The Reading Life: J.G. Ballard's stormy weather

This is part of the occasional series "The Reading Life" by book critic David L. Ulin.

"Los Angeles weather," Joan Didion wrote in her 1967 essay "Los Angeles Notebook," "is the weather of ... apocalypse," but late last week, as rain descended on the normally arid summer landscape of Southern California, it was not Didion about whom I found myself thinking, but J.G. Ballard.

Ballard, who died in 2009, is perhaps best known for investigating the erotic possibilities of violence in a world anesthetized by consumerism and conformity. Early in his career, though, he wrote a series of novels ("The Drought," "The Drowned World," "The Wind From Nowhere," "The Crystal World") that address environmental themes.

From the perspective of the present, it's tempting to call Ballard prescient — these novels all appeared in the early-to-mid-1960s — yet as Martin Amis notes in an introduction to the new 50th anniversary edition of "The Drowned World," that's something of a fixed game. "[F]ictional divination," Amis writes, "will always be hopelessly haphazard. The unfolding of world historical events is itself haphazard (and therefore unaesthetic), and 'the future' is in a sense defined by its messy inscrutability."

A natural history that almost wasn't: 'America's Other Audubon'

As a little girl in Ohio in the mid-1800s, Genevieve "Gennie" Jones would accompany her country doctor father in his buggy as he visited patients. Along the way they'd discuss the natural world, which turned into a lifelong passion. Then in 1876, consumed with heartache from a broken engagement, Jones traveled to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Here she viewed John James Audubon's masterpiece, "Birds of America."

Inspired by the beautiful watercolor drawings, she returned home with a new sense of purpose, determined to create a companion book illustrating birds' nests and eggs. Encouraged and financed by her father, Jones set about creating the artwork. Her brother, Howard, collected the specimens, wrote the field notes. With help from her friend Eliza Shulze, they practiced sketching the eggs and nests and learning the lithography process through correspondence.

After completing just five illustrations, Jones was stricken with typhoid fever and died. Overcome with grief, the family decided to continue working on the project as a memorial to their beloved. Seven years later in 1886, "Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio" was published.

Of the 90 completed, only 26 intact copies have been located. One (valued at $80,000) on display in a plexiglass case at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History caught the attention of the new assistant librarian, Joy Kiser, who would walk by it every day. Captivated by the story of the Joneses and their unbridled devotion to completing Genevieve's endeavor, Kiser, now a writer and editor for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, spent the next 15 years meticulously researching materials, tracking down relatives and telling their story at seminars.

She chronicles the tragic yet triumphant story behind the making of the Joneses' extraordinary 19th century book in "America's Other Audubon" (Princeton Architectural Press: $45).

"Despite praises and positive reviews from naturalists and ornithologists, Jones' book was never given the proper reception," said Kiser, who felt a strong connection through a shared appreciation of nests and eggs when she was a child. "Finishing the book was a way to keep her alive."

It was a laborious undertaking by the Joneses. Although Shulze left to study art in New York, she trained Jones' mother, Virginia, how to draw on the lithographic stones; nearly 90 copies of every illustration had to be hand colored, so they hired local girls to help.

The life-size color and black and white illustrations were drawn and colored by hand with imported Winsor and Newton watercolors and printed on the same Whatman's Hotpressed Antiquarian paper that Audubon used. The intricate details of the nests' construction are accentuated with the occasional burst of baby blue eggs.

PHOTOS: Images from "America's Other Audubon"

Jones' father, Nelson, depleted his retirement savings and sold subscriptions to museums, naturalists and even President Rutherford B. Hayes and Harvard student Theodore Roosevelt. During production, Howard and Virginia contracted typhoid, leaving Howard with heart damage and Virginia nearly blind for two years.

"America's Other Audubon" features original field notes and reproductions of the 68 original lithograph plates representing 129 species. Actually, 130 were intended, but, alas, the nest and eggs of the Cerulean Warbler could not be found.

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-- Liesl Bradner

Images: (Top) "Nest & Eggs of the Field Sparrow," Illustrated by Virginia Jones. (Bottom) The book's cover art . Credit: "Americas Other Audubon," by Joy M. Kiser. Published by Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.

