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The Fort Ross Museum Bookstore specializes in books about the cultural
and natural history of Fort Ross, California, Russian America and
the maritime history of the Pacific Rim. There is also a selection
of unique gift items: Very Special Children's Books; Lomonosov Porcelain
from Russia; Beautiful Museum Reproduction Jewelry; Traditional Russian
Arts & Crafts (Stacking Dolls, Wooden Toys, Shawls, Lacquer
boxes); Silk Icons from Russia, and more . . .
Some Basic Reference Materials
Additional basic reference materials are found on the Bibliography page.
All titles may be ordered on the Price
List & Order Form or by calling 707 847-3437.
The Books:
 Archaeology
and Ethnohistory of Fort Ross, Vol. I Kent G. Lightfoot,
Thomas A. Wake, Ann M. Shiff. An excellent compilation of archaeological
investigations and related archival research from a collaborative
team of scholars. Includes long-term objectives of the Fort Ross
Archaeological Project, a sketch of the historical context and
natural history of the region, and results of a survey of the FRSHP.
Done In conjunction with the Archaeological Research Facility of
U. C. Berkeley. $19.00
Fort
Ross published by Fort Ross Interpretive Association.
The best comprehensive short history of the peoples occupying the
Fort Ross site. Details of life are given from the times of the
original Kashaya, the 19th century colonial Russians and native
Alaskans, and of the later ranch era families. Origins of the state
historical park formation and the area's unique natural history
are also described. $7.95
Fort Ross
and the Sonoma Coast Lyn Kalani and Sarah Sweedler
have culled the Fort Ross photographic archives to create a fascinating
pictorial narrative of the Russian settlement and the Sonoma North
Coast. The accompanying text is based on up-to-date research by
Russian American scholars. Arcadia Publications, Images of America
series, 2004. $19.95
Fort Ross Brochure published by the Fort
Ross Interpretive Association. A synopsis of the above publication,
one side is a full-size map with topographical features of the park,
the fort compound, and surrounding area. Color reproductions of the
Russian managers, an 1841 watercolor of the fort, and photographs of
present buildings enhance the history. Includes visitor amenities,
camping and ocean access information. $.50
A Guided Walk at Fort Ross State Historical Park published
by the Fort Ross Interpretive Association. A more personal walk-through
of the fort and the immediate surroundings, each focal point spins
a detailed story of the people who worked and lived here, their accomplishments
and legacies. Illustrated with archival photos and paintings. $1.50
 The
Indians of the Ross Settlement According to the Censuses by Kuskov,
1820-21 Alexei A. Istomin, Institute of Ethnology
and Anthropology, Moscow, Russia. In 1820 and 1821, first manager
of Fort Ross, Ivan A. Kuskov, made lists containing names, gender,
ethnic origin, and family status of adult residents and their children. "The
censuses have fixed the ethno-demographic situation at Ross…that
concluded the first epoch in the history of the colony…".
Russians, creoles, Eskimos, and California Indians were the basic
components of the population. Lists of about 80 of these persons
and explanations translate the colony into more personal terms.Published
by FRIA, $4.50
 The
Khlebnikov Archive, Unpublished Journal (1800-1837) and Travel
Notes Kiril Khlebnikov. ( University of Alaska, Rasmuson
Library Historical Translation Series) Taken from five surviving
journals of voyager/writer/accountant Khlebnikov, this collection
exemplifies his most productive period. He gathered a wide range
of geography, history, and ethnography of Russian America, learned
Spanish and English, and corresponded with many other voyagers
and scholars. Included here are observations on Fort Ross agriculture,
weather, trade transactions, inventory, with conversations and
commentary on relationships. University of Alaska Press, $19.95. (CURRENTLY
OUT OF PRINT)
Reviews & Staff Recommendations
Important New
Books in the Bookstore
 Visit
of Cyrille Pierre Theodore Laplace to Fort Ross and Bodega Bay
in August 1839 . Translated and Annotated by Glenn
Farris. From the Foreword: This description of Bodega Bay and Fort
Ross was published in 1854 by Cyrille Laplace in the sixth volume
of his work, Campagne de Circumnavigation de la Fregate L'Artemise
pendant les annees 1837, 1838, 1839, et 1840 sous le commandement
de M. Laplace, capitaine de vaisseau. Laplace was captain
of the French ship Artemise on a circumnavigation of the
globe during the years 1837-1840. This work has heretofore only
been translated in small sections . . .
