Panbiogeography: Tracking the History of Life (Oxford Biogeography Series)

Book Description

Biogeography is a diverse subject, traditionally focusing on the distribution of plants and animals at different taxonomic levels, past and present. Modern biogeography also puts emphasis on the ecological character of the world vegetation types, and on the evolving relationship between humans and their environment. Panbiogeography describes a new synthesis of sciences of plant and animal distribution. The book emphasizes that the geographical patterns of animal and plant distribution contribute directly to the understanding and interpretation of evolutionary history. Geographic location is reintroduced as a critical element of both biogeography and evolutionary biology. The authors present chapters exploring the roles of geology, ecology, evolution in panbiogeographic theory, and introduce new methods, modes of classification, and ways of measuring biodiversity.

Customer Reviews:

Panbiogeography: Not a recipe for Biogeography.......2000-01-04

Books: Biogeography

Panbiogeography : Tracking the History of Life (Oxford Biogeography Series No 11) by John R. Grehan, Michael J. Heads, Robin C. Craw

Long after the Middle Ages a certain Equivalence of knighthood and a Doctor's degree was generally Acknowledged...For the history of Civilization the perennial dream of a Sublime life has the value of a very Important reality.

Huizinga, J. - The Waning of the Middle Ages, 1924 - quoted on the front page of Space, Time, Form: The Biological Synthesis, by Leon Croizat, 1962.

Like righteous knights, the authors of Panbiogeography are on a quest to save the discipline of panbiogeography: to bring it out from relative obscurity into the modern world of biogeography. Christened by Leon Croizat in the 1958, panbiogeography uses the geographic distribution of all biota, from plants to insects to vertebrates, to create hypotheses for historical biogeographic patterns. By a system of "tracks", "nodes", "main massings", and "baselines", Croizat and his followers mapped disjunct distributions and used correlations to define historical ranges. Largely due to his abject rejection of dispersal as a mechanism for vicariant patterns of biota, Croizat's theories were discounted as extreme (Cox, 1999). The main tool of panbiogeographers is the "track", a line drawn on a map that links localities of a taxa. The "track" represents a hypothesis of previous geographic connection. Although Panbiogeography is full of many examples of tracks drawn on maps, some issues are left unclear. For instance, what taxonomic level should tracks connect? The taxa selected in this book appear arbitrary; they use both taxa with similar generic and familiar relations in order to draw tracks. Furthermore, how discrete is the geographic region described by the points at the end of a track? The scale of tracks vary from continental to discrete local scales. On the other hand, the authors illustrate that the track may function well as a heuristic device, simply drawing a line on a map may represent the possible relationship between biota between two geographic areas. Grehan and Craw, as proponents of this concept appear to believe that these tracks and especially those tracks of many taxa over-layed, called "generalized tracts", represent vicariant events, rather than simply dispersal of individuals and subsequent speciation. Although this issue was contentious in the 1970's (Dipersalists vs. Vicariants), this book fails to bridge the gap between these two views. Instead, while claiming to recognize the importance of both forces, it simply reiterates the vicariant viewpoint.

Grehan and Craw attempt to revitalize the discipline of panbiogeography by incorporating cladistical analysis. The book is full of case studies of suggestive corroboration of phylogenetic systematics with previous hypotheses postulated by Croizat and earlier vicariant biogeographers. Although these examples span various phyla, they generally emphasize morphological systematics. In order to support the claims of vicariant biogeographic patterns, the book would benefit from additional examples of recent molecular systematic findings.

Throughout the book, many examples of faunal and floral disjunctions are correlated with geological (i.e. tectonic) patterns. It is postulated that geological events have caused vicariant distributions. Although compelling in the sense that this represents a mechanism for the patterns of disjunct biota, inferring that this is the only mechanism is nonsensical. Dispersal may function as an equally important factor in distribution. Even so, the emphasis on locality, on where an animal is found, is one of the main strengths of this book: on some level, systematics should take geography in to account in order to determine phylogeny.

