Watercolorist Denis Clavreul’s new “In the Footsteps of Audubon” is a book that should most certainly be known to birdwatchers and naturalists, as well as to artists, historians, and anyone who simply enjoys the opportunity to undertake a remarkable journey across a large portion of North America without ever leaving the comforts of home.
As I’ve been spending a fair amount of time recently reading the recently published “A Tidal Odyssey; Ed Ricketts and the Making of Between Pacific Tides” for an upcoming review, as well as devoting still more to refreshing my memories of “Between Pacific Tides” itself, I was delighted to receive a new book from University of Chicago Press that takes up a very much related theme but in in a remarkably different way.
Just what is a spell? Merriam-Webster defines it as “a spoken word or form of words held to have magic power,” “a state of enchantment,” and also “a strong compelling influence or attraction.” A very satisfactory definition indeed. For myself, I have long considered a spell very much akin to a prayer, for in the […]