From ”Sojourn At Fort Ross" The mistress of the house, a young and
gracious lady with a good figure and distinguished manners, speaking fluent
French gave us the nicest and most eager welcome. Dinner was ready and when
we had refreshed ourselves in the lovely little rooms available to new guests,
we sat down to table where, in spite of the fatigue of the trip, I found that
the time passed all too swiftly. The spirited and informative conversation
of Mr. Rotchev, who, as an author himself, was very familiar with the works
of our distinguished writers. His comments were enhanced by the charm that
his companion spread over our conversation by way of a spirit that was no less
sound as colorful and by her genuine and affectionate tone; this all made the
hours pass quickly. Poor exiles! We spoke of Europe, of our families, of our
hopes of return, happy to enjoy a moment of abandon in which a happy mutual
independence allowed us to indulge. Our new acquaintanceship soon became an
old relationship. In the end, counting on a busy day on the morrow, I retired
early and at dawn I took a walk in the fort and its environs . . . I was suddenly
on a European farm. I saw barns filled with grains and potatoes, yards filled
with fat, healthy pigs, a sheepfold in which the animals seemed to me in good
condition and justifying the hope that the governor had in soon deriving of
their fleece a new branch of revenue. The hens scratched the pile of manure
at the summit of which cocks strutted with an impudent air and with gaudy plumage
whereas several paces from there were bands of geese and ducks, gathered around
a pond making some deafening cries. Everything, even the momentary disorder
caused by carts drawn by yoked cattle coming from the fields or even returning
to them, reminded me of sweet recollections of country life, so different from
that which I have led for so many months . . . Published by Fort Ross Interpretive
Association, 2006, $10.50
Russia in California - Russian Documents
on Fort Ross and Russian-Californian Relations in 1803 - 1850,
Volume I, by Alexei A. Istomin, James R. Gibson, and Valery A.
Tishkov. This beautiful richly-illustrated tome is in Russian,
and published in Moscow by Nauka, 2005. It is available in the
Fort Ross Bookstore for $70. The English version is being published
by the Hakluyt Society and will likely appear in print in the fall
of 2007. The documents within are in print (and certainly will
be translated) for the first time, and will greatly enrich our
knowledge of this Russian-American Company settlement. $50.
Cultural History
 Russians in Alaska 1732-1867 Lydia T. Black
A comprehensive overview of the Russian presence in Alaska. Drawing
on extensive archival research and employing documents only recently
made available to scholars, Black shows how Russian expansion was
the culmination of centuries of social and economic change. This
work challenges the standard perspective on the Russian period in
Alaska as a time of unbridled exploitation of Native inhabitants
and natural resources. Without glossing over the harsher aspects
of the period, Black acknowledges the complexity of relations between
Russians and Native peoples. She chronicles the lives of ordinary
men and women-- the merchants and naval officers, laborers and clergy--who
established Russian outposts in Alaska and California. University
of Alaska Press, 2004, $29.95.
Testimonios Early California
through the Eyes of Women, 1815-1848 translated by Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz.
Thirteen women's firsthand accounts from the time California was part
of Spain and Mexico. Having lived lived through the gold rush and seen
their country change so drastically, these women understood the need
to tell the full story of the people and the places that were their
California. Some of their words are translated here into English for
the first time. Heyday Books, 2006, $18.95.
The History of Alta California A Memoir of
Mexican California Antonio Maria Osio, translated by Rose
Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz.
An important source for the Mexican period of California through the eyes
of the Hispanic californio population. University of Wisconsin, 1996.
$21.95.
California’s
Frontier Naturalists by Richard G. Beidleman. “Speaking
of Fort Ross and beetles, the fort during its existence would become
a lodestone for many Russian naturalists, especially beetle collectors,
including Russian America’s governor general Wrangel, who
thereabouts caught the Gigantic Eleodes beetle (almost one and
a half inches long). Ilia Voznesenskiii, from the Russian Imperial
Academy of Sciences, visited in 1840 and ‘began to collect
a rich harvest of acquisitions in all branches of natural science
and ethnography,’ including birds, fishes, and 350 plant
specimens, along with pencil sketches and paintings. George Tschernikh,
who managed the fort’s agricultural pursuits, collected the
explosive Bombardier Beetle, which was named after him. Voznesenskii
and Tschernikh supposedly hiked to the top of an unnamed summit
with Fort Ross colony manager Count Alexander Rotchev’s beautiful
wife, Princess Helena, who christened the peak St. Helena after
Russia’s early patron saint.” (pp. 56=57). Oceanic
explorations, overland expeditions, railroads and riverboats, all
brought the curious naturalists to the western frontier. This is
their story. An extensive reference bibliography is included. University
of California Press, Berkeley, 2006. 484 pp, $39.95.
 Tending
the Wild, Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s
Natural Resources by M. Kat Anderson.
In the course of focusing on her graduate studies in Wildland Resource Science,
the author discovered the need to explore what she called the `“indigenous
resource management” practiced by the first peoples of California. During
several years of living amongst and interviewing Indian and non-Indian residents
she identified concepts and practices at odds with prevailing assumptions.