Panbiogeography is written purportedly to assist in the understanding of this discipline. Even so, the language is opaque and appears purposefully inaccessible. Furthermore, the authors could improve understanding by clearly defining and illustrating the concepts and methodology in the beginning of the book; it is in the 5th chapter that the authors approach the methodology of this approach.

True to the very nature of panbiogeography, Panbiogeography gives examples of disjunct distributions for varied species from cotton, to starlings, to weevils. While this a data appears to be well researched, the conclusions drawn are not evident. Conclusions are made from correlations. While hypotheses are clearly stated, they are not tested, only corroborated. Comparative evidence alone is insufficient to evaluate a hypothesis. While this style often broaches upon a rant, these case studies are not uninteresting. Demonstrating that dissimilar fauna and flora have similar vicariant distributions, is inherently interesting. Unfortunately, it is difficult to disentangle any bias from selection of fauna and flora.

Finally, while Grehan and Craw imply that they encourage others to use panbiogeography, they have not made this easy. The greatest disappointment in this book is that the authors do not explicitly present their methodology. The maps, adorned with crossing lines and circled regions, appear arbitrary constructions instead of the well-honed result of careful and discerning research. One is left with the impression that one needs faith in order to use this method - much like the mythic knights of the middle ages on a religious quest to obtain the holy grail.

Cox,B. 1998. From generalized tracks to ocean basins - how useful is Panbiogeography? J. Biogeog., 25:813-828.

Panbiogeography: contribution or confusion?.......1999-12-14

Do you know a genius when you see one? Of course: geniuses are disheveled, eccentric men who shun the world while quietly hatching ideas of global consequence, or so most of us believe. Hence the reverence for the scraggly, hoary image of Einstein, even though it was the younger, attractive man who sat in the patent office and hashed out relativity. Consider Leon Croizat, polyglot recluse biogeographer, who spent most of his life in self-imposed academic exile in Venezuela, turning piles of often erroneous distribution maps into frightful tomes with titles like Space, Time, Form: The Biological Synthesis (1). Croizat was one of a handful of scientists in the 1970's who helped to turn the tide in biogeography, away from anecdotal natural history, to quantitative and reproducible methods (2). However, for the past two decades, most biogeographers have been content to give him that much credit and have not looked much further into his work. The authors of Panbiogeography do go further, and make a case for the revival of Croizat's peculiar methods. Croizat's major innovation was to compare the distributions of a variety of species, regardless of their individual ages or dispersal abilities. He connected species occurrences on a map with lines that he called tracks, and then overlaid the tracks from multiple species. When enough overlaid tracks lined up, Croizat called the resulting pattern a generalized track, and deduced from it information about the ancient distribution of the biota that is now seen in fragments. When Croizat found fragments to be separated widely geographically, he placed a "baseline" in the intervening space, which identified a major event in Earth history that caused the disjunction of the groups. If, for example, large areas of diversity (called "main massings") of a particular organism are found in Western Africa and South America, we can place a baseline in the South Atlantic, and conclude that it was that ocean that split the groups. Grehan et. al use Croizat's methodology to examine a number of problems in biogeography, and they choose some intriguing case studies. For example, they perform an in-depth treatment of the current and ancient biota of Africa, showing that many current communities spread across the globe are actually the remains of an ancient unified community that was altered by changing climate and geology. The effect of the shifting environment is nicely visualized with tracks drawn between the far-ranging communities. However, the authors consistently fail to let us in on the specific methods that they use to create their maps and tracks. Why are some tracks laid one way and not another? At times it seems that all points of occurrence should be connected with so-called "minimum spanning trees," while, at other times, tracks seem to be drawn solely in accord with a hypothesis of vicariance. Mysterious references are made to graph theory, but the use of sophisticated mathematics is never made clear. A lack of explicit methodology gets to the heart of the book's main flaw. The authors claim that panbiogeography is a rigorous and quantifiable approach to understanding the distributions of organisms, yet we are never shown that panbiogeography, as a research program, is able to produce a testable hypotheses. One of the main features of this new science is the baseline, which identifies an important, vicariant geographical feature. That feature is identified a priori as important, so we then have a baseline and some evidence of distribution on either side of the baseline. Should we then test the validity of that baseline assumption? Should we look at individual occurrences to see if they support the baseline? If so, the authors of Panbiogeography give us no clue as to how that would be done. A lack of rigor in explaining their methodology might be more forgivable if the authors came to some conclusions that we might imagine were unique products of panbiogeography. They claim that the use of baselines should force us to reorganize our view of the world's biogeographic realms into a map of ocean basins, since those basins represent the most significant geographic events in the history of speciation on Earth. They also use tracks and baselines to make a case for the Western United States being the product of a myriad of tectonic rafts that smashed into the west coast, possibly introducing new organisms with each raft. The west coast idea is not new, and the ocean basin idea could have been conceived using a knowledge of Earth's history, with no tracks or baselines in sight. One reason that Croizats' work was revolutionary was that it was independent of natural history, and all the ambiguities that it can contain. A knowledge of peculiar species biology is not needed to draw tracks. For better or worse, natural history no longer dominates the biological sciences, so it is hard to imagine that Grehan et al. see their primary contribution to their field as being one of precision. However, it is equally hard to imagine exactly what they might suppose their greatest contribution to be. If they have something in mind, they do not make it obvious in Panbiogeography.

