Gregory McNamee

James Hepworth

Presents interviews with the late American author and commentaries on his life and work

Remembering Ed Abbey

Resist Much, Obey Little

Not much can be said with certainty about the life of Claudius Aelianus, known to us as Aelian. He was born sometime between A.D. 165 and 170 in the hill town of Praeneste, what is now Palestrina, about twenty-five miles from Rome, Italy. He grew up speaking that town’s version of Latin, a dialect that other speakers of the language seem to have found curious, but—somewhat unusually for his generation, though not for Romans of earlier times—he preferred to communicate in Greek. Trained by a sophist named Pausanias of Caesarea, Aelian was known in his time for a work called Indictment of the Effeminate, an attack on the recently deceased emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who was nasty even by the standards of Imperial Rome. He was also fond of making almanac-like collections, only fragments of which survive, devoted to odd topics such as manifestations of the divine and the workings of the supernatural. His De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals) has a similar patchwork quality, but it was esteemed enough in his time to survive more or less whole, and it is about all that we know of Aelian’s work today. A mostly randomly ordered collection of stories that he found interesting enough to relate about animals—whether or not he believed them—Aelian’s book constitutes an early encyclopedia of animal behavior, affording unparalleled insight into what ancient Romans knew about and thought about animals—and, of particular interest to modern scholars, about animal minds. If the science is sometimes sketchy, the facts often fanciful, and the history sometimes suspect, it is clear enough that Aelian had a fine time assembling the material, which can be said, in the most general terms, to support the notion of a kind of intelligence in nature and that extends human qualities, for good and bad, to animals. His stories, which extend across the known world of Aelian’s time, tend to be brief and to the point, and many return to a trenchant question: If animals can respect their elders and live honorably within their own tribes, why must humans be so appallingly awful? Aelian is as brisk, as entertaining, and as scholarly a writer as Pliny, the much better known Roman natural historian. That he is not better known is simply an accident: he has not been widely translated into English, or indeed any European language. This selection from his work will introduce readers to a lively mind and a witty writer who has much to tell us.

Aelian's On the Nature of Animals

Interviews from The Bloomsbury Review, 1981-1988

Living in Words

Luis Alberto Urrea

A Literary Celebration

A World of Turtles

For sixty million years, the Gila River, longer than the Hudson and the Delaware combined, has shaped the ecology of the Southwest from its source in New Mexico to its confluence with the Colorado River in Arizona. Today, for at least half its length, the Gila is dead, like so many of the West's great rivers, owing to overgrazing, damming, and other practices. This richly documented cautionary tale narrates the Gila's natural and human history. Now updated, McNamee's study traces recent efforts to resuscitate portions of this important riparian corridor.

The Life and Death of an American River

Gila

Drawing from a wide range of sources, this widely varied anthology of literature celebrates the beauty of Arizona and includes contributions from Jack Kerouac, Edward Abbey, Barbara Kingsolver, and many others. Simultaneous.

An Arizona Anthology

Named in Stone and Sky

Following the model of the medieval Latin bestiaries, Gregory McNamee has written a book at once naturalistic, folkloristic, and literary, made up of short essays on forty-three animals of the world's desert

Folklore, Literature, and Ecological Thought from the World's Dry Places

A Desert Bestiary

For 2,500 years, adults and children alike have been listening to the stories of Aesop. Originating in the folk wisdom of rural Asia Minor, these popular fables have been retold, repurposed, and altered over the centuries; in the process, they have sometimes been changed so much that they bear little resemblance to their simple forebears, which ask their listeners and readers to think for themselves, to supply their own conclusions. In this collection, Gregory McNamee draws on the Greek originals to provide Aesop's fables in a form that Aesop himself might recognise -- ones in which fleas and foxes converse, people sometimes learn from their errors, and things are not always what they seem.

The North Wind and the Sun and Other Fables of Aesop

These beautiful and timeless stories from the African Bush were gathered more than a century ago and have touched thousands of readers ever since. The South African-born author, Sir Laurens van der Post, revered them and helped to make them known throughout the world. For this special new edition, Gregory McNamee has adapted the original nineteenth-century English translations to create modern versions of the stories for readers without a prior knowledge of the Bushman ways of life. The stories in this book carry universal observations and truths and, with their historical and ethnographic roots in the African Bushman culture, they are fascinating and educational for readers and listeners of all ages. They bear powerful testimony to a desert people living at one with Nature.

