Breaking Through - by Edward F Ricketts (Hardcover)

About the Book

"To have begun to know Ed Ricketts even a little--whether as the satyr-god of Cannery Row, pioneering ecologist and marine biologist, magical Steinbeck character, co-author of a classic 'voyage of discovery, ' or legendary friend and mentor of the great--is to want to know more."--From the foreword by Susan F. Beegel, editor of "The Hemingway Review"
"This biography and collection is invaluable for those seeking to understand all about Ed Ricketts, not as Steinbeck's "Doc," but as the complex, visionary thinker and scientist that he was. Rodger gives us Ricketts's seminal writings, some for the first time in print, that reveal his lifelong struggle to come to grips with the complexities of marine ecology at all levels. Today's researchers would do well to try and grasp his prescient, holistic ideas about the universal connections linking organisms, species, communities, and their environment."--William F. Gilly, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University

Book Synopsis

Trailblazing marine biologist, visionary conservationist, deep ecology philosopher, Edward F. Ricketts (1897-1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ahead of his time, Ricketts was a scientist who worked in passionate collaboration with many of his friends--artists, writers, and influential intellectual figures--including, perhaps most famously, John Steinbeck, who once said that Ricketts's mind "had no horizons." This unprecedented collection, featuring previously unpublished pieces as well as others available for the first time in their original form, reflects the wide scope of Ricketts's scientific, philosophical, and literary interests during the years he lived and worked on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. These writings, which together illuminate the evolution of Ricketts's unique, holistic approach to science, include "Verbatim transcription of notes on the Gulf of California trip," the basic manuscript for Steinbeck's and Ricketts's Log from the Sea of Cortez; the essays "The Philosophy of Breaking Through" and "A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry;" several shorter pieces on topics including collecting invertebrates and the impact of modernization on Mexican village life; and more. An engaging critical biography and a number of rare photographs offer a new and richly detailed view of Ricketts's life.

From the Back Cover

"To have begun to know Ed Ricketts even a little--whether as the satyr-god of Cannery Row, pioneering ecologist and marine biologist, magical Steinbeck character, co-author of a classic 'voyage of discovery, ' or legendary friend and mentor of the great--is to want to know more."--From the foreword by Susan F. Beegel, editor of The Hemingway Review

"This biography and collection is invaluable for those seeking to understand all about Ed Ricketts, not as Steinbeck's "Doc," but as the complex, visionary thinker and scientist that he was. Rodger gives us Ricketts's seminal writings, some for the first time in print, that reveal his lifelong struggle to come to grips with the complexities of marine ecology at all levels. Today's researchers would do well to try and grasp his prescient, holistic ideas about the universal connections linking organisms, species, communities, and their environment."--William F. Gilly, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University

About the Author

Edward F. Ricketts co-authored several books, among them Between Pacific Tides (1939), now in its fifth, revised edition and still regarded as the definitive ecological handbook on the California littoral. Katharine A. Rodger is editor of Renaissance Man of Cannery Row: The Life and Letters of Edward F. Ricketts (2002). Susan F. Beegel, editor of The Hemingway Review, coedited Steinbeck and the Environment (1997).