"The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity
conservation."--Library Journal"Harvell seems to channel the devotion
that motivated the Blaschkas."--The Guardian
Winner of the 2016 National Outdoor Book Award, Environment Category
It started with a glass octopus. Dusty, broken, and all but forgotten,
it caught Drew Harvell's eye. Fashioned in intricate detail by the
father-son glassmaking team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, the octopus
belonged to a menagerie of unusual marine creatures that had been packed
away for decades in a storage unit. More than 150 years earlier, the
Blaschkas had been captivated by marine invertebrates and spun their
likenesses into glass, documenting the life of oceans untouched by
climate change and human impacts. Inspired by the Blaschkas' uncanny
replicas, Harvell set out in search of their living counterparts. In A
Sea of Glass, she recounts this journey of a lifetime, taking readers
along as she dives beneath the ocean's surface to a rarely seen world,
revealing the surprising and unusual biology of some of the most ancient
animals on the tree of life. On the way, we glimpse a century of change
in our ocean ecosystems and learn which of the living matches for the
Blaschkas' creations are, indeed, as fragile as glass.
Drew Harvell and the Blaschka menagerie are the subjects of the
documentary Fragile Legacy, which won the Best Short Film award at the
2015 Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit. Learn more about
the film and check out the trailer here.
