William Underwood can rightly be viewed as an heir to naturalist Henry David Thoreau, with one big difference: Underwood was into high-tech, high-tech circa early 20th century, that is. Born in 1864, Underwood, like Thoreau, grew up alarmed at the rate by which a truly natural wild world was being lost to rampant industrialization and human sprawl. A Massachusetts native himself, he and brother Loring became famous for their public profiles of northeastern wild lands; that and their use of “modern” media. As William himself notes in the preface to this 1927 nature / outdoor classic, a monetary gift from an aunt was used to buy not a gun (his first impulse), but a camera instead. Underwood (1864-1929) would spend his entire adult life engaged in the “joys of hunting with a camera.” Wilderness Adventures tracks decades of travels around the northeastern United States with his trusted guide, Joe Mell, a member of the native Passamaquoddy tribe. We see pictures of baby skunks in hand, porcupines, cave ceilings full of bats; as well as trips south to the “Land of Sunshine” where Underwood trained his lens on the strange yet beautiful manta rays, manatees (or “the cows of the sea”), plus other sea creatures. But New England was always home base and the region that was central to his preservationist efforts through the lens. [Condition: Used Good. At a century old, this trim yet thick volume full of travels tales and black & white inset photography (back when cameras more so resembled portable shelving units) is in solid shape. There is minor fraying of the fabric along spine and at the cover’s corners, as well as some stains on back cover and expected discoloration from having been handled. The pages show an expected, yet slight discoloration. The binding is in solid shape after a century of use.]
Condition: Used Good. Nature / Outdoors. William Lyman Underwood. The Atheneum Press / Ginn and Company, 1927. Hardcover (First Edition), 244 pgs, 5.5 x 7.5” / 1 lb
