Publisher's Synopsis
Sumptuously illustrated, C.S RAFINESQUE: A FIELD GUILD is a book of poetry which centers on the life and accomplishments of the Nineteenth Century naturalist, Constantine Rafinesque. A French polymath without academic credentials, Rafinesque invented himself in the American wilderness as a professor of medicine and botany at a time when America was inventing itself and the discipline of natural philosophy was inventing itself into what we now call science. An early advocate of evolution, Rafinesque's work would later prove useful to Darwin in his On the Origin of Species. Taking inspiration from nature illustration, the book brings to life not only the naturalist but a variety of fauna and flora named by him from spiderwort to hickory and from newts to curlews.
Poetry. Art.