The belief that one should respect nature by leaving it alone was replaced
by evidence that by using it judiciously, one gains respect for nature,
and that we “learn respect through the demands put on us by the great
responsibility of using a plant or an animal.” California Indians had
developed the means to manage and use the local plant and animals seeing themselves
as users, protectors, and stewards of the natural world. “If it was true
that native plants did better with our help, it meant that there was a place
for us in nature.” It was not long that another insight wheedled itself
into her consciousness: that not only do plants benefit from human use, some
may actually depend on it. From this came the affirmation that recent
conservation and preservation legislation might be the modern form of human
stewardship, reestablishing the ecological associations between people and
nature in appropriate areas. “As I discovered the Old Ways in California,
I began to look more broadly at indigenous practices around the world. I found
that some of the judicious harvesting and horticultural practices of California
indigenous cultures were remarkably similar to those of native peoples in South
America, Australia, and Africa. I was intrigued that parallel resource use
and management systems had developed independently on different continents.” Ms.
Anderson expounds on the insights she introduces, by examining in detail the
native California cultures before intrusion of outsiders, their land management
and its ecological basis, and today’s contemporary harvesting and management
practices. She proposes that “…we desperately need to foster a
new vision of human-nature relationships and the place of humans in the natural
world. Those who peopled California before the arrival of Westerners are some
of the best teachers.” University of California Press, 2005. 526 p.,
hardcover, $39.95.
Food in California Indian Culture  edited
by Ira Jacknis.
In the Introduction, the author clarifies the reason for this book: “Because
of its holistic nature, food has tremendous power as an anthropological subject.
Simultaneously natural and cultural, it unites the physical/biological side
of humans with the social/symbolic aspects…While we have fairly good
descriptions of ingredients and gathering procedures, we have a very poor understanding
of what might be called ‘cookbook information,’ such as how foods
were prepared, who cooked and served, and how and when meals were eaten…While
the act of eating may be the central point, foods are continually transformed
from gathering through storage, processing, cooking, eating, and the disposal
of wastes.” A couple dozen writers take a holistic or micro perspective
on the various issues surrounding and including food. Broad categories are
Plants; Animals; Tribal Accounts; Myth, Ritual, and Oratory; Historical Perspectives;
Contemporary Perspectives. Within these are included photographic portfolios
and Indian tales. One chapter is “Kashaya Pomo Memories of Food” by
Essie Parrish, the Kashaya Pomo religious leader, healer, and basket weaver.
These stories were told and recorded in the 1950s and they describe how her
people dealt with gathering, preserving, preparing and eating food. These are
quiet, personal snippets of her life, yet they tell so much. Phoebe Hearst
Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 2004. 490 p., $34.95.
 A
Voyage to California, the Sandwich Islands, and Around the World
In the Years 1826-1829, Auguste Duhaut-Cilly translated
and edited by August Fruge and Neal Harlow.
It seems Monsieur Duhaut-Cilly had made a bad choice of goods to trade which
resulted in his spending much time along the coastal Mexican California, recording
his experiences in a diary. As a result we have a detailed account of living
conditions in early nineteenth-century California. It begins with the journey
around Cape Horn, along the northern Mexican coasts, and continues with many
months along central and northern California. Descriptions of the missions
in their heyday and the Russians at Ross, the expulsion of the Spaniards, and
landings in the Sandwich Islands ( Hawaii) are invaluable additions to more
scholarly works of history. University of California Press, 1997. 254 p., hardcover,
$35.
 Lands
of Promise and Despair, Chronicles of Early California, 1533-1846
e edited by Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz.
“We offer here a series of letters, reports, reminiscences, and other documents
that tell the story of California from the time the Spanish first set foot on
the soil in the 1530s until the end of California’s experience as a territory
in the Mexican republic in the 1840s.” The view here is from the residents
of California. Most popularly accepted writings are from European visitors who
did not live here long. Not that their perspectives were wrong, to the contrary.
But those views are complemented, essentially, by the oral traditions of native
people, the literate institutions of colonists, early travel literature, and
reminiscences recorded by oral historians in the 1870s. “ California”,
here, is that land that starts at the tip of what is now known as Baja California
to the northern area of Alta California. The texts and documents chosen for this
volume are based on the reality of a whole region, beginning with the southern-most
and first mission, founded in Loreto in the Mexican state of Baja California
Sur. (Above the doorway of the restored mission church is the inscription “Madre
y cabeza de las Californias”, mother and head of the Californias.) “The
development of the United States is generally envisioned as a movement from the
east coast to the west, but for an accurate conception of California, we need
to expand our view.” And so this book contributes to just that. Santa Clara
University, and Heyday Books, Berkeley, 2001. 506 p., $21.95.
 A
World Transformed, Firsthand Accounts of California before the
Gold Rush edited by Joshua Paddison.