Got $10 million? The world's most expensive book could be yours

Book collectors with fat wallets take note: A first edition of the rare John James Audubon book "The Birds of America" will be auctioned by Christie's in New York on Jan. 20. When another copy of "The Birds of America" sold for $11.5 million in 2010, it became the world's most expensive book.

"The Birds of America" was published in the early 1800s as a serial, with subscribers getting a handful of plates at a time. It was printed on oversized pages, more than 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide; the original black-and-white engravings were hand-colored. It took a decade to complete the project. There are thought to be only about 120 copies of the book in full, which includes 435 color illustrations.

"The format was chosen not out of any grandiosity but because it was Audubon's remarkable desire –- and ability -- to produce life-sized engravings of each bird," rare book dealer Rick Gekoski told the Guardian. "Thus the finches and cardinals have plenty of space in which to flit about, while the flamingo and trumpeter swan tilt their necks graciously inward and arrange themselves with some care. The effect of this is just terrific." 

The edition of the book that Christie's will auction later this month was purchased as a fully bound set sometime after 1838, the year it was finally completed. Christie's writes that it was bought by (deep breath): William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland PC, FRS, FSA (24 June 1768 - 27 March 1854), styled Marquess of Titchfield until 1809... [or] this set may also have been purchased later by the 5th or 6th Dukes of Portland, the son of the 4th Duke and his cousin, respectively.

Since 1973, 24 copies of the book have come up for sale. 14 of those were sold off page by page, because the individual plates are so valuable. 107 copies remain in institutions and 13 are in private hands. If you've got about $10 million, those hands could now be yours.

And if you haven't got quite that much scratch, a low-resolution, screen-size version of Audubon's "The Birds of America" can be seen at the Audubon website.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: The page featuring the Common American Swan from John James Audubon's "The Birds of America." Credit: Christie's / Associated Press

Microsoft's Bill Gates turns to book reviewing

Billionaire Bill Gates, who remains chairman and chief software architect of his company, Microsoft, has put his talents to book reviewing. On Wednesday, he posted his review of "Prime Movers of Globalization: The History and Impact of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines" by Vaclac Smil (MIT University Press) on his personal website, Gates Notes:

As a history buff, I appreciate books that give you a sense of the people behind important inventions and the sweeping impact they have had on society. Often -– as in the case of the diesel engine and the gas turbine -– incremental advances obscure the profound impact of technology. In Prime Movers, Smil focuses in on a slice of 20th century technological innovation and shows the phenomenal impact it has had on international trade and travel.

To put the significance of the diesel engine and the gas turbine in perspective, Smil points out that until coal-powered steam engines came along a few hundred years ago, animals and human muscle were the “prime movers” of manufacturing, and wind and sails the prime movers of international travel and trade. The steam engine was an important underpinning of the industrial revolution. But its impact pales in comparison to the diesel engine and the gas turbine. ...

There are a lot of fascinating historical points and statistics in Smil’s book that make it an interesting read, but what most fascinated me was learning about the incredible impact these two innovations have had on so many aspects of our lives.

It turns out that Gates has been reviewing books on the site every few weeks since March. His recent reads include "Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools" by Steven Brill, "Getting Better: Why Global Development is Succeeding" by Charles Kenny, and "Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation" by Steven Johnson.

His first posted book review was back in February 2010, of Steven Levitt's and Stephen Dubner's "SuperFreakonomics"; frankly, it wasn't much. "I had a chance to read a prepublication copy of SuperFreakonomics before it was officially released," it began. "I really liked Freakonomics and I think SuperFreakonomics is even better." If one of my freshman writing students had turned that in, it wouldn't have gotten a B-minus.

Since then, Gates has much improved as a book reviewer. He often uses a personal take, explaining why he's interested in this topic, and sometimes comes with a critical eye. He picked up Johnson's book "with a little bit of skepticism," he wrote. "Lots of books have been written about innovation -– what it is, the most innovative companies, how you measure it. The subject can seem a little faddish," he said, but he found Johnson's book to be a cut above.

