Gathering the Desert by Gary Paul Nabhan

Abstract

254 Western American Literature human condition. But ultimately, according to Davidson, Bierce’s stories call every perspective into question, demonstrating the disastrous consequences of the limited vision shared by all the children of Adam. Gathering the Desert. By Gary Paul Nabhan. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985. 209 pages, $19.95.) At a time when most readers cannot comprehend scientific publications and most scientists cannot write English, this book comes as a relief. It is this year’s winner of the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding achievement in nature writing. Gathering the Desert results from the author’s work in ethnobotany and argues that the largely discarded botanical knowledge of earlier desert inhabitants is of value both for the present and the future. Nabhan focuses on the Sonoran desert and teaches his lessons with chap­ ters on 12 plants (palms, greasewood, chiles, mesquite, etc.) The book is packed with curiosities: creosote surviving nuclear bombs, bitter squash finally finding a possible use in modern agribusiness as a pest control device, devil’s claw becoming a domesticated part of the Indian garden because of the American appetite for baskets. But it isnot simply a collection of tidbits about botanical oddities. The essays question the modern contempt for native sources of food, fiber and medicine and illustrate the intricate relationships that form between man and beast and plants and insects. The title constitutes a kind of complicated challenge to the reader, since Nabhan describes a Southwest where the desert has been sacked rather than “gathered” and where commercial demands on some wild species threaten to wipe them out. If we are going to gather this desert, clearly we must learn not only where we are, but who we are. The book, lovingly illustrated by the drawings of Paul Mirocha, presents a pleasing design. The bibliographic essay is rich in suggestive titles for both the specialist and lay reader. Resist Much, Obey Little. Edited byJames Hepworth and Gregory McNamee. (Salt Lake City: Dream Garden Press, 1985. 127 pages, $7.95.) On the first page of the first essay in Resist Much, Obey Little, Wendell Berry decides that Edward Abbey isn’t “a boxable ist” of any kind. Berry is right, and in saying so he sets the tone for this entire collection about the M. E. GRENANDER State University of New York at Albany CHARLES BOWDEN Tucson, Arizona ...