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Oregon Public Broadcasting Interview, December 25, 2009
http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/discovering-david-douglas/
Discovering David Douglas
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His name graces an Oregon school district, an iconic tree, a Vancouver park, and the scientific nomenclature of more than 80 local plants and animals, but most Northwesterners have only a cursory knowledge of the Scottish naturalist David Douglas.
Two decades after Lewis and Clark, Douglas was the first European visitor whose sole job was to investigate the natural history of the Northwest. Investigate he did: he ranged throughout the region — racking up 7,032 miles by foot, boat, and horse — collecting 650 species in Oregon alone that were diligently catalogued and sent back to England. These specimens transformed English gardening and landscaping, but what did Douglas’s “discoveries” mean for the Northwest?
That’s one of many questions Jack Nisbet tackles in his new biography of David Douglas. In Nisbet’s telling, buttressed by Douglas’s letters and journal entries, Douglas is a man of “self-effacing humor” and a “consuming interest in the world around him.” He is a “practical naturalist” who, after blowing out a grouse egg for his collection, scrambled the contents for a meal. (The scramble was added to a “comfortable supper” of dried buffalo and fresh grouse.) But Douglas wasn’t just focused on plants and trees. He mingled and traded freely with tribal members, sampling their cultures and soaking up their languages.
Nisbet fleshed out his narrative by following Douglas’s itinerary throughout the region, visiting each site in the appropriate season.
What questions do you have about the land that first Douglas saw? Or that Nisbet traveled with Douglas’s observations in hand?
Where do you see the lasting effects of this collector on the land and landscape that he so diligently catalogued?
November 9, 2009 Radio Interview with Steve Scher, KUOW
Jack Nisbet and the Natural History of the Northwest
Steve Scher
11/09/2009 at 9:00 a.m.
The Douglas fir is one of the most recognizable and common trees in the Pacific Northwest, but do you know who it’s named after? Writer, historian and naturalist Jack Nisbet does! He joins us in the studio to discuss his newest book: “The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest.” It follows the young David Douglas, an influential member of the second wave of Westward explorers. The Collector is an in–depth look at Douglas’ purposeful mission “to capture some of the New World’s unpredictable vigor and infuse it back into the Old.”
Guest(s)
Jack Nisbet is a writer, historian, teacher and naturalist. His most recent book, “The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest,” follows David Douglas, an influential botanical explorer in the Pacific Northwest. Douglas’ most notable discovery is the Douglas fir.
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From the Portland Examiner, by Karen Gilb
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association recently announced the winners of its annual PNBA Book Awards. This year, Awards Committee members considered more than 200 titles nominated for work published in 2009 by a variety of Pacific NW authors. The 2010 winners include Jack Nisbet for his book entitled The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest.
The Collector tells the story of Scots-born botanist David Douglas who became the “premiere botanical explorer in the Pacific NW and other areas of western North America.” Douglas undertook his plant-hunting expedition in 1824 on behalf of the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow. His discoveries included a wide variety of western plants–most notably, the Douglas Fir–which were then introduced into English and European markets.
Nisbet’s book takes the reader along on Douglas’ journeys into a strange new world that stretched from Puget Sound to the Sandwich Islands. “In telling his story, Nisbet evokes a lost world of early exploration, pristine nature, ambition, and cultural and class conflict with surprisingly modern resonances.”
Jack Nisbet is a teacher, naturalist, and writer who lives in Spokane, Washington. The Collector is his 6th book. Previous titles include the Murray Morgan Prize-winning book Sources of the River.
The Pacific NW Booksellers Association is a non-profit group of independent bookstores located in five states. One of their oldest and most popular programs is the annual PNBA Book Awards. The Awards Committee is made up of nine volunteer booksellers from independent bookstores located throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaha, Montana, and Alaska.
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The Collector wins 2010 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award!!