Mice in the Freezer, Owls on the Porch: The Lives of Naturalists Frederick and Francis Hamerstrom
by Helen McGavran Corneli foreword by George Archibald
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006 Paper: 978-0-299-18094-2 | eISBN: 978-0-299-18093-5 | Cloth: 978-0-299-18090-4 Library of Congress Classification QH26.C63 2002 Dewey Decimal Classification 578.092273
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Mice in the Freezer, Owls on the Porch is in many ways a love story—about a quiet scientist and his flamboyant wife, but also about their passions for hunting, for wild lands, and for the grouse and raptor species that they were instrumental in saving from destruction.
From the papers and letters of Frederick and Frances Hamerstrom, the reminiscences of contemporaries, and her own long friendship with this extraordinary couple who were her neighbors, Helen Corneli draws an intimate picture of Fran and "Hammy" from childhood through the genesis and maturation of a romantic, creative, and scientific relationship. Following the Hamerstroms as they give up a life of sophisticated convention and comfort for the more "civilized" (as Aldo Leopold would have it) pleasures of living and conducting on-the-spot research into diminishing species, Corneli captures the spirit of the Hamerstroms, their profession, and the natural and human environments in which they worked. A nuanced account of the labors, adventures, and achievements that distinguished the Hamerstroms over the years—and that inspired a generation of naturalists—this book also provides a dramatic account of conservation history over the course of the twentieth century, particularly in Wisconsin during the eventful years from the 1920s through the 1970s.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Helen McGavran Corneli is professor emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.
REVIEWS
"Why were Fran and Hammy so admired and loved? Because of the example they have set. They never forgot that field research is the naturalist’s fountain of knowledge and they never stopped asking searching questions."—Ernst Mayr, Harvard University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by George Archibald xi
Acknowledgments xv
1 Prologue 3
2 The Complexities of Childhood 13
3 Self-Discovery and Love 34
4 Students, Teachers, and New Horizons 53
5 Conservation Beginnings in a Midwestern
Appalachia 67
6 Enter Leopold and the Chickens 88
7 An Interruption: World War II 110
8 The Action: Postwar Scientific Solidarity 119
9 The Return: Deer and a Decision 132
10 The Setting, the Task 142
11 Booming Chickens and a Land Boom 157
12 The Prairie Chicken War 181
13 Hamerstroms' Kingdom: The Complexities of
Success 194
14 A Naturalist Family 208
15 Of Hawks, Humans, and Freedom 227
16 Free at Last 248
17 The Making of a Legend 265
18 Death of a Biologist 282
19 Fran 290
20 A Postscript 300
Notes 309
Index 340
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If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Mice in the Freezer, Owls on the Porch: The Lives of Naturalists Frederick and Francis Hamerstrom
by Helen McGavran Corneli foreword by George Archibald
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006 Paper: 978-0-299-18094-2 eISBN: 978-0-299-18093-5 Cloth: 978-0-299-18090-4
Mice in the Freezer, Owls on the Porch is in many ways a love story—about a quiet scientist and his flamboyant wife, but also about their passions for hunting, for wild lands, and for the grouse and raptor species that they were instrumental in saving from destruction.
From the papers and letters of Frederick and Frances Hamerstrom, the reminiscences of contemporaries, and her own long friendship with this extraordinary couple who were her neighbors, Helen Corneli draws an intimate picture of Fran and "Hammy" from childhood through the genesis and maturation of a romantic, creative, and scientific relationship. Following the Hamerstroms as they give up a life of sophisticated convention and comfort for the more "civilized" (as Aldo Leopold would have it) pleasures of living and conducting on-the-spot research into diminishing species, Corneli captures the spirit of the Hamerstroms, their profession, and the natural and human environments in which they worked. A nuanced account of the labors, adventures, and achievements that distinguished the Hamerstroms over the years—and that inspired a generation of naturalists—this book also provides a dramatic account of conservation history over the course of the twentieth century, particularly in Wisconsin during the eventful years from the 1920s through the 1970s.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Helen McGavran Corneli is professor emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.
REVIEWS
"Why were Fran and Hammy so admired and loved? Because of the example they have set. They never forgot that field research is the naturalist’s fountain of knowledge and they never stopped asking searching questions."—Ernst Mayr, Harvard University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by George Archibald xi
Acknowledgments xv
1 Prologue 3
2 The Complexities of Childhood 13
3 Self-Discovery and Love 34
4 Students, Teachers, and New Horizons 53
5 Conservation Beginnings in a Midwestern
Appalachia 67
6 Enter Leopold and the Chickens 88
7 An Interruption: World War II 110
8 The Action: Postwar Scientific Solidarity 119
9 The Return: Deer and a Decision 132
10 The Setting, the Task 142
11 Booming Chickens and a Land Boom 157
12 The Prairie Chicken War 181
13 Hamerstroms' Kingdom: The Complexities of
Success 194
14 A Naturalist Family 208
15 Of Hawks, Humans, and Freedom 227
16 Free at Last 248
17 The Making of a Legend 265
18 Death of a Biologist 282
19 Fran 290
20 A Postscript 300
Notes 309
Index 340
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE