Nature guides for North Americans

These days, there are an overwhelming selection of nature and natural history guides for North Americans. Besides traditional book forms, there are audio cassettes, VHS videos, CDs and probably even a few DVDs. I will try to focus on two categories: the all-in-one nature guide and two series of the traditional early-to-middle 20th century nature guides.

All-in-one North American nature guides:

I have two favorite books in this area:

The Reader's Digest North American Wildlife: An Illustrated Guide to 2,000 Plants and Animals, 1982. Pleasantville, New York: The Reader's Digest Association. This is a 559-page book that is profusely illustrated with color paintings. It is indexed by common name and scientific genus name. An excellent book, small enough to be carried in the car and maybe the field.

The Fieldbook of Natural History by E. Lawrence Palmer is another fine overall guide to North American plants, animals and other life forms. It covers species in more detail than the Reader's Digest book. It runs some 664 pages and was first published in 1949 by McGraw-Hill. A second, larger edition was later published in 1975, with pretty much the same material as the original. However, the second edition, done by H. Seymour Fowler has some problems: the illustrations have been reduced in size by about 16% and thus suffer a loss of detail. The second edition is printed on a rougher beige paper, while the first edition was printed on a smooth white glossy paper. Both are illustrated with black-and-white line drawings. Indexed by common names and scientific names.

Two series of the traditional early-to-middle 20th century nature guides:

G. P. Putnam's Sons, (Publishers) produced the first extensive series of natural history and nature with their Putnam Field Books, whose copyrights go back as least as far as 1902. Their Nature Field Books covered such subjects as Birds, Mammals, Fishes, Seashore Life, Wild Flowers and many others.

In the middle of the 20th century, Simon & Schuster began producing their series of Golden Nature Guides that were a series of small handy paperback books covering many subjects including Birds, Insects, Trees, Flowers, Weeds and many others. Later, they also published Golden Regional Guides that initially included the Southwest and the Southeast. I treasured the Golden Nature Birds Guide as a child and a youth growing up in suburban western Pennsylvania. Naturally, I dreamed of seeing exotic western birds such as the Magpie and the Roadrunner. Now, having lived in California for more than thirty years, I miss the songs and calls of the Blue Jay, Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, Catbird, Nighthawk and even the singing of the 17-year Locusts (Cicadas). Some folks are never satisfied, I guess.

If these books are not available at your local library, you may be able to get them through the inter-library loan (ILL) for a nominal charge. These books may also be available used at the ABEbooks web site, which has the listings of hundreds of book dealers around the world: ABEbooks search

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Contact author James K. Sayre at sayresayre@yahoo.com. Author's Email: sayresayre@yahoo.com

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Web page last updated on 28 June 2003.