Before the gold rush era in California, eighty years of Spanish, Russian, Mexican,
and American intrusion had irrevocably changed the basic social environment
of the region. From the introduction: “In fact, many of the attitudes
historians ascribe to the forty-niners—an aggressive entrepreneurial
spirit, a utilitarian view of nature, violence and racism toward indigenous
peoples—had already been brought to California by the missionaries, merchants,
settlers, and soldiers who trickled into the region between 1769 and 1848 and
settled there.” Using writings of various explorers and settlers, the
centuries of change can be witnessed through their eyes. Excerpts included
are from the early Spanish Crespi expedition in 1769, from George Vancouver,
the Russian Nikolai Rezanov, the naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso, Edwin Bryant
and others up to the milestone year of 1848. “Each account provides a
snapshot in time and space. Read together, they form a tale, epic in scope,
of the triumphs and excesses that went into the making of modern California.” Heyday
Books, 1999. 343 p., $18.95.
 Indians,
Missionaries and Merchants by Kent Lightfoot.
Kent Lightfoot’s latest monograph, Indians, Missionaries and Merchants,
The Legacy of Colonial Encounters on the California Frontiers, combines
his extensive and intensive study of, first, the interplay of the Russian-American
Company at Fort Ross and a variety of native peoples from both California and
Alaska with his research into the interplay of Spanish and Native Californian
cultures in the missions of Alta California. He bases his observations on a
solid body of field work over the past 15 years at Fort Ross combined with
material he developed with former Berkeley anthropology professor William Simmons
for courses dealing with the Indians in the California missions. In this book
he lays out an argument for the use of a newly developing discipline called “historical
anthropology.” It is an attempt to carve out a niche in the long recognized
field of historical archaeology in that it seeks to use the historical record
in combination with archaeological finds to better understand native peoples
during their period of contact and acculturation. In so doing it provides room
for anthropological archaeologists to expand their base of reference from the
traditional combination of ethnographic sources and Native American traditions
to include ethnohistory. Its real importance is the emphasis on the anthropological
viewpoint in looking at Indian societies and their interaction (the author
likes the term “entanglement”) with invading Europeans aided by
their native allies.
The portions of this book that will be of most interest to those
aficionados of the history of Fort Ross lie in chapters 5, 6, and 7.
Chapter 5, Russian Merchants in California, focuses on the Russian
American Company’s construction of a combined agriculture/ fur
hunting base at Fort Ross in 1812 and the subsequent company activities
in the area over the next 30 years. Lightfoot provides numerous useful
maps showing both the physical relationship of the Russian fort at
Ross, the seaport at Bodega Bay and their outlying ranches and farms
with the northernmost California missions and ranchos as well as a
map of the placement of various communities around the stockade at
Fort Ross proper. Chapter 6, Native Agency in the Ross Colony, looks
at the activities of the various California Indian and Native Alaskan
peoples. This makes for a very important contribution to our appreciation
of the non-Russian peoples who made up the bulk of the population at
Fort Ross. Chapter 7, Missionary and Mercantile Colonies in California:
the implications, acts to compare effects of religious based establishments
carrying out the dual role of Christian conversion with the formation
of an hispanicized Indian peasantry similar to that in Mexico with
the merchant based Russian colony that was interested in Indian labor
rather than in proselytizing......
The thesis developed in the book that cultural anthropologists
contributed a great deal to the government’s perception of which
Indians were genuine with their cultures intact and which had become
culturally “extinct” is
a useful insight into problems that continue right up until today for
the Indian communities. An extra value of this book for the scholarly
community is the extensive bibliography provided by the author. [Review
by Glenn Farris.] University of California Press, 2005. 338 p., hardcover,
$45, paperback $24.95.
 The
First Russian Voyage Around the World The Journal of Hermann Ludwig
von Loewenstern, 1803-1806
Translated by Victoria Joan Moessner.
This book is a fascinating first hand account by one of von Krusenstern’s
lieutenants on the Nadezhda. While the Nadezhda never
visited California, the two protagonists in this journal, von Krusenstern and
N. P. Rezanov, instrumental in the future direction of Russian America and
the founding of Fort Ross, are dealt with in great detail, their personalities
framing much of the narrative...... The description of von Krusenstern as a
compassionate, scrupulous and caring individual contrasts sharply to the mean-spirited,
perfidious, self-aggrandizing Rezanov, and by association, to the other members
of the Ambassador’s suite, and others in the Russian-American Company
employ. While von Loewenstern has his moments of irritation with von Krusenstern,
his admiration, often very tempered, comes across throughout the voyage. “Krusenstern
has extensive knowledge, which brings respect, which has given him influence
over us, which in the various situations in which we have been together would
have otherwise been difficult to achieve. True, his good-heartedness has gained
everyone’s love-except for ours—since exactly his excessive softness
of nature is hat we fault him for.” Fortunately, the journal is not only
about the bickering of von Krusenstern and Rezanov, but includes many fascinating
details about shipboard life, customs, personalities, and an extraordinary
travel log of the voyage around the world, with particular attention paid to
the South Pacific, Japan and Kamchatka. Colour illustrations by Lt. von
Loewenstern and other members of the expedition contribute a stunning visual
record, and von Loewenstern’s hilarious caricatures of Rezanov should
not be missed.
