Penguin Nature Classics
Description
Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western canon, though many titles are translated or of non-Western origin; indeed, the series for decades since its creation included only translations, until it eventually incorporated the Penguin English Library imprint in 1986. The first Penguin Classic was E. V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey, published in 1946, and Rieu went on to become general editor of the series. Rieu sought out literary novelists such as Robert Graves and Dorothy Sayers as translators, believing they would avoid "the archaic flavour and the foreign idiom that renders many existing translations repellent to modern taste". In 1964 Betty Radice and Robert Baldick succeeded Rieu as joint editors, with Radice becoming sole editor in 1974 and serving as an editor for 21 years.
How the series evolves
Books in this Series
Travels in Alaska
Record of author's 1st - 3rd journeys to Alaska in 1879, 1880, and 1890.
Under the sea-wind
Rachel Carson--pioneering environmentalist and author of Silent Spring--opens our eyes to the wonders of the natural world in her groundbreaking paean to the sea. 2016 marks the 75th Anniversary of the publication of Under the Sea-Wind. Celebrating the mystery and beauty of birds and sea creatures in their natural habitat, Under the Sea-Wind--Rachel Carson's first book and her personal favorite--is the early masterwork of one of America's greatest nature writers. Evoking the special mystery and beauty of the shore and the open sea--its limitless vistas and twilight depths--Carson's astonishingly intimate, unforgettable portrait captures the delicate negotiations of an ingeniously calibrated ecology.--'Under the Sea-Wind' presents a naturalist's picture of ocean life. This book is her breathtaking canvas of the fierce, competitive struggle for life takes place along the shore, in the open sea, and along the sea bottom. Linda Lear provides a new introduction.
Blue Meridian
Mildly interesting but now dated account of a film makers quest to make a movie about sharks in general but mostly the Great White. The White doesn't make an appearance until very late in the book. Reasonable writing. Worth buying used as part of a general survey of Great Whites, whaling, early underwater film making, et. Matthiessen hadn't quite devolved to his present status as a venerated but unreadable author, though the book has it's frustrations.
Under the Mountain Wall
"In the Baliem Valley in central New Guinea live the Kurelu, a Stone Age tribe that survived into the twentieth century. Peter Matthiessen visited the Kurelu with the Harvard-Peabody expedition in 1961 and wrote Under the mountain wall as an account not of the expedition, but of the great warrior Weaklekek, the swineherd, Tukum, U-mue and his family, and the boy Weake, killed in a surprise raid"--Page 4 of cover.