A Hundred and One Natural History Books That You Should Read Before You Die

A Hundred and One Natural History Books That You Should Read Before You Die 7. John Steinbeck’s The Log From the Sea of Cortez Stephen C. Trombulak Stephen C. Trombulak ([email protected]) is a professor in the Department of Biology and the Program for Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont 05753 U.S.A. Some relationships are legendary: Laurel Laboratories in Monterey, California, and Hardy, Lennon and McCartney, Ricketts’ career as a marine biologist and Stanley and Livingstone, Astaire and specimen collector was the perfect setting Rodgers, … Han and Chewbacca. While for his practice of natural history that each person individually showed an demonstrated his ability to describe with impressive level of accomplishment on honesty and accuracy the ecological bases their own, together they formed a creative, for the distribution of coastal organisms iconic couplet that transcended who they along the Pacific Coast. were by themselves. Both Steinbeck and Ricketts were core John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts together members of a group of men and women formed such a pair. who adopted Ricketts’ lab in Monterey as their home base – almost a clubhouse – John Steinbeck is, of course, known to throughout the 1930s as they collectively most people as one of America’s leading explored topics ranging from jazz to fiction writers of the 20th century. His science to romantic relationships. explorations of the human condition, amidst the challenges of the Great The pair became fast friends, I think Depression in the 1930s – particularly The finding in each other characteristics that Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men – both complemented and completed the feature prominently on any list of great other with respect to their own self- American literature. identities. Ricketts even played the role of muse, forming the basis for the character Less well known, at least outside the “Doc” in Steinbeck’s novels Cannery Row circles of marine biology and tide pool and Sweet Thursday. exploration, is Ed Ricketts. Ricketts was an accomplished marine biologist who It was in this setting, fueled primarily by helped develop and document an Ricketts’ infectious enthusiasm, that ecological view to the natural history of Steinbeck’s interest in marine biology was coastal ecosystems in Western North ignited. Steinbeck was thoroughly America. As founder, proprietor, and disappointed, and somewhat worn down, often sole employee of Pacific Biological by the critical attacks on The Grapes of The Journal of Natural History Education and Experience Trombulak www.jnhe.org Volume 6 (2012) 3 Wrath upon its release in 1939. The region, but they were the first to do so with politics of agriculture and land speculation an open mind as to what they were looking in California being what they were in the for. As a result, they discovered dozens of 1930s, Steinbeck’s portrayal of the new species, documented range extensions economic and social hardships faced by for many more, and revealed details about farmers displaced from the Dust Bowl to the ecological relationships among species the West was initially not well received by with each other and with their environment many. that were previously unknown. Steinbeck redirected his interests, at least However, what makes this a must-read temporarily, toward natural history and book is not just the wealth of biological travel narrative. Ricketts had been details reported, but the diversity of contemplating several new field surveys to subjects it leads the reader through and the build upon his earlier descriptive work of humor and insight with which it does so. the central Californian coast, and he For example: readily included Steinbeck in his plans. On the practice of natural history: “The For a variety of reasons – including the true biologist deals with life, with teeming onset of World War II, Steinbeck’s later boisterous life, and learns something from move to New York, and Ricketts’ death in it, learns that the first rule of life is living. 1948 – the only one of the projects to be The dry-balls [biologists who do not go completed was a specimen collecting into the field] cannot possibly learn a thing expedition to the Gulf of California – the every starfish knows in the core of its soul Sea of Cortez, lying between Baja and in the vesicles between his rays.” California and Mexico – in March and April of 1940. On scientific specialization: “A few naturalists with specialties had gone into Ricketts and Steinbeck contracted with the the Gulf, and, in the way of specialists, had captain and crew of an off-season sardine seen nothing they hadn’t wanted to.” purse seiner, the Western Flyer, to cruise down the California coast and then, upon On scientific writing: “It has seemed entering the Gulf of California, bend all of sometimes that the little men in scientific their efforts to collecting thoroughly and work assumed the awe-fullness of a systematically in all kinds of tidal priesthood to hide their deficiencies, as a environments. witch-doctor does with stilts and high masks … It is usually found that only the The plan from the start was for both men little stuffy men object to what is called to keep journals of the expedition, ‘popularization,’ by which they mean describing where they went and what they writing with a clarity understandable to observed, both biologically and culturally, one not familiar with the tricks and codes but only Ricketts saw this through. Theirs of the cult.” is a record of astonishing detail about intertidal life in the Gulf over the almost On outfitting an expedition: “The medical 40 days of their voyage. They were not the kit had been given a good deal of thought. first to conduct a biological survey of the There were Nembutal, butesin picrate for The Journal of Natural History Education and Experience Trombulak www.jnhe.org Volume 6 (2012) 4 sunburn, …, alcaroid, and, last, some Cortez is, in fact, the narrative portion of whiskey for medicinal purposes. This did an earlier, largely unread, account of the not survive our leave-taking, but since no expedition, Sea of Cortez, credited to both one was ill on the whole trip, it may have Steinbeck and Ricketts. After Ricketts’ done its job very well.” death in 1948, Steinbeck, at the urging of his editor, reworked the earlier book to On materialism: “Americans, and probably emphasize the narrative, secured the rights all northern peoples, are all masses of from Ricketts’ son, and added an extensive wants growing out of inner insecurity.” and moving foreword – “About Ed Ricketts” – as a eulogy to his friend. And along the way, time and again, they touch upon the subjects of technology, The convoluted history of the book’s war, peasant life, miraculous apparitions, authorship, however, does little to diminish development, hunting, Indian pragmatism, its power. Steinbeck maintained a plural non-teleological thinking, marine perspective in the narrative, emphasizing conservation, and the esoteric mysteries of that the narrator is a “we” and not an “I,” the sea. making it clear that it is, in fact, a story being told by both of them. Oddly, it was Ricketts, not Steinbeck, who made the most complete record of their And their story is a remarkable view into a journey, and it has been widely noted that world, both natural and cultural, long gone the book would be better described as by, told with humor and an eye that having been written by Ricketts and edited remains visionary even in the present day. (albeit heavily) by Steinbeck. Copyright 2012, the author and the Natural Credit, however, is given to Steinbeck for History Network the book, largely due to historical contingency. The Log from the Sea of The Journal of Natural History Education and Experience Trombulak www.jnhe.org Volume 6 (2012) 5 .

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