Tom Horton

I was staggered by the beauty of this book, which records our own Chesapeake Bay. The reproduction of the book cover in this entry doesn't do it justice. The pictures are stunning and varied. They call up the spiritual intensity of really looking at the world, and finding it hard to believe that such beauty exists. Mind you, this s from someone, who, like Dorothy Parker, tends to get closer to nature by moving their chair nearer the window. I snatched it up immediately, without even waiting for a money-saving coupon, mubling icohernet excuses of why I couldn't wait.

Ian J. Plant spent three years producing photographs. His stated intention is to show the Bay as it was when Captain John Smith first saw it. Quotations from Smith's writings are interspersed among the pictures. Of course, the Native Americans might object, given that he has excluded them, so let's say, the natural Chesapeake Bay area. In the course of it, he and Tom Horton also make a plea for protecting and restoring the Bay. There is some information about success stories. The discussion of the situation recognizes its complexities, and doesn't settle for simple solutions or caricatured villains.… (mehr)