The Girl Who Made Stars and Other Bushman Stories

“We travel the world,” writes Gregory McNamee, “and wherever we go there are snake stories to entertain us.” Here are some fifty diverse and unusual accounts of serpents from cultures across time and around the globe: snakes that talk, jump, and dance; snakes that transform into other creatures; snakes that just . . . watch. Many selections are drawn from the rich oral traditions of peoples in every clime that supports reptiles, from the Akimel O’odham of North America to the Mensa Bet-Abrahe of Africa to the Mungkjan of Australia. Included as well are such writings as prayers from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, a poem by Emily Dickinson, and a journal entry by Charles Darwin. What we read about snakes in The Serpent’s Tale is just as fascinating for what it says about us, for there always will be something primordial about our connection to them. That bond is evident in these stories: in how we associate snakes with nature’s elemental forces, how we attribute special qualities to their eyes and skin, and how they preside over all phases of our existence, from creation to death to resurrection.

Snakes in Folklore and Literature

The Serpent's Tale

Once upon a time, an Apache story tells us, the trickster called Coyote killed a bear so that he could make a suitable quiver for his magical arrows. You shouldn't have done that, someone warned Coyote. That skin will only bring you bad luck. And so it has been for Coyote ever since, chased by bears and humans alike. In this charming collection of folktales from long ago, we read of the creation of the world, of the ways of animals, of the beguiling Coyote, of the world in which we live and other worlds that hide just beyond our sight. Drawn from the oral literatures of some twenty Southwestern American Indian peoples, these stories teach us about the constants of those dry places: about how the clouds form in the sky, how the heat rises from the ground, how the animals move about from one shady spot to another, and how the people once lived their lives. All these stories show us " as the great anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, observed " that folktales are not mere afterthoughts of literature, just pleasant stories to tell around the campfire, but rather valuable tools for reflection upon our own lives.

A Collection of Southwestern American Indian Folktales

The Bearskin Quiver

Art Wolfe’s immersive photos capture the wonder humans have felt about trees for millennia. From the biblical Tree of Life to the Native American Tree of Peace, trees have played an archetypal role in human culture and spirituality since time immemorial. An integral part of a variety of faiths—from Buddhism and Hinduism to Native American and aboriginal religions—trees were venerated long before any written historical records existed. Through the vivid images of legendary photographer Art Wolfe, Trees focuses on both individual specimens and entire forests, and offers a sweeping yet intimate look at an arboreal world that spans six continents. Author Gregory McNamee weaves a diverse and global account of the myths, cultures, and traditions that convey the long-standing symbiosis between trees and humans, and renowned ethnobotanist Wade Davis anchors the text with a penetrating introduction. Humans have always shared this planet with trees, and Trees by Art Wolfe is a breathtaking journey through and homage to that relationship and its past, present, and future.

Between Earth and Heaven

Trees

SueEllen Campbell

Gary Wockner

Delves into the spirit of the wolf dilemma through a collection of essays and poems from some of the Rocky Mountain region's most prolific writers. Authors such as Susan J. Tweit, Craig Childs, Pam Houston, John Nichols, Kent Nelson, Rick Bass, Stephen Trimble, and Laura Pritchett have contributed works specifically written for this compilation, which creates a forum for writers to voice their opinions, hopes, and concerns for the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado. Forward by Mark Udall, U.S. Representative, Colorado's 2nd Congressional District.

Western Writers Welcome the Wolf Home

Comeback Wolves

For sixty million years, the Gila River, longer than the Hudson and the Delaware combined, has shaped the ecology of the Southwest from its source in New Mexico to its confluence with the Colorado River in Arizona. Today, for at least half its length, the Gila is dead, like so many of the West’s great rivers, owing to overgrazing, damming, and other practices. This richly documented cautionary tale narrates the Gila’s natural and human history. Now updated, McNamee’s study traces recent efforts to resuscitate portions of this important riparian corridor.

Gregory McNamee

Books

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