With this account of the voyage ending six years before the founding
of Fort Ross, we can read it with a deeper understanding knowing what
will happen in the end. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect to this
book, other than the detailed understanding it gives us of daily life
aboard ship two hundred years ago, is the glimpse of the mind of a
Russian naval officer seeing the world for himself for the first time. “It
is a true loss that Europeans, even though they brag more than a little
bit of their enlightenment and culture, in general behave very badly
towards the natives where ever they have founded colonies"...
Thank goodness the Russian-America Company ended up in naval hands.
It was largely von Krusenstern’s report on his travels which
alerted the Russian-American Company to problems with its colonial
administration. Subsequent voyages by Russian naval officers also influenced
St. Petersburg’s decision to transfer that administration to
the Navy in 1817. [Review by John Middleton.] University
of Alaska Press, 2003. 482 p., hardcover, $39.95.
 California
Place Names, The Origin and Etymology
of Current Geographical Names Erwin G. Gudde, Revised
and enlarged by William Bright (Fourth Edition).
Gudde writes, in the editor’s preface, “My purpose in writing the
book was not only to present the etymology and meaning of the place names but
to bring out in the stories of these names the whole range of California history. “ And,
from the 1949 Introduction, “Names belong to the oldest elements of human
speech. According to some authorities, they even antedate the verbs for eat,
drink, sleep, or the nouns for hand, night, or child. Even in most primitive
known societies people bore names—usually descriptive of their looks
or their characteristics: ‘the red-head,’ ‘the bear killer’, ‘the
hunchback.’ Primitive people also gave names to places. Identifying locations
by description was equally as important when humans were merely foragers and
hunters as later when they settled down for agricultural pursuits. ‘Where
the strawberries grow,’ ‘where the river can be crossed,’ ‘where
the waters meet’—such primitive place naming we can easily associate
with the earliest stages of culture….California is especially fortunate
in having a rich and diversified nomenclature. Indians who lived here before
the coming of the whites, Spanish navigators from aboard their ships, European
cosmographers from the narrow confines of their studies, uncouth soldiers and
preaching missionaries, Russians and Chinese, French Canadians and Pennsylvania
Germans, bawdy miners and hard-working surveyors, postmasters and location
engineers, settlers from all states of the Union and from every European country—all
have contributed to the names on the California map.” From Abadi
Creek to ZZyzyx Spring, the brief and lengthy descriptions of
the origins of our places are intriguing. ( University of California Press,
Berkeley, 1998; 467 pp., $24.95)
Beautiful Books
of Distinction
 Russian Textiles, Printed Cloth for the Bazaars
of Central Asia By Susan Meller
This history of fabric covers
the geographical and cultural regions of current Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, together known as Turkestan,
or "Land of the Turks." As described
in an edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica: "The historical
significance of Central Asia to the world was that it served in the
manner of a great inland sea, connecting China, India, Iran, and Europe
by means of camel, ass, and horse caravans that moved goods and peoples,
permitted military invasions, and spread technology, religions, ideas,
and science through and across its breadth." As the author of
this volume states, " Central Asia has always been a huge melting
pot of peoples. They are, however, connected in two major ways: they
share the same religion, Sunnite Islam, and they are a people whose
lives have been intensely involved with textiles." This is a history
of production techniques and the influences of cultural changes on
the peoples' textiles as it relates to cloth printed in Russia in the
19 th cetury. All of the many beautiful examples of these are in full
color. 208 pp. Abrams. $50.
 Encyclopedia of Tidepools & Rocky Shores Edited
by Mark W. Denny and Steven D. Gaines
John Steinbeck is quoted in the
preface: "The exposed rocks had
looked rich with life under the lowering tide, but they were more than
that: they were ferocious with life." This large format book is
a little over 700 pages of scientific information gathered about the
inhabitants of the intertidal realm. It boasts the most recent research
by over a hundred specialists in such areas including geology, oceanography,
weather and climatology, ecology and behavior, and invertebrate animals.
Generally, this is not recreational reading material, being rich in
the most scientific detail, but an overall view is taken often enough,
as in the sections on Management and Regulation, Temperature Change,
Maintenance of Biodiversity, and Water. 705 pp. U C Press. $95.
 Planet Earth, As You've Never Seen It Before Alastair
Fothergill
This is definitely a volume to keep handy. The many glossy
color photographs, including many from orbiting satellites, whet an
appetite for the text. From "the whole Earth" perspective
we dip into all the bioregions, from frozen poles to the great sands
to open ocean depths, with floral and faunal examples from each. In
the preface we are reminded to take note with especial care: "So
this remarkable and beautiful book should stand not just as a revelation
and celebration of the wonders that our planet still retains at the
beginning of the twenty-first century. It surely must also be seen
as an eloquent rallying call to all of us who care for the Earth's
welfare to redouble our efforts to protect those wonders that still
survive." 310 pp. U C Press.
