The great chain of life / by Joseph Wood Krutch ; with illustrations by Paul Landacre.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Krutch, Joseph Wood, 1893-1970.

Contributor:

Landacre, Paul, 1893-1963.

Series:

Sightline books.

Sightline books : the Iowa series in literary nonfiction

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Animal behavior.

Evolution.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (247 p.)

Edition:

1st University of Iowa Press ed.

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Originally published in 1956, The Great Chain of Life brings a humanist's keen eye and ear to one of the great questions of the ages: "What am I?" A scholar of literature and theater, toward the end of his career Joseph Wood Krutch turned to the study of the natural world. Bringing his keen intellect to bear on the places around him, Krutch crafted some of the most memorable and important works of nature writing extant. Whether anticipating the arguments of biologists who now ascribe high levels of cognition to the so-called lower animals, recognizing the importance of nature for a well-lived

Contents:

Prologue; Contents; 1. Basic Forms of Life: The Simplicity that Isn't Simple; 2. Machinery for Evolution: Enter Love and Enter Death; 3. The Animal's First Need: Protein and Original Sin; 4. Parenthood: With Love and without; 5. The Need for Continuity: More Lives than One; 6. The Barbarian Mammal: Homeric Heroes; 7. The Meaning of Awareness: The You and the Me; 8. Undeveloped Potentialities: The Civilized Animal; 9. Reverence for Life: The Vandal and the Sportsman; 10. Devolution: A Dangerous Experiment; 11. How Right Was Darwin? New Answers to Old Questions; Epilogue

Notes:

Originally published: Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1956.

ISBN:

1-58729-880-5

OCLC:

497226709