Wilderness Ways

Long, William J. (William Joseph), 1867-1952Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 200K words
Chapters: 20

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Wilderness Ways by William J. LongAuthor: Long, William J. (William Joseph), 1867-1952,Language: English, Class: QL: Science: Zoology, Release Date: May 31, 2005

Editor's review

Wilderness Ways is a collection of nature-observation essays by naturalist William J. Long, a classic work in the zoology category. With meticulous detail the author records the lives of wild animals in woodlands, marshes, and streams, combining scientific observation with literary narrative; the result is both informative and engaging. The observational perspective carries the typical temper of early twentieth-century nature writing: patient tracking, long watches in the field, and inference and description of animal behavior. For readers used to modern popular-science books, it offers a slower, more on-the-spot way of seeing that can help one rediscover the pleasure of waiting and recording in the wild. It suits as a supplementary title on nature-writing and natural-history reading lists, and also readers who want a few short nature notes to dip into in spare moments. The English is plain and the sections stand alone, so it need not be read straight through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy nature writing and natural-history essays and want short pieces in the original English
General readers interested in observing wild animal behavior who want light popular science
Learners who want to read English in short bursts and practice nature-related vocabulary
Primary and secondary science teachers looking for supplementary reading material

Not a good fit for

Specialist researchers expecting a systematic zoology textbook or rigorous experimental data
Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and strong storytelling in fiction
Readers with weak English who are unfamiliar with late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century English expression

Reading tips

Read by essay, picking animals or scenes that interest you first; there is no need to follow the order.
After each piece, note in two or three sentences the behavior the author observed and any similar phenomena you have seen yourself.
Do not look up every unfamiliar plant or animal name; grasp the overall logic of observation first, then go back and organize the vocabulary.
Read alongside local nature observation and carry the book's observational methods into nearby parks and countryside.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book fiction or popular science?

It is not fiction but a naturalist's nature-observation essays, mainly recording wild animal behavior and field encounters. The narration is literary in tone, and the book is both informative and readable.

How difficult is the English?

The language is generally plain with short sentences, though it contains many plant and animal names and idioms of early nature writing. Readers with intermediate English can finish it with a dictionary, skipping the occasional paragraph.

Do I need to read it from beginning to end?

No. The pieces are fairly independent, so it suits reading by interest or one or two a day. Reading in order causes no difficulty in comprehension, but skipping about keeps it fresher.

What is the reading experience of the electronic edition like?

The book comes from Project Gutenberg and is a public-domain e-book, set mainly as plain text and suited to e-readers or phones. It has no illustrations or notes, so technical terms must be looked up on your own.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Long, William J. (William Joseph), 1867-1952 Author

William J. Long (1867–1952) was an American writer known for his nature observation and animal stories. Most of his works are drawn from woodlands and wilderness; representative titles such as Ways of Wood Folk, Secrets of the Woods, and Wilderness Ways describe the habits of wild animals with close observation, in a warm tone that combines knowledge with literary quality, and he is regarded as one of the representative writers of early nature literature. Outlines of English and American Literature shows that he also wrote on literary history and literary education. His animal stories were translated into Dutch and other languages and circulated among readers in Europe and America. Public information about the details of his life is limited, and this introduction is based mainly on the themes and style of his works.