Our Wildlife Legacy (association copy)
NY: Funk & Wangalls, 1954. First edition. Hardcover.
Third printing. Association copy, inscribed on the half-title page in blue ink: "To Alfred W. Miller, with warm regards and good wishes from Durward L. Allen, 2 Feb. '56." Uncommon signed. Alfred W. Miller was a writer and fisher with the pen name "Sparse Grey Hackle" (a type of fly). He wrote articles, often humorous, on angling for The New York Times and Sports Illustrated among other outlets, was himself the subject of many articles including those by Red Smith, and was the author of Fishless Days, Angling Nights (1971). He was dubbed the "Dean of American Fly Fishermen" by some. A video documentary shares more about him.
Durward L. Allen was a luminary wildlife biologist and author. He worked for government agencies for twenty years and became the director of research for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and subsequently became a professor of ecology at Purdue University, a post he held for 22 years. In addition to his four books, he is famous in particular for his study of the wolves of Island Royale (a National Park) in Lake Superior, now the longest continuous study of a predator-prey system in the world. Wolves are thought to have come to the island on an ice bridge in 1948, and Allen started his study in 1958. He found over time that their numbers oscillate with moose much as in the famous example of lynx and hare, with wolf numbers catching up to and then overshooting moose numbers in an oscillating pattern (scroll down for graph). These findings stood in contrast to the then-prevailing ecological thinking and established that "rich, dynamic variation, not ‘balance of nature’ seems to be the force that guides nature." As Allen put, "in [this study] we have the key to why both moose and wolf are what they are, and indeed to the character of wilderness." See his article "The Worth of Wilderness: With Interpretations from a Study of Wolves and Moose on Isle Royale" for more. He was on the board of the Audubon Society and president of the Wilderness Society, and was awarded the Audubon Medal and Aldo Leopold Memorial Award by those organizations respectively. His papers are held at the Denver Public Library.
As the jacket describes Our Wildlife Legacy, "The reader will find in these pages a clear and dramatic presentation of the basic principles of wildlife conservation. Not since Aldo Leopold has anyone written with Mr. Allen's persuasiveness and insight about man's relation to the world in which he finds himself. Here is a volume certain to become a classic of its kind." This prediction has been borne out. As Lonnie Williamson wrote from the Outdoor Writers Association of America, "To find someone in wildlife conservation today that has not studied this classic would be rare indeed, virtually a sin ... the work remains, in my opinion, the most eloquently written book ever on wildlife management." A chapter called "Boom and Bust" presages his wolf work on Isle Royale which commenced four years later. A book that also predates Peter Matthiessen's similar Wildlife in America by four years but is certainly in conversation.
Green cloth with two sets of inset black and white photos. A near fine book with light rubbing to corners and one bump to rear corner that light effects the corners of pages in the rear half of the book. In a good jacket with much rubbing to edges; fading and some spotting to spine; and one shallow inch-long chip to top of rear panel
Price: $475.00 save 5% $451.25