References 1. Croizat, L. 1894. Space, Time, Form: The Biological Synthesis. Caracas, Venezuela. 2. Brown, J. H. & Lomolino, M. V. 1998. Biogeography. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Panbiogeography: confusion or contribution?.......1999-12-14

References 1. Croizat, L. 1894. Space, Time, Form: The Biological Synthesis. Caracas, Venezuela. 2. Brown, J. H. & Lomolino, M. V. 1998. Biogeography. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Panbiogeography revisited: tracing old tracks.......1999-12-12

As in most fields in the natural sciences, prevailing approaches and the dominant paradigms in the field of biogeography have shifted radically, and back again, in the century or more of its existence. Judging by the material presented in recent biogeography textbooks, for example, Cox and Moore's (1993) Biogeography, An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach, and Brown and Lomolino's (1998) Biogeography, biogeographers generally recognize the value and strengths of using several different approaches to forming biogeographical hypotheses and evaluating them. The panbiogeography approach, although never widely accepted as a primary approach, is always addressed and given fair credence. Craw, Grehan and Heads, in their new book Panbiogeography: Tracking the History of Life (1999), uniquely attempt to postulate the panbiogeographical approach as the only real "correct" approach to biographical analysis, and in doing so, take a stand that is contrary to biogeography's pattern heretofore. Panbiogeography was originally proposed by Croizat in the 1950s as a method that emphasizes the primacy of spatial analysis of the distribution of taxa, in preference to historical or systematic hypotheses or understanding of taxonomic relationships. Due in part to the timing of Croizat's treatises which came out prior to the proposal and general acceptance of plate tectonic theory, the approach generated great controversy among biogeographers. Essentially Croizat was proposing a method that could generate hypotheses that no known mechanism could explain. The approach fell further out of favor after plate tectonics was accepted because of Croizat's singular unwillingness to accept it as a viable mechanism. Panbiogeography takes the following basic approach. Using databases containing distributions of taxa, panbiogeographers identify tracks (lines that connect related taxa), nodes (points of intersection of tracks), generalized tracks (locations where many tracks overlap spatially), and baselines (locations where tracks cross major geological or geomorphic features, usually oceans). Using these devices as heuristics, hypotheses are then generated regarding the historical, phylogenetic, ecological or other relationships among the taxa examined. Cox and Moore criticize the approach by saying that the technique stops there and does not go back and incorporate known taxonomic history, geology, or other information that is not exclusively spatial. However, it is not clear that this was the initial intent of the approach. Craw et al. do not propose an essentially different definition for panbiogeography, and their basic premise is perhaps useful and insightful. However, they have chosen to take a rather defensive position in presumed anticipation of an attack against the approach based on historic biases. For this reason, readers are forced to wade through a rather dense display of repetitively overstated points in order to glean the useful messages in the book. The authors explain the concepts initiated by Croizat, those described above, with sufficient detail to allow the uninitiated to attempt the approach. They provide a number of detailed case examples to which they apply these methods that result in a large number of images and graphical representations of the kinds of heuristic devices the methods may produce. In addition, they rightfully point out some weaknesses in the extensive dependency of some biogeographical approaches on other unproven data compilations, such as geomorphological, systematic, and historical hypotheses, in that using these hypotheses as "data" necessarily compound any error in data analysis. The fundamental message of their treatise is that spatial data alone are sufficient, and can be used operationally, to generate biogeographical hypotheses separate from any other kind of pattern analysis. Furthermore, the generation of biogeographical hypotheses by this method can then inform other pattern analysis