Award-winning nature author Jerry Dennis reveals the splendor and
beauty of North America's Great Lakes in this "masterwork"* history and
memoir of the essential environmental and economical region shared by
the United States and Canada.
No bodies of water compare to the Great Lakes. Superior is the largest
lake on earth, and together all five contain a fifth of the world's
supply of standing fresh water. Their ten thousand miles of shoreline
border eight states and a Canadian province and are longer than the
entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States. Their surface
area of 95,000 square miles is greater than New York, New Jersey,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island
combined. People who have never visited them--who have never seen a
squall roar across Superior or the horizon stretch unbroken across
Michigan or Huron--have no idea how big they are. They are so vast that
they dominate much of the geography, climate, and history of North
America, affecting the lives of tens of millions of people.
The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas is
the definitive book about the history, nature, and science of these
remarkable lakes at the heart of North America. From the geological
forces that formed them and the industrial atrocities that nearly
destroyed them, to the greatest environmental success stories of our
time, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario are portrayed in all
their complexity.
A Michigan native, Jerry Dennis also shares his memories of a lifetime
on or near the lakes, including a six-week voyage as a crewmember on a
tallmasted schooner. On his travels, he collected more stories of the
lakes through the eyes of biologists, fishermen, sailors, and others he
befriended while hiking the area's beaches and islands.
Through storms and fog, on remote shores and city waterfronts, Dennis
explores the five Great Lakes in all seasons and moods and discovers
that they and their connecting waters--including the Erie Canal, the
Hudson River, and the East Coast from New York to Maine--offer a
surprising and bountiful view of America. The result is a meditation on
nature and our place in the world, a discussion and cautionary tale
about the future of water resources, and a celebration of a place that
is both fragile and robust, diverse, rich in history and wildlife, often
misunderstood, and worthy of our attention.
"This is history at its best and adventure richly described."--*Doug
Stanton, author of In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S.
Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors and 12
Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers
Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award Winner
Winner of Best Book of 2003 by the Outdoor Writers Association of
America