![]() ![]() "The author, in his journal year, does not pursue just the rare or exotic; he deliberately seeks out the everyday in nature, the abundant aliens as well as the familiar natives -- the pheasants and chickadees, fungi and chicories, that are the stuff of everyone's adventures in the woods and fields not far from home, wherever they live."
-- from Roger Tory Peterson's Foreword to SOLDIERS DELIGHT JOURNAL ![]() "LEANING SYCAMORES unfolds its linked narratives according to a kind of felt pattern that (is) nothing more or less than the 'logic' of every true love story. And with writing like that, (appears) a river probably destined for a lasting connection with Jack Wennerstrom in our collective imaginations, just as we link Cape Cod with Henry Beston or the Sierra Nevada with John Muir." -- David Bonta, Pennsylvania Audubon Society |
Biography Jack Wennerstrom, a writer, teacher, and naturalist, was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1948. He received a B.A. in English from Lake Forest College in 1970, taught high-school English, Humanities, and World Literature, and wrote his first novel, THE WAYSIDE OF DREAMS, in 1978. In the ‘80s he re-embraced his childhood love of nature and began writing for outdoor and nature magazines, including Bird-Watcher’s Digest, where he became a Contributing Editor in 1990. His first book, SOLDIERS DELIGHT JOURNAL, about a globally-rare prairie ecosystem near his home outside Baltimore, was published in 1995 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. This was followed by LEANING SYCAMORES: NATURAL WORLDS OF THE UPPER POTOMAC, published the next year by the Johns Hopkins University Press. While working as a teacher and naturalist at both Loyola University Maryland and BioTrek Naturalists, Inc., he wrote three novels: BLACK COFFEE, HOME GROUND, and PHEASANT ALLEY. He was President of BioTrek Naturalists from 2002 to 2006. |
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