Most of the books Gates writes about fall into the line with his philanthropic pursuits with the Gates Foundation: education, healthcare, technology and the underlying processes affecting those systems. It makes sense that he's reading about them -- but few billionaires take the time to write up their thoughts and share them as a book reviews.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Bill Gates, left, with Warren Buffett in 2007. Credit: Nati Harnik / Associated Press

John Muir audiobook celebrates summer in the Sierras

It's been 100 years since John Muir published "My First Summer in the Sierra." The renowned author and naturalist, then 73 years old, looked back at  the summer he was 23. Broke, longing to explore the mountains, he was hired to go up into the Sierra as a shepherd; his experiences are part of what led him to found the Sierra Club.

To celebrate the centenary of Muir's book, "My First Summer in the Sierra" is being released as an audiobook by Silver Hollow Audio, narrated by Brett Barry. A sample is available online so listeners can decide if Muir's story is the right accompaniment for their own summer trips.

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The Reading Life: Mountain Hermit Poems

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Duck Lake in the John Muir Wilderness in the Sierra Mountains in 2005. Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

The Reading Life: Mountain hermit poems

This is part of the occasional series The Reading Life by book critic David L. Ulin.

I've been reading David Budbill for better than a decade, ever since "Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse" came out in 1999. There, he invents a persona: a poet, living alone on the side of a Vermont mountain -- a contemporary analogue to the 9th century Chinese poet Han Shan, or Cold Mountain, who took his name from the mountain where he lived.

Like Han Shan, Budbill's hermit writes in straightforward but poetic language about the paradoxes of being alive. "When I was young, I believed my work and passion / would get me where I wanted to go," he explains in the short poem "No Trail":

Now my hair is falling out and I know
nothing I have done amounts to anything.

My life is like the bird's path across the sky.
It will leave no trail.

Budbill's new book, "Happy Life," represents, in many ways, a continuation of the themes in "Moment to Moment," themes that have defined Budbill's poetic life. He is, after all, his own version of the Vermont hermit poet; with his wife, the painter Lois Eby, he has been a solitary (or nearly solitary) mountain dweller since 1969.

In "Happy Life," however, Budbill speaks directly, without the filter of another voice. He takes as a frame the idea of the seasons, breaking the book into five sections that together trace the inexorable flow of a bit more than a year. As always, he is funny, pointed even, in a sardonic way.

"I've spent most of my life / pissing and moaning about / never having any money / not being known, never / getting any honors, not / getting to travel," he observes in the collection's opening poem, "Chia Tao Begins a Poem to Subprefect Li K'uo of Hu County by Saying," before acknowledging how little these things matter in the end:

And yet,
for more than forty years
my days have been my own.

It takes a long time for some people
to realize how lucky they are.

There we have it in a nutshell, the defining terms of Budbill's vision, the tension between worldly desire and quiet wisdom, the intent to be here now. It's a focus that infuses nearly every poem in this collection, whether he is writing about nature, or chores, or celebrating his occasional visits to the city, where amidst the "[c]rowded and noisy streets," he feels "the solitude of / the quiet mountainside."

Such resolution is difficult to come by, and more difficult to maintain. It requires both self-awareness and a touch of self-deprecation ... or, at least, the ability to see yourself plain. For Budbill, this comes together in "Fake Hermit," which opens with a revelation: "I'm not the mountain hermit I pretend to be."

Still, for all his attachment -- to "a wife who's been here with me for more / than forty years, and a grown daughter // who lives down the road, a dead son, and / we've got lots of friends around here, too. / I'm not the hermit I pretend to be" -- he manages to find a point of integration, concluding that "I like my life this way: mostly, // but not entirely, alone."

This is it, the key idea of "Happy Life," the way solitude returns us, in some fundamental sense, to ourselves. Or, as Budbill writes in "To the End," one of the closing poems in the collection:

I've been here forty years.
I'd like to be here forty more.

The longer I'm here the less
I want to go away, the less

I want to be known. I'd like to
disappear into these mountains,

and never be seen again. I just
want to do my work, make my

poems, and be left alone.
I want to stay here to the end.

