Little guide to a big park

Today’s book is Yosemite National Park (A Golden Guide), by Douglass H. Hubbard; illustrated by Rebecca Merrilees and George Sandstrom. Under the editorship of Herbert S. Zim. Small, slim paperback published 1970 by Golden Press / Western Publishing Company.

[A] concise, comprehensive guide to one of the most spectacular national parks in the United States. This handy guide is filled with full-color illustrations of the park’s many wonders: sheer cliffs and plunging waterfalls; splendid Sequoias and brilliant wildflowers; fishes, birds, mammals and other creatures. — from back cover.

This is one of the more uncommon titles in the popular and beloved Golden Guides series.  I have quite a few of these little books in my personal collection.  I remember some of them fondly from my childhood, such as Flowers, Butterflies and Moths, Rocks and Minerals, and Trees.  The compact size and bright colors were very appealing.  I still admire the fine quality of the illustrations, and I still refer to the texts for field identification.

In Yosemite National Park (A Golden Guide), the section on animals is especially vivid. How handy to have when you want to differentiate between the four kinds of squirrels to be found there!

For more about Yosemite, visit the National Park Service site at http://www.nps.gov/yose/ .

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Also currently in stock at BrainiacBooks.com:

Earth Explained: A Beginner’s Guide to Our Planet

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Chateaux of the Loire Valley

Today’s book is Chateaux de la Loire, by Maurice Jardot.  Small paperback published 1961 by Panoramas, Paris.  In French, with English translation by Arnold Rosin.

This attractive little vintage book consists of a brief historical essay and comments, with color photographs by Pierre Jahan of the castles of the Loire Valley: Chateaudun, Loches, Amboise, Blois, Chambord, Meillant, Chaumont-sur-Loire, Chenonceaux, Villandry, Langeais, Usse, Azay-le-Rideau, Chinon, Coudray-Montpensier, and Valencay; the cover shows Chateau du Moulin a Lassay.

From page XV:

One is hardly aware today how much the monuments of the Loire Valley contribute to the charm and poetry of the countryside, but it is certain that the pleasant climate, the beautiful landscape, the subtle atmosphere would not be so highly praised were it not for the fascinating buildings rising from this soil, enriching a hospitable nature with the radiance which always attaches to exceptional people and the things they have created.  Nature here owes much to man.

And from page XIX:

The extravagant cavalcade of the French Court unrolls endlessly from chateau to chateau, resting nowhere, while kings and servants, cavaliers, poets, ribalds and almoners, royal mistresses and dauphins, jostle one another….  A century in continual movement, never fixed or sure, yet which worked and built these marvels by which we now know them, leaving to the land its new face.

Also currently in stock at BrainiacBooks.com:

On Foot in Paris: Alpina Guide Books Series

Bretagne: II — Finistere (La France Illustree)

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Young American woman missionary in China, 100 years ago

Today’s book is Letters to Betsey, by Jennie L. Cody. Hardcover published 1915 by The Griffith and Rowland Press, Philadelphia.

The author, a native of Michigan, had been a missionary in China for six years when this book of letters to her sister was published.  Her correspondence tells of her experiences with a Christian mission in Hanyang and other locations.

Often, the author uses demeaning and stereotypical terms about the Chinese people.  She is focused more on bringing salvation to the “heathens” than understanding their culture.  But she is certainly game for the challenges and rigors of her situation, and she is sincere in her desire to lessen the suffering she witnesses during war and famine.  She writes:

We are having the worst epidemic of smallpox since I came to China.  There has been one death on the compound, the pastor’s little grandchild.  Thousands have died in the three cities.  . . .  Most of the children we see on the streets have monkeys made of cloth pinned to their backs.  People think that smallpox is caused by an evil spirit named Liang-liang.  Liang-liang is afraid of monkeys, so the mothers make a cloth monkey and pin it on the child’s garment to scare the spirit away.

In her Foreword, Helen Barrett Montgomery, noted Baptist social reformer and activist, praises the book as

[A]n unvarnished statement of the real experiences of a real missionary.  Many workers in our missionary societies are unfamiliar with just the sort of intimate details about every-day life that Miss Cody has given, in these letters of hers actually written to friends at home, which have received very little editing and are therefore all the more valuable as a true transcript from the life of an American girl in China.

Also currently in stock at BrainiacBooks.com:

Sown in Chinese Soil: The Life of Francoise Teilhard de Chardin, Sr. Marie Alberic du Sacre-Coeur, Little Sister of the Poor, 1879-1911

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