approaches, such as phylogenetics, in an unbiased and uncircular fashion. These notions are valuable statements to be made about approaches to biogeography. This reviewer feels that these points could have been made in a short article, without the attempts that seem to have been made to discredit other biogeographical approaches. In including extensive statement of how this approach improves on other methods, the authors often seem to contradict themselves and generally state that the methods of panbiogeography can achieve what it is not clear that it can. For example, the authors initially name what they describe as the three main schools of biogeographical thought: faunal regions or centers of origin, vicariance and cladistics, and island biogeography. However, they never revisit these categories per se. They proceed to explicitly compare only dispersalist and vicariance approaches to biogeography. Further, the description of dispersalist hypotheses concludes with a rather heavy handed dismissal of the mechanism altogether. They propose that panbiogeography can resolve the "vicariance/dispersalist dilemma" with a proper understanding of what they term "mobilist" and "immobilist" phases, which seem to amount to the proposal that dispersal is never a significant mechanism in biogeography but that it all comes down to vicariance. In a later chapter, they explain the details of using a cladistic approach to understand vicariance in biogeographical distributions, which is a method that is well accepted and not novel in biogeography today. The claim that this approach is a subset of panbiogeography, and one of many unbiased advantages of the school of thought in general. However, they fail to offer other examples of approaches. Similarly, authors emphasize that the panbiogeographical approach is a hypotheses testing approach, which is unique among biogeographical approaches. This point is labored in many chapters under many headings, and yet they fail to offer an operational approach to testing a single hypothesis generated by the methods they describe. Overall, the thesis of this book is potentially useful to biographers in general. Additionally, many of the details of the panbiographical method are explained in such a way that new users may derive some utility from them. But overall, the excessive verbiage, defensive tone, and contradictory statements make the book less than "required reading" for biogeographers.

Book Description

Recognized experts present incisive analysis of both fundamental and applied problems in this continuation of a highly acclaimed series. Topics discussed include:

A review of the literature on the potential-of-zero charge by Trasatti and Lust.
A thorough review and discussion of nonequilibrium fluctuations in corrosion processes.
A wide-ranging discussion of conducting polymers, electrochemistry, and biomimicking processes.
Microwave (photo)electrochemistry, from its origins to today's research opportunities, including its relation to electrochemistry.
New fluorine cell design, from model development through preliminary engineering modeling, laboratory tests, and pilot plant tests.
A comprehensive account of the major and rapidly developing field of the electrochemistry of electronically conducting polymers and their applications.

These authoritative studies will be invaluable for researchers in engineering, electrochemistry, analytical chemistry, materials science, physical chemistry, and corrosion science.

Book Description

General relativity has become one of the central pillars of theoretical physics, with important applications in both astrophysics and high-energy particle physics, and no modern theoretical physicist’s education should be regarded as complete without some study of the subject. This textbook, based on the author’s own undergraduate teaching, develops general relativity and its associated mathematics from a minimum of prerequisites, leading to a physical understanding of the theory in some depth. It reinforces this understanding by making a detailed study of the theory’s most important applications - neutron stars, black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology - using the most up-to-date astronomical developments. The book is suitable for a one-year course for beginning graduate students or for undergraduates in physics who have studied special relativity, vector calculus, and electrostatics. Graduate students should be able to use the book selectively for half-year courses.