-- David L. Ulin

Photo: Vermont mountains. Credit: Barry Pouseman via Flickr

Ted Danson: activist, investigator

Ted Danson, the actor who won two Emmys for his role as Sam Malone on "Cheers," will join the cast of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" in the fall. He'll be the big boss, stepping in after the departure of Lawrence Fishburne.

Our television blog Showtracker explains that Danson "will play the new CSI supervisor, who previously ran the crime lab in Portland."

Even with the new "CSI" responsibilities, Danson will continue to portray the louche editor on HBO's "Bored to Death," which he does with relish.  "'Bored to Death' is pretty much my favorite thing in life," he told me earlier this year. "I love the writing, love my character.... It's really some of my favorite stuff I’ve ever been involved with."

Danson is used to wearing multiple hats. He's been a longtime ocean activist and published an environmental book this year, "Oceana."

"I've always been kind of a shill," Ted Danson explained. "The guy out in front of the tent saying, 'Thank you so much for watching "Cheers," come on in and let me introduce you to the marine biologists who have something really important to tell you.'"

He's overly modest -- the book is educational, informative and cool to look at, with bright and clear diagrams about fish populations, oil drilling and more. "The thing that I think gets people’s attention, hopefully, is that this is a problem that’s fixable. It’s a huge environmental disaster in the making that doesn’t have to happen," Danson told me. "We can change this. And you can be part of that, and that’s part of what the book talks about, is you can be part of this, even in your crazy busy day when you barely have any time. You can go on the computer and join Oceana, or not even join, just become a Wavemaker and allow them to turn you into an e-activist that will change policy around the world."

Even while you're watching "CSI," I bet.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Ted Danson in April 2011. Credit: Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times

Festival of Books: Ted Danson says, 'Save the fishies to save yourself'

At Sunday's Festival of Books, Ted Danson noted: "Some scientists believe that we could fish out our oceans within your children’s lifetime.” He added: “That’s not the most scientific statement, but hey I’m an actor.”

Actor he is, probably best known for his role as Sam Malone in the 1982-93 TV comedy "Cheers," but Danson also wrote “Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them.”  In his role as spokesman for the world’s oceans, Danson tapped into his acting talents to work the crowd -- bantering with moderator M.G. Lord about their footwear -- while also making big statements about the peril of our oceans: 90% of the world’s big fish have disappeared since he was a child, he said.

If "Oceana" seems like an abrupt foray into activism, Danson's been lobbying for the world's oceans for more than 25 years; he co-founded the American Oceans Campaign in 1987, which eventually became Oceana, a marine-focused organization in 2001, and serves on Oceana's board. 

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All of these threads are connected — at least, that was idea behind Saturday’s panel "Essential Ecosystems" where journalist Steven Solomon, scientist Tim Flannery and archaeologist Brian Fagan brought their respective disciplines to the table to grapple with the problems of our planet.

Los Angeles Times environmental editor Geoffrey Mohan moderated the hour-long panel in which all of the planet’s problems weren’t solved, though it was agreed that the solution lies less in science and  more in society, in our organizational structures and interpersonal relationships. 

In our pages: Earth Day review of 'Here on Earth'

April 22 is Earth Day, and for the occasion we've got a review of "Here On Earth" by Tim Flannery. Our review is by environment editor Geoffrey Mohan, who writes, "Earth could use a biography. Tim Flannery has delivered a provocative one in time for Earth Day." 

Mohan continues:

Despite the rising level of greenhouse gases warming the Blue Planet and the failure to unite governments behind efforts to arrest the trend, Flannery is optimistic for Earth's future and that of its most destructive inhabitants: you and me.

That's not to say there aren't reasons to fall into a funk while reading "Here on Earth," the latest work from one of the planet's great field zoologists and thinkers. Flannery doesn't bury the hard facts of climate change. But unlike those who believe the human race has evolved into a species incapable of the long-term thought and unity that can save it from overconsumption, Flannery falls in with those who still believe we can save ourselves, in part by retooling our thinking of evolution itself.

Read the complete review here.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Earth, from the 1968 Apollo VIII Mission. Credit: Associated Press Photos