Nature's Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World

(Hardback)

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A dynamic and fresh exploration of the naturalist Mark Catesbywho predated John JamesAudubonby nearly a centuryand his influence on how we understand American wildlife.

In 1722, Mark Catesbystepped ashore in Charles Town in the Carolina colony. Over the next four years, this young naturalist made history as he explored deep into Americas natural wonders, collecting and drawing plants and animals which had never been seen back in the Old World. Nine years later Catesby produced his magnificent and groundbreaking book,The Natural History of Carolina,the first-ever illustrated account of American flora and fauna.

In Natures Messenger, acclaimed writer Patrick Dean follows Catesby from his youth as a landed gentleman in rural England to his early work as a naturalist and his adventurous travels. A pioneer in many ways,Catesbys careful attention to the knowledge of non-Europeans in Americathe enslaved Africans and Native Americans who had their own sources of food and medicine from natureset him apart from others of his time.

Natures Messenger takes us from the rice plantations of the Carolina Lowcountry to the bustling coffeehouses of 18th-century England, from the sun-drenched islands of the Bahamas to the austere meeting-rooms of Londons Royal Society, then presided over by Isaac Newton. It was a time of discovery, of intellectual ferment, and of the rise of the British Empire. And there on historys leading edge, recording the extraordinary and often violent mingling of cultures as well as of nature, was Mark Catesby.

Intensively researched and thrillingly told, Natures Messenger will thrill fans of exploration and early American history as well as appealing to birdwatchers, botanists, and anyone fascinated by the natural world.

Reviews

"In this enlightening biography, nature writer Dean traces the life of British naturalist Mark Catesby (16831749), whoseThe Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islandswas among the first European accounts of the flora and fauna of the Americas and influenced John James Audubon. An informative account of an important if lesser-known naturalist." -- Publishers Weekly
Praise forA Window to Heaven
"Astupendous chronicle. A book whose scope, themes, and drama are worthy of Denali itself." -- Kevin Fedarko, author of THE EMERALD MILE
"No matter how many times the Denali storygets told, it never gets old. The trickis to make it new. Outdoors writer Patrick Dean has done just,casting the climb in new light.The story reverberates today. Dean presents Stuck as an imperfect but still commendable model for our own times. We should pay attention." -- David A. James * The Anchorage Daily News *
"A rich and sensitive portrait. With grace and clarity Dean reveals Hudson Stuck as a missionary-explorer who was both fully of his time and able to recognize some of its deepest prejudices. Wonderful." -- Niel Shea * National Geographic *

Author Bio

Patrick Deanwrites on the outdoors and the environment. He has worked as a teacher, a political media director, and is presently the executive director of a rail-trail nonprofit. An avid trail-runner, paddler, and mountain-biker, he lives with his wife and dogs on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, and is the author ofA Window To Heaven,about the summit of Denali, also available from Pegasus Books.