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The Peregrine
by J. A. Baker
Harper & Row © 1967
First Edition, First Printing (U.S.)
This poetic portrait of two peregrine falcons is one of the most beloved works of nature writing.
From fall to spring, J.A. Baker set out to track the daily comings and goings of a pair of peregrine falcons across the flat fen lands of eastern England. He followed the birds obsessively, observing them in the air and on the ground, in pursuit of their prey, making a kill, eating, and at rest, activities he describes with extraordinary precision. And as he continued his mysterious private quest, his sense of human self slowly dissolved, to be replaced with the alien and implacable consciousness of a hawk.
Robert Macfarlane deemed The Peregrine to be “a masterpiece of twentieth century non fiction” in his introduction to the New York Review Books edition of the book. On the back jacket cover of the same edition, James Dickey states that the book “transcends any ‘nature writing’ of our time,” while Barry Lopez declares the book to be “one of the most beautifully written, carefully observed and evocative wildlife accounts I have ever read.” Werner Herzog called it the “one book I would ask you to read if you want to make films,” and said elsewhere “it has prose of the caliber that we have not seen since Joseph Conrad.”
Seller’s Note: Book is in wonderful condition, square and clean, minimal bumping to corners and edges of dust jacket (covered in protective mylar), price clipped with a small “To: From: Christmas 1967” written inside on it’s first blank page.
