Okay, phew there’s no beaver news except Ben’s book reading in New York and a nice email this morning from a woman in big sky country who wonders if there’s a Worth A Dam chapter in Montana? (Big smile) Finally I can write about something that’s been on my mind since the beaver festival!
It’s this book by Rachel Polquin. The book is a collection of quirky history and amazing images of the beaver. (Look over the woman’s shoulder to see the fish tailed beaver). Some of them even I hadn’t seen. Here’s the editorial blurb:
With unique fish-like tails, chainsaw teeth, a pungent musk, and astonishing building skills, beavers are unlike any other creature in the world. Not surprisingly, the extraordinary beaver has played a fascinating role in human history and has inspired a rich cultural tradition for millennia. In Beaver, Rachel Poliquin explores four exceptional beaver features: beaver musk, beaver fur, beaver architecture, and beaver ecology, tracing the long evolutionary history of the two living species and revealing them to be survivors capable of withstanding ice ages, major droughts, and all predators, except one: humans.
At the end of 2014 we were both part of an interview together for Connecticut public radio and she afterwards said she’d send me a copy of her book. Of course things happen, time slips away, and she forgot, but when it finally arrived I was stunned to see the cover. Let’s see if you are too.
Raise your hand when spot it.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I very politely thanked Rachel for her book and mentioned that the cover photo was a nutria and she said ruefully that she knew and that was the only image in the book she didn’t get to select. So that means some fact-free editor out there chose that nutria image, cleverly colorized it, and sold the book. EVEN THOUGH IT WASN’T A BEAVER!
Why is it always a nutria? I mean if you’re going to publish an image of the wrong species why not an elephant or a cayman? The author of said book either couldn’t or didn’t refuse to let it be published under these conditions. I suppose she might have airily accepted the check and assumed no one (but that girl on the west coast) would know the difference.
But now you know too. Let’s start a club.
All that we read is not clever
Some authors spread rumors and lies
Those books will change hearts and minds never
Not all those who publish are wise
In a swampland no fire shall be woken
And water from wetlands will spring
Renewed be the sleeping land woken
When the beaver again shall be king
