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debr 's review for:
The story of David Douglas is definitely a fascinating one. A complex, driven man, an astounding naturalist and adventurer, with a somewhat more open mind to his fellow humans than one might expect from the 1830s. What was incredible to me was to enter the world of the absolutely insane bounty of wildlife and nature Douglas encountered in this time period, when white folks were still small in number, native people were omnipresent (though beginning to suffer from some of the disease and mistreatment Europeans bore them), and the diversity and abundance of large charismatic megafauna that simply does not exist in the Pacific Northwest today, was everywhere. Also incredible was the number of things Douglas ate and shot- truly the collector is an apt title for this man and those of his time that killed whatever they could to preserve it and send it back to the Old World.
I did not find Nisbet to be a particularly compelling author. Much of his writing read as though he were re-constituting Douglas's journals, and the first half of the book was such a relentless litany of what was captured, destroyed, eaten and collected, it wore on me as a reader. The second half of the book, where Douglas' journals become less complete and where the author has to read more insight into his travels, I found to be much stronger. Overall I did not find his writing to be that engaging- but the story itself, particularly if you live or are familiar with the areas he collected in- is fascinating.
I did not find Nisbet to be a particularly compelling author. Much of his writing read as though he were re-constituting Douglas's journals, and the first half of the book was such a relentless litany of what was captured, destroyed, eaten and collected, it wore on me as a reader. The second half of the book, where Douglas' journals become less complete and where the author has to read more insight into his travels, I found to be much stronger. Overall I did not find his writing to be that engaging- but the story itself, particularly if you live or are familiar with the areas he collected in- is fascinating.