian Science Writers Association. His ten previously published nonfiction books recounted such diverse adventures as hunting dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert, investigating global warming at the North Pole, and discovering the wild in an urban metropolis. In 2004 he collaborated with acclaimed geneticist and environmentalist David Suzuki on Tree: A Life Story, a bestseller in Canada now in its third printing. Most recently, he published Bringing Back the Dodo (2006), a work that expanded on his natural science columns for Explore magazine. In addition to his award-winning work in science and nature fields, he has received the Governor General's Award for English Translation, several National Magazine Awards, and the Brascan Award for Food Writing. He is married to the writer Merilyn Simonds and lives near Kingston, Ontario.

Table of Contents

1. Izaak Walton, “Concerning Rivers”
from The Compleat Angler, 1653.

2. Nathaniel Hawthorne, from “My Visit to Niagara,” 1835

3. Charles Darwin, “Salina,” from Journey of Researches, 1839

4. Henry Walter Bates, “The Tocantins and Cametá”
from The Naturalist on the River Amazons, 1863.

5. Victor Hugo, “The Rhine”
from The Rhine, 1886.

6. Mark Twain, “Ganges, the Great Purifier”
from Following the Equator, 1890.

7. Henry M. Stanley, “Lake Albert Edward”
from In Darkest Africa, 1889.

8. John Burroughs, from “Speckled Trout”
from Locusts and Wild Honey, 1903.

9. Rupert Brooke, “Lake Ontario and Niagara Falls”
from Letters from America, 1916.

10. Theodore Dreiser, “The Thames”
from A Traveller at Forty, 1913.

11. Henry Beston, “The St. Lawrence”
from The St. Lawrence, 1942.

12. Donald Culross Peattie, from “Falling Water”
from The Road of a Naturalist, 1946.

13. Hugh MacLennan, “The Saskatchewan”
from Seven Rivers of Canada, 1961.

14. Bruce Hutchison, from “The River”
from “The Fraser,” 1965.

15. Norman Maclean, “The Big Blackfoot”
from A River Runs Through It, 1976.

16. Redmond O’Hanlon, “The Baleh”
from Into the Heart of Borneo, 1984.

17. Kate Grenville, “The Hawkesbury”
from The Secret River, 2005.

18. William Least Heat-Moon, “We Start up the Great Missouri”
from River-Horse: Across America by Boat, 1999.

19. Ted Williams, “Rivertops,” 1987

20. Kevin van Tighem, “The Tree and the Trout”
from Coming West: A Natural History of Home, 1997.

21. Nancy Lord, “Two Lakes,” 1995.

22. Kate Boyes, “Confluence,” 1996.

23. David James Duncan, “Adoration of a Hose”
from My Story As Told by Water, 2001.

24. Jill Frayne, from “Superior”
from Starting Out in the Afternoon, 2002.

25. John McPhee, “Farewell to the Nineteenth Century”
from The Founding Fish, 2002.