Nature's Messenger

“In Nature’s Messenger, Catesby is the avatar of an age of explosive discovery and exchange. Catesby was an important scientist whose work prefigured and informed the better known achievements of Audobon and Lenneaus. Thanks to Nature’s Messenger, Catesby’s legacy can now be perused.” – The Times Literary Supplement“In this enlightening biography, nature writer Dean traces the life of British naturalist Mark Catesby (1683–1749), whose The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands was among the first European accounts of the flora and fauna of the Americas and influenced John James Audubon. An informative account of an important if lesser-known naturalist.” – Publishers Weekly“Nature’s Messenger delivers on the promise of its title and subtitle with a tale of adventure in Colonial America and the Caribbean. The messenger is surpassed by his message in this story of a great book — one created by a talented, if enigmatic and largely forgotten, lover of Southern nature.” * The Chattanooga Times Free Press *Praise for A Window to Heaven“A stupendous chronicle. A book whose scope, themes, and drama are worthy of Denali itself.” – Kevin Fedarko, author of THE EMERALD MILE“No matter how many times the Denali story gets told, it never gets old. The trick is to make it new. Outdoors writer Patrick Dean has done just, casting the climb in new light. The story reverberates today. Dean presents Stuck as an imperfect but still commendable model for our own times. We should pay attention.” – David A. James * The Anchorage Daily News *“A rich and sensitive portrait. With grace and clarity Dean reveals Hudson Stuck as a missionary-explorer who was both fully of his time and able to recognize some of its deepest prejudices. Wonderful.” – Niel Shea * National Geographic *

Patrick Dean writes on the outdoors and the environment. He has worked as a teacher, a political media director, and is presently the executive director of a rail-trail nonprofit. An avid trail-runner, paddler, and mountain-biker, he lives with his wife and dogs on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, and is the author of A Window To Heaven, about the summit of Denali.

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