Customer Reviews:

As easy as it can be.......2007-05-22

Nice introduction to GR. Not extensive previous knowledge needed and as clear as it could be.

As the title says, a good 'First Course'.......2007-04-04

There are a lot of books on General Relativity. In approach they vary from no math, to essentially math books. This book is somewhere in the middle. It is said to be suitable for a one year course for beginning graduate students or for undergraduates in physics who have studied special relativity, vector calculus, and electrostatics.

To enable such a student to follow the math in in this book the first part of the book reviews special relativity and vector analysis. Then the book has a section on Tensor Analysis, which was newly developed in Einstein's time when it was called tensor calculus. The treatment of these mathematical concepts in this book are, in my mind, sufficient for a review for a student that had studied them before, but will require some pretty good insight for a student that had not seen them before. This background information covers about a third of the book.

Chapter 5 of the book starts out, 'Until now we have discussed only SR.' The next two thirds cover curvature, physics in a curved spacetime, the Einstein field equations, gravitational radiation (the biggest chapter in the book), and on to the rest of GR.

By the end of the book the student has indeed completed a 'first course' in GR. There is still plenty more to go for the interested student specializing in this area.

Good Intro, but Leaves A LOT out.......2007-02-19

As background, I am a senior undergrad doing a thesis on black hole perturbations (following Chandrasekhar). This was the first book I got on GR, a little over a year ago, and I fell in love with it. It does a great job of quickly, though not completely painlessly, introducing you to GR. HOWEVER, as I now continue my ventures further, I find a lot of fundamental concepts lacking in my education. I went from this book onto parts of Wald: not a good idea IMO. I am currently paging through Lovelock and Rund and wishing the mathematical aspect had been introduced in Schutz as well as here. In the end, very nice, well explained intro to the concepts, but you NEED to either supplement with better mathematical explanation, or move quickly to higher book.

Great intro text.......2007-01-14

I started reading this book at a friend's house about 1 year ago and after graduating and starting to miss physics, I decided to pick it up and try something I didn't get in school. This book does a great job of building a fundamental understand of what is going on(and doesn't shy away from the math). The best part is the different ways it can be read. It is written to leave a lot of the deep math(actually expanding the equations and seeing the results in a more concrete manner) to the reader's discretion. As a working person, this is a huge advantage, as it means I can read ahead to curvature while spending my weekends getting familiar with tensor math.

I highly suggest this as a start for anyone that wants to get a feel for GR(not a pop culture feel, but a real understanding of the ideas and math) but doesn't always have the time to work through the math. I also have the Misner, Thorne and Wheeler book Gravitation, and while it gives a much more expansive study of GR, I don't find myself with the time required to read it.

The only drawback is I feel it doesn't give the best intuition about tensors of a higher order than a one form. But that is probably due to my own lack of intuition in that area.

For clarity, My relevant background in physics and math:
ODE, PDE, Vector Calculus, Introductory Analysis and topology, QM, EM, Mechanics, Optics, Thermodynamics. I've never studied non-euclidean space or any real study of geometry beyond the most basic of real number line topology.

undergraduate book.......2006-12-12

This book helped me survive my first course in general relativity, which I took at a time when I was not prepared to understand the textbook of the course (Wald). I have mixed feelings about the book. On the one hand, I could follow it is as an undergraduate; on the other, the level of the discussion was such that I never really felt like I "got" GR from reading it. Maybe that is the paradox of a low-level book, but for comparison I did not experience this reading, for example, griffiths and jackson. There, I felt like I grasped E&M and one level, and then learned it better at another. Perhaps general relativity doesn't work that way, or perhaps another introductory book is better. I don't really know which.