$39.95.
 Earth Under Fire, How Global Warming is Changing
the World Gary Braasch
The evidence in this one book can scour
away any residual apathy about global warming. The author began this
as a "photographic project
I called 'World View of Global Warming'" in 1999. He writes, "Because
the story is only half told by describing the problem, the project
has evolved to show the effect of climate change on people and what
they can do about it." As a result,
a section is devoted to "Choosing a Safer, Cleaner, and Cooler
World." 267 pp. U C Press. $34.95
 One Planet, A Celebration of Biodiversity Nicolas
Hulot Foundation
Who could resist a centerfold polar bear lazing on
an ice floe, yellow paws dangling in turquoise water? Or the image
of two pink eyes, the only color in the grey muck of a hippopotamus
mud bath? These are enormous and fantastic photographs of Earth's life,
from zooplankton to humpback whales, including a few of human endeavors
in the natural world and natural results of human folly. This is a
big book in all aspects, from the physical (it weighs 22 kilograms)
to the photography. An excellent compilation that all ages can enjoy.
384 pp. Abrams. $55.
 Trees of the California Landscape Charles
R. Hatch
This is a great reference book on trees for species identification.
Each is given general descriptive text and photographs. Content includes
topography, geography, and climate of native landscape and use of trees
in urban design. There is a basic botanical treatment using photographed
examples. Native and introduced species are included. This is a thorough,
beautiful book. 540 pp. U C Press. $60.
 Drawn
West, Selections from the Robert B. Honeyman Collection of Early
Californian and Western Art and Americana by Jack
Von Euw and Genoa Shepley.
“…The Honeyman Collection is a treasury of the works of artist-adventurers:
surveyors, scientists, sailors, soldiers, and seekers of fortune and fame. The
focus is on pictorial interpretations of the Old West with an emphasis on early
California and the gold rush, in works dating from c.1790 through the early 1900s.“ The
present collection contains a wide variety of styles of art and objects: music
sheets, advertisements, oil paintings of unpopulated vistas, events in immigrant
train passages from the east, gold mine life, romanticized native life, stereotypical
abductions and real attacks, as well as realistic scenes of animal life and botanical
plates. They do make an exemplary substitute for photographs. The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley, and Heyday Books, Berkeley, 2004. 197p.,
hardcover, color plates, $39.95.
 Bear
In Mind, The California Grizzly Edited by Susan
Snyder. (From the collections of the Bancroft Library).
Exterminated in California by the second decade of the twentieth century, not
many people alive today can say they have seen a grizzly, but “everyone
who wrote about California while there were still grizzly bears around had
something to say about them. Certainly, they were difficult to overlook when
they were still numerous enough to matter, contending their right to pass and
to make a living. Although [they are] gone, the stories survive in diaries,
romantic published narratives, interviews, photographs, brittle newspaper clippings,
and drawings. Together they project a composite portrait of the bears but a
better portrait of their exterminators. From the pictographs of the native
Californians, to 1769, when the first grizzly fell to the fire of a Spanish
blunderbuss, and through the 1920s, when the ghost grizzlies of an extinct
race of bears generated their own legends, those who lived in or passed through
the land wrote and spun tales about the great bears.” This book is a
compilation of the scattered remains of the human experience of the great Grizzly.
(Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley and Heyday Books, Berkeley.
244pp. $49.50)
 The
New Atlas of Planet Management Norman Myers and
Jennifer Kent.
This is one of those books that takes the largest view of planet life. Remember
the last few chapters of science textbooks for which there was never enough
time, the ones that gave a systems view, the ecological view? This book makes
up for all we missed. The Table of Contents provides the insight to this approach:
Land, Ocean, Elements, Evolution, Humankind, Civilization, Management. More
than half of the pages are filled with illustrations, using color, graphs,
and captions to clarify the text. From the Green Revolution, From Waste Into
Wealth, the destruction of diversity, the subjects invigorate and satisfy the
curiosity at once. Large format. (University of California Press, Berkeley,
and Gaia Books, 2005. 304 pp. $40)
 The
Intertidal Wilderness, A Photographic Journey through Pacific Coast
Tidepools Anne Wertheim Rosenfeld, with Robert T.
Paine.
“Seventeen years have elapsed since our initial attempt to meld the photographically
captured and sometimes violent beauty of rocky intertidal shores with an interpretive
text focused on the ecological processes underlying their patterns. These shores
experience unique physical stresses, in the form of heavy wave action and desiccating
low tides; furthermore, the resident organisms often interact with an intensity
difficult to imagine from an entirely terrestrial perspective. Our goal, both
originally and now, therefore, is to guide the eye to telltale signs of ecological
relationships, to permit the seashore explorer to interpret the natural history
of the resident species. For only with understanding comes respect.” This
large format book has exquisite photographs of the beautiful tidal creatures
in their environments. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles,
London, 2002. 176 pp., $24.95
 California ’s
Wild Gardens, A guide to Favorite Botanical Sites edited
by Phyllis M. Faber.
