Chuckwalla Land: The Riddle of California's Desert (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520256163)

Described as "a writer in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and other self-educated seers" by the San Francisco Chronicle, David Rains Wallace turns his attention in this new book to another distinctive corner of California--its desert, the driest and hottest environment in North America. Drawing from his frequent forays to Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon, Kelso Dunes, and other locales, Wallace illuminates the desert's intriguing flora and fauna as he explores a controversial, unresolved scientific debate about the origin and evolution of its unusual ecosystems. Eminent scientists and scholars appear throughout these pages, including maverick paleobiologist Daniel Axelrod, botanist Ledyard Stebbins, and naturalists Edmund Jaeger and Joseph Wood Krutch. Weaving together ecology, geology, natural history, and mythology in his characteristically eloquent voice, Wallace reveals that there is more to this starkly beautiful landscape than meets the eye.

Author: David Rains Wallace
ISBN-10: 0520256166
ISBN-13: 9780520256163
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 05/05/2011
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.16lbs
Size: 9.13h x 6.33w x 0.92d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 10/01/2011
Reference and Research Bk News 10/01/2011 pg. 227