Average customer rating:

Cosmology: A First Course
Marc Lachièze-Rey
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

Cosmology | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

Solar System | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

Universe | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Cosmology | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

French | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Nonfiction | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0521479665

Book Description

This book delivers a quantitative account of cosmology, designed for a nonspecialist audience. The author outlines basic principles using simple math and physics, but still provides rigorous models of the universe. He offers an ideal introduction to the key ideas in cosmology, without going into technical details. The approach used is based on the fundamental ideas of general relativity, such as the spacetime interval, comoving coordinates, and spacetime curvature. The book provides an up-to-date and thoughtful discussion of the Big Bang and the crucial questions of structure and galaxy formation. The author also briefly discusses questions of method and philosophical approaches in cosmology. Advanced undergraduates in either physics or mathematics will benefit greatly from this book, either as a course text or as a supplementary guide to cosmology courses.

First Light in the Universe: Saas-Fee Advanced Course 36. Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy (Saas-Fee Advanced Courses)

Average customer rating:

First Light in the Universe: Saas-Fee Advanced Course 36. Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy (Saas-Fee Advanced Courses)
Abraham Loeb , Andrea Ferrara , and Richard S. Ellis
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Relativity | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The exploration of the first billion years of the history of the Universe, from the so-called dark ages to cosmic reionisation, represents one of the great challenges of contemporary astrophysics. During these phases the first structures start to grow forming the first stars, galaxies, and possibly also soon the first quasars. At the same time the dark, neutral Universe starts to be lit up and ionised by these sources, leading to its progressive reionisation anding at a redshift of about 6. Furthermore the first stars and supernovae begin to enrich their surroundings and the intergalactic medium, and to produce the first dust.
In the recent years tremendous progress has been made on the theoretical understanding and on numerical simulations of the underlying astrophysical mechanisms. Furthermore, observations of signatures of reionisation and even direct observations of galaxies at redshifts larger than 6 are now becoming feasible. The observational and theoretical aspects of this story were comprehensively and pedagocically covered by the lecturers of the 36th Saas-Fee Advanced Course. This volume contains their worked out and updated lecture notes.

General Relativity: A First Course for Physicists (Prentice Hall International Series in Physics and Applied Physics)

Average customer rating:

General Relativity: A First Course for Physicists (Prentice Hall International Series in Physics and Applied Physics)
J. L. Martin
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Cosmology | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Relativity | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

A First Course in General Relativity
Bernard F. Schutz
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GZSWBI

Average customer rating:

A FIRST COURSE IN GENERAL RELATIVITY
Bernard F. Schutz
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press Cambridge [UK]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MT92WG

Book Description

"Some of us are angry, maestro, and you may not care. But I'm here to vent."—Alan Cheuse

He published his only novel more than fifty years ago. He has hardly been seen or heard from since 1965. Most writers fitting such a description are long forgotten, but if the novel is The Catcher in the Rye and the writer is J. D. Salinger . . . well, he's the stuff of legends, the most famously reclusive writer of the twentieth century. If you could write to him, what would you say?

Salinger continues to maintain his silence, but Holden Caulfield, Franny and Zooey, and Seymour Glass—the unforgettable characters of his novel and short stories—continue to speak to generations of readers and writers. Letters to J.D.Salinger includes more than 150 personal letters addressed to Salinger from well-known writers, editors, critics, journalists, and other luminaries, as well as from students, teachers, and readers around the world, some of whom have just discovered Salinger for the first time. Their voices testify to the lasting impressions Salinger's ideas and emotions have made on so many diverse lives.

Contributors include Marvin Bell, Frederick Busch, Stephen Collins, Nicholas Delbanco, Warren French, Herbert Gold, W. P. Kinsella, Molly McQuade, Stewart O'Nan, Robert O'Connor, Ellis Paul, Molly Peacock, Sanford Pinsker, George Plimpton, Gerald Rosen, Sid Salinger, David Shields, Joseph Skibell, Melanie Rae Thon, Alma Luz Villanueva, Katharine Weber, and many others.

Customer Reviews:

Another Salinger reader's letter.......2006-02-15

I a longtime reader of Salinger, instead of speaking about the letters to him add one of my own.