Arranged by regions: North Coast and Klamath Ranges, San Francisco Bay Region,
Great Valley, Deserts, and several more, the profusion of color in swales and
on nobs, teases the wanderlust. Incredibly diverse environments produce equally
diversified plant life. Many species have been successfully adapted over time
for the domestic garden, but this book focuses on the wild versions. “More
than 6,000 specieis, subspecies, and varieties of native flowering plants,
conifers, and ferns grow in the gentle oak woodlands, lofty mountains, spacious
deserts, and along the magnificent coast of California. This is nearly one-fourth
of all the plant types found in North America north of the Mexican border and
more than are found in any other state…Why is our flora so rich, and
why are so many plants fond here and no place else on earth? The answer lies
in part in California’s complex geologic history and in part in its diverse
topography, soils, and climate.” The California Native Plant Society,
The California Dept. of Fish and Game, with the University of California Press,
1997, 2005. 236 pp, $34.95.
 Independent
Spirits, Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 edited
by Patricia Trenton. “What must women have in order to create
art? They need food and shelter. They must have tools and materials
and training. They require some time to themselves and some human
support. They have to have a source of inspiration, something worth
making art about. And, not insignificantly, their right to express
themselves must be recognized by somebody who matters. Women have
never been able to count on any of these things and have only achieved
them through immense conscious, sometimes collective effort. They
must also be able to turn disruptive life changes into chances.” This
book includes many examples of the art made by women in the western
states of America, art that describes an environment and a time,
art that is surreal, symbolic, realistic, portraiture, the gamut
of artistic expression. Essays of biography and context extend
our understanding of the individuals and their times. Autry Museum
of Western Heritage, Los Angeles, in association with the University
of California Press, Berkeley, 1995. 304 pp, $39.95
 Russia ,
Photographs by Andrew Moore. The black-and-white
keyboard of a daringly red, Russian piano graces the cover to this
exquisite book. It tips us off that the contents will be unusual;
the photographs cover all aspects of Soviet and post-Soviet life:
for instance, elegant interiors, a thirteen-story wood house in
Arkhangel’sk, artist studios, the turquoise airport buildings
of Solovki, a warrior-martyr poster of St. Petersburg, a derelict
sand-bound train on Sakhalin Island . Chronicle Books, San Francisco,
2005. Large format, $40.
Natural History
The natural history section of the bookstore includes a full selection
of field guides specific to the Pacific Coast including: National
Audubon Society Field Guides and Pocket Guides, California
Natural History Guides published by the University of California
Press, Peterson Field Guides and First Guides, Lone
Pine Field Guides, and Mountain Press Field
Guides.
Experience the California Coast
A Guide to Beaches and Parks in Northern California California
Coastal Commission.
The magnificent coast between California's Golden Gate and the Oregon
border offers an endless variety of attractions: soft white sand and
coarse pebble beaches, forests of Sitka spruce and fields of California
poppies, redwood glades and crashing surf, lighthouses and whales.
This easy-to-use, up-to-date, comprehensive guidebook is the essential
companion for all coastal visitors. University of California Press,
2005. $24.95.
Wildflowers of Northern California's
Wine Country & North Coast Ranges Reny Parker.
A photographic guide to native plants of Marin, Sonoma, Napa & Mendocino
Counties. 358 species of wildflowers are grouped by color with close-up
photos for identification. Learn about bloom times, habitats, garden
tips, native uses, natural history, and wildflower hot spots. New Creek
Ranch Press, 2007, $24.95.
Mushrooms of Northwest North
America Helene M. E.
Schalkwijk-Barendsen.
A comprehensive
field guide to the mushrooms of this region. It covers
550 species commonly encountered. Meticulous illustrations make this
book a must-have. Lone Pine Publishing, 1994. $19.75.
National Geographic Field Guide
to the Birds of North America Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer.
With more bird species than ever before, plus innovative new features
for even faster reference, this fully updated favorite is the most
current, authoritative, and comprehensive bird guide available today.
It is the ultimate, essential resource for accurate identification
of nearly a thousand species. Any bird you encountr in North Amnerica
will be here, pictured in glorious color and described by field marks,
behavior, habitat, range, and vocalization. This one-stop resource
holds all the tools needed for quick and easy identifications. National
Geographic, $24.
 Introduction
to Shore Wildflowers of California, Oregon, and Washington,
(California Natural History Guide) Philip A. Munz.
With photographs of most of the entries, and simple but detailed line
drawings of the others, this identification guide is practical for
carrying on a hike to enjoy spring’s bounty. The flower as individual
is also placed in context of its environment, the shore climate. Color-coded
sections correlate to the color of petals, or green for flowerless
specimens. Includes a glossary and thorough index. University of
California Press, Berkeley, 2003. 234 pp., $16.95.
