Song of the North Wind: A Story of the Snow Goose (signed to his son)
NY: Anchor Press, 1975. First edition. Hardcover. A family association copy, inscribed on the half-title page with a lovely sketch of a snow goose: "Dec, 1978, For Pat and Jay, From Dad, with love." Jay Johnsgard was his son. One of Paul Johnsgard's classics, Song of the North Wind begins with a natural history of the snow goose and then transitions to a semi-fictional story of their migration from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. The book also pays special attention and tribute to the Native American relationship to the goose.
Paul Johnsgard is considered the world's most prolific ornithology authors. He spent his career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and authored or co-authored, and often illustrated, more than 100 books, with an early emphasis on waterfowl and a later emphasis on cranes, but exploring many avian families along the way. He hosted many of the world's most famous naturalists to see sandhill cranes on the Platte. Among his honors were a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Wildlife Federation’s National Conservation Achievement Award, the National Audubon Society’s Charles H. Callahan Award, and the American Ornithologists’ Union’s Ralph Schreiber Conservation Award. See also this memorial article in Ornithology.
Gray cloth board with beige cloth spine. Illustrated map endpapers showing the migration. With elegant illustrations by a different Paul, Paul Geraghty (though Johnsgard was an accomplished illustrator, and the original sketch beside the inscription is his), as well as 29 photographs by Johnsgard. A copy that would be near fine with a hint of wear to spine crown, but with the publisher's purple remainder spackle to the lower face of the text block and running up the rear board, thus we'll call it very good. In a very good jacket with wear to corners and spine ends, one tear at lower spine, two scratches down the front panel, and some spackle on its interior. A nice association copy. Very good / Very good. Item #1586
ISBN: 9780385067850
Price: $375.00 save 5% $356.25