Dear J. D. Salinger,

It's been a long time, too long for me to believe. Those teenage years reading and rereading 'The Catcher in the Rye', and loving and enjoying its language and its special attitude towards the world. That defiance, quixotic gesture, crazy indescribable something , that only Holden had.
And then for the college years reading all I could get my hands on that you had written. And somehow here too identifying with the Glass family and my namesake Seymour (See- more) and finding in the love of literature and language again something inspiring , and hope-giving.
And I sense that something of all that did have a major influence on my life , did lead me to hear the sound of my own drummer, though I suspect my father and his story was the greater part of this.
Yet with the years I must admit that there has come a certain if not disillusionment then diminishment. I am sure it relates to the path I took in my life. I made my religious way by going back to where I thought I came from. To the Jewish people the Jewish religion, Israel. The Jewish half- side of you was more style and shtick than substance. And you found your religious home not in Tannach, (The Old Testament) but in the religious works of the Far East. Seymour Glass writes his double- barreled 'haiku' as his major literary creation. None of the Glasses know or care much about anything Jewish in religious terms.
I don't say this as criticism, but rather as simply pointing out that I went a different way. And that this means 'spiritually' you in these latter years as I have felt it little to give me.
Nonetheless I would very much like to thank you for the great pleasure and consolation your works have giben me through the years.
I would also like to thank you for the idea you gave me in speaking about Kafka Kierkegaard Van Gogh of a certain kind of literary creation,that I have in some way found myself devoted to.
I would like to thank you for teaching me a certain kind of love of literature and of life.
Your old and growing older admiring reader,
S.Freedman

The Joys of Reading Other People's Mail.......2002-09-04

As J.D. Salinger, famous reclusive author of "Catcher in the Rye," rebuffs all requests for interviews and is said to consign fan letters to the garbage, most of these letters have a tenuous air. At least the writers can be assured their letters will be read, if not by Mr. Salinger (shame on him!), by other Salinger junkies.

The letters are divided into sections from Writers and Readers, Students and Teachers, and From the Web. The letters run the gamut from a touching letter to Holden "thanks for being your sixteen year old self forever" from Alma Luz Villanueva to a question from Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson: " In the end, I guess you, like Holden, decided not to ever tell anybody anything again. But even so, don't you miss everybody?"

Some letters are in the form of poems, some are breezy and informal ("Howzit goin' Jerry?"), others are painfully stiff, but almost all have the hope that J.D. will at some date, sometime read them. There is the query from a young poet in England that would like to know the proper pronunciation of "Zooey" since that is his name. His mother, in an excess of enthusiasm for Salinger, named him after that notable character, but never was quite sure how it was pronounced. An admiring e-mail from Nicole Corrow says, "--you're SO *fantastically* BRILLIANT you could make me relate to a whisk broom." The only one I found one huge yawn was a woman who quoted a rigidly boring section (looong) of her doctoral thesis in hopes, I presume, the master would read it and be properly impressed.

Editor Chris Kubica provides a lively introduction and Will Hochman does the honors in a postscript that nicely summarizes what we have read. I found the book sometimes amusing and frequently thoughtful. This is a handsomely produced book that would make a nice gift to your favorite Salingerophile.

Impressions and emotions of people from all walks of life.......2002-05-10

Collaboratively edited by Chris Kubica (operator of the jdsalinger.com website) and Will Hochman (Assistant Professor of English, Southern Connecticut State University) Letters To J. D. Salinger is a remarkable compendium over more than one hundred and fifty personal letters addressed to J. D. Salinger, the renowned American author of the timeless classic "The Catcher in the Rye." The diverse impressions and emotions of people from all walks of life who were influenced by Salinger's literary masterpiece makes for a rewarding reading with insight into the depths of the power truly great writing can have upon a human generation. Letters To J. D. Salinger is a unique and highly recommended reading for the legions of J. D. Salinger enthusiasts.