 Coastal
Wildflowers of the Pacific NorthwestWildflowers
and Flowering Shrubs from British Columbia to Northern California Elizabeth
L. Horn
Excellent photographs, including of shore environments, make
this a dependable guide. The author defines “beaches and dunes”, “wetlands”, “cliffs
and grasslands”, “brush fields”, and “coastal forests”,
for greater understanding, and does so too with the botanical structures of
flowers and leaves. Includes a glossary and index.(Mountain Press Publishing
Company, Montana, 1993. 180 pp., $14.
Conifers
of California Ronald M. Lanner.
Conifers include the families of Pine, Cypress, Baldcypress, and Yew. Fine
illustrations, maps, and photographs make this a beautiful, as well as useful,
book. Each species is given a four-page spread which includes specific habitat,
distribution and identification information and current status of well-being
state-wide. Cachuma Press, Los Olivos, 274 pp. $25.
 The
Beachcombers Guide to Seashore Life of California J.
Duane Sept. This is a field guide to Sponges, Hydroids, Jellies,
Sea Anemones, Comb Jellies, Marine Worms, Mollusks, Arthropods,
Spiny-Skinned Animals, Fishes and Seaweeds, and more! Beside the
color photo of an example of the above, is a description, its habitat,
range, and notes. There is a portion of the book given to Best
Beachcombing Sites in California, north, central and south coasts.
Includes a bibliography and index. Harbour Publishing, Canada,
2002. 312 pp., $19.95.
 The
Rockfishes of the Northeast Pacific Milton S. Love,
Mary Yoklavich, Lyman Thorsteinson. “We wrote this book because
rockfishes are cool. We could come up with all sorts of others
reasons. We could tell you that the rockfishes are a remarkable
group of fishes, that there are at least 72 species in the northeast
Pacific, and that they dominate a host of fish communities in this
region. We could fascinate you with how quickly they appear to
speciate. We could regale you with facts about how they occur in
virtually every habitat from intertidal waters to 2,830 meters
from mud and sand to boulder fields. We could stun you with the
information that some of the oldest fishes on earth are the 205-year-old
rockfish in the Gulf of Alaska that seem to be frozen in time,
both literally and figuratively…We could remind you that
rockfishes come in an amazing array of shapes, from little spindly
ones shaped like mackerels to great, squat, spiny ones, closely
resembling pineapples. And we could grab you by your heartstrings
with information about how important they are to recreational and
commercial fisheries and how their populations are in severe trouble
due to overfishing and poor oceanographic conditions. We could
say all of these things and they would all be true. But this description
would be wanting. Because, when it comes down to the heart of the
matter, we just think that rockfishes are very cool.” (From
the Introduction.) Anyone interested in fish will enjoy this book
for its variety of information and presentation, its colorful photos,
graphs, and the obvious love of the authors for their subject matter.
Extensive list of references is included. University of California
Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 2002. Large format, 405 pp.,
$24.95.
 Geology
of Salt Point State Park by Sue Ellen Hirschfeld.
Salt Point State ParkIs seven miles north of Fort Ross on the Sonoma Coast. “…[It]
provides spectacular vistas of the ocean, with rugged offshore rocks and steep
sea cliffs that take the full impact of the waves. The rocks are sculpted into
an infinite variety of forms and shapes. Extending underwater, the rocks offer
a range of habitats to a wide variety of marine plants and animals. Divers
can enjoy the rich underwater world. Uphill from the coast, the park continues
to the top of the coastal ridge. Habitats change from coastal grassland to
forests of Bishop pine, madrone, tanoak, and redwoods. A pygmy forest of stunted
cypress, pine, and even redwoods, as well as a large open “prairie” provide
unique surprises for the hiker…The terrain of the park has been formed
and modified over tens of millions of years. The processes involved in its
formation include those processes that move continents and create oceans, build
mountains and generate destructive earthquakes.” This booklet describes
the distinct geologic terrain and processes, with excellent line drawings to
enhance understanding. Fort Ross Interpretive Association, 2005; 22pp, $4.
 A
Land in Motion, California’s San Andreas Fault by
Michael Collier.
Imagine Pixar animating the Planet Earth’s crustal movements from the
Permian Age of 225 million years ago, when all the land above water was an
amalgamated whole, through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous ages’ land
mass chess moves, to now. With that many millions of years telescoped into
an hour’s time, we would be voyeurs to the 3-D gyrations of mass, volcanic
eruptions, uplift and drift, as seabed becomes Himalaya in continental collisions.
Stunning. This book comes close to that imagined movie, with graphics which
explain the unimaginable, and with photographs of the remains of undeniable
major earth shifts. In California, the San Andreas, running lengthwise for
hundreds of miles, is the North American and the Pacific plates’ interface.
It looks as though we live on the equivalent of an ancient elephant knee: bulbous,
creviced, its rhythmic movement often interrupted by unpredictable jerks and
twitches. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999. 118 pp, $24.95.
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