BiblioVault - Books about Petersen, David

Cedar Mesa

A Place Where Spirits Dwell

Text by David Petersen; Photographs by Branson Reynolds

University of Arizona Press, 2002

High on the Colorado Plateau lies a uniquely magical desert place: a land of sandy mesas and slickrock escarpments, an elegant maze of vertical-walled, vertigo-inspiring canyons plunging to darkened depths. Cedar Mesa, Utah, is a place frozen in time. A land that can only be adequately explored on foot or horseback, Cedar Mesa offers adventurous visitors magnificent examples of all the topographic and geologic wonders that define "canyon country" throughout the Southwest: stone arches, natural bridges, and breath-sucking precipices, plus hidden springs, hanging gardens, and a treasure of pre-Columbian Indian ruins. Now a writer and a photographer who have roamed the Mesa for more than twenty years—and know many of its well-guarded secrets—offer an intimate look at a place where solitude and silence go hand in hand. Animated by towering "hoodoos"—sandstone formations eroded to resemble all manner of spooky beings—Cedar Mesa is, in David Petersen's words, "an undulating expanse of erosion-sculpted slickrock like petrified ocean swells." He and Branson Reynolds share insights into the natural and human history of the region; they provide a panoramic overview of the Mesa, then take readers on a personally guided descent into the canyons, where hikers can expect to encounter wildlife, prehistoric ruins, stone sculptures, and hidden pools. While providing details regarding much-visited locales, Petersen and Reynolds are more concerned with conveying an overall sense of the area's mystical beauty—capturing the spirit of ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings but keeping their locations secret so that their magic will not be lost. With its relative lack of roads, campgrounds, and maintained trails, Cedar Mesa is an Eden for personal discovery and hands-on adventure. But "be it known," advises Petersen, "that this is not yet another hand-holding, give-it-all-away, chamber-of-commerce-style 'backcountry' guidebook, of which there are far too many already." He and Reynolds have instead fashioned a book to celebrate and interpret "one of the most palpably spiritual natural places remaining on the American continent"—and to instill in readers the importance of protecting it forever.

[more]

Encounters with Nature

Essays By Paul Shepard

Paul Shepard; Edited by Florence R. Shepard; Introduction by David Petersen

Island Press, 2000

While most scholars work within the safe, sturdy confines of conventional academics, Paul Shepard moved beyond convention, out under the open sky where he was free to turn and peer in every direction. Blending, sifting, and culling massive mounds of scientific, historical, and deductive data -- drawn from biology, ecology, ethology, anthropology, archaeology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and even art -- he searched for shards of truth, then fit those pieces together to give logical and meaningful shape to our world. His interdisciplinary approach brought together diverse fields of research, embodying in a sense Edward O. Wilson's recently proposed idea of "consilience" -- the unity of knowledge needed in the fragmented world of academic specialization.Throughout the vast body of Shepard's literary legacy, certain themes appear repeatedly: the aesthetics and perception of landscape and nature; animals and their pervasive influence on our humanity; ontogeny, the development of the individual in complicity with nature and with culture; and "place" as the grounding of our being. Encounters with Nature brings together twenty-one essays written over a span of four decades that explore those themes and chronicle an interlocking progression of knowledge and insight that certifies Paul Shepard as one of the most brilliant thinkers of our time.The essays were selected and edited by Florence Shepard, who also provides a preface and substantial notes that introduce each section; her contributions offer illuminating biographical information that places the essays within the context of Shepard's life. In addition, the book features an introductory essay by writer David Petersen that discusses the meaning and importance of Shepard's guiding ideas.Encounters with Nature gives the reader a deeper understanding of Paul Shepard's thought, bringing his intellectual development into closer focus and providing a valuable overview of his life and vision. The book will bring a greater appreciation of the prescience and timelessness of Shepard's writings to his many followers and friends, and can also serve to introduce new readers to the remarkable breadth and depth of his work and insight.

[more]

Heartsblood

Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America

David Petersen; Foreword by Ted Williams

Island Press, 2000

In this age of boneless chicken breasts and drive-thru Happy Meals, why do some humans still hunt? Is it a visceral, tooth-and-claw hunger for meat, tied in a primitive savage knot with an innate lust for violence and domination? Or might it be a hunger of an entirely different sort? And if so, what? In Heartsblood, writer and veteran outdoorsman David Petersen offers a thoroughly informed, unsettlingly honest, intensely personal exploration of this increasingly contentious issue. He draws clear distinctions between true hunting and contemporary hunter behavior, praising what's right about the former and damning what's wrong with the latter, as he seeks to render the terms "hunter" and "antihunter" palpable -- to put faces on these much-used but little-understood generalizations.Petersen looks at the evolutionary roots and philosophical underpinnings of hunting, and offers a compelling portrait of an "animistic archetype" -- a paradigm for the true hunter/conservationist that is in sharp contrast with today's technology-laden, gadget-loving sport hunter. He considers the social and ecological implications of trophy hunting and deconstructs the "Bambi syndrome" -- the oversentimentalization of young animals by most Americans, including many hunters. He also explores gender issues in hunting, and highlights important qualities that are largely missing in today's mentoring of tomorrow's hunters.Throughout, Petersen emphasizes the fundamental spiritual aspects of hunting, and offers numerous finely drawn and compelling first-person hunting narratives that explain and provide substance to his arguments. Along with that personal experience, he draws on philosophy, evolutionary theory, biology, and empirical studies to create an engaging and literate work that offers a unique look at hunting, hunters, and, in the words of the author, "life's basic truths."

[more]