Average customer rating:

This is not the Salinger biography his fans have long been waiting for
Hamilton's quest for Salinger
Half-*ss bio with an explanation
Shame on Hamilton
In Search of a Quick Buck Instead of an Excellent Read

In Search of J. D. Salinger
Ian Hamilton
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary Criticism & Collections | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature & Fiction | Bargain Books | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0394534689
Release Date: 1988-05-12

Customer Reviews:

This is not the Salinger biography his fans have long been waiting for .......2005-07-12

Like so many readers and fans of Salinger I too have had great curiosity about ' who he really is'. So when the Hamilton book came along I was eager to see what he had discovered that was not already well- known. Despite reservations I share with Salinger about the mistakeness of wanting to know more about the writer than his creation, I did have a look at this work, and learn some new things especially in relation to his family life.
But it was more on the level of the sordid than the inspiring. And it seemed to confirm the rightness of the attitude Salinger himself has religiouly promoted, that is of seperating work from life.
In any case Salinger's privacy would be hard put upon in later works especially the one by his daughter.
This work does however seem to point in a certain direction that is not so wonderful . It seems to suggest that Salinger in life is a far meaner and far less charmingly quixotic character than old Holden or even supiciously holy - Seymour.
In any case this is not the Salinger biography his fans have long been waiting for.

Hamilton's quest for Salinger.......2005-02-11

The major problem with this book is that it only covers Salinger's life from 1919 to 1965. After this date, Hamilton only put a kind of resume of the trial that opposed him to Salinger. It sure is an interesting book to read, but there is way too much quotations and somehow you feel that you could've learned more. I suggest Paul Alexander's biography instead. It's more complete, even though he owes a lot to Hamilton who was one of the first to make profound researches about Salinger.

Half-*ss bio with an explanation.......2002-12-15

Yeah, this biography is kind of weak but the subject is JD Salinger, at least Hamilton gives explanations for gaps in the story, its not totallyincoherent. Its really a biography and "Making of" the biography at the same time. Hamilton takes us along like a sluething companion. Even if you have sympathy for Salinger's privacy don't worry, so does our author--but his nosy alter-ego is a little less gracious. Despite what other harsh... critics have said, I did learn a lot of info on J.D. such as about his army days during WWII and his numerous short stories published in magazines during 40s and 50s (it'd be nice to take a look at those.)

Because Salinger is such a recluse, this psuedo-bio only covers his writing years (which ended in the early 60s). I found much of the detail on how Hamilton obtains his information interesting. He actually manages to get his hands on original copies of some Salinger letters written during this time. The quoted material from these letters ends up as a legal battle with the man himself (J.D.) which is really kind of dull and uninformative. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth if only because it reminds you that Salinger doesn't want us reading this tripe at all; a conundrum since most of you are probably reading it because you're a fan.

Shame on Hamilton.......2002-11-24

If you're a fan of Salinger's work, do not read this poor written biography. The best you can do is just read his marvelous books, and forget about the writer to focus on the writing.

In Search of a Quick Buck Instead of an Excellent Read.......2002-09-08

Take first the fact that you're reading a book about someone who did not want to be involved with this book at all. You could put that aside. After all, if a new Salinger book showed up without his permission, I guarantee I would snatch it up even as I complain about the publisher going against his wishes. Even if Hamilton's writing was the only thing lacking, you could probably get past that and seek out some interesting information on Salinger's life/work/etc., but it goes beyond just poor writing. There is nothing of real merit here as far as I can see. Why write a book that basically restates what you can find in an encyclopedia section on Salinger? When you simply restate that after a certain point not much is known over and over again or try to use the investigative journalism approach to gain readers' sympathy (think of all of the reporters who knock on the door and scream inside about the person avoiding the interview and although the clip is really a bore, it gets used because it backs up the viewpoint of that reporter). I am a huge Salinger fan, and I would have settled for a poorly written, unauthorized biography if I could have found something else of value underneath.

Average customer rating:

Letters to J.D. Salinger
Chris (EDT) Kubica
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORPYK0

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books