Charles Waterton: A Biography By B.W. Edginton The first complete biography of the eccentric 19th century explorer, naturalist and satirist, who discovered curare and created the world's first nature reserve. ISBN-13: 9780718829247 Specifications: 234x156mm, 240pp, Hardback with b&w illustrations Price: £28.25 • US$59.00 Publication: September 1996 Order this Title Now

About this Book

Charles Waterton (1782-1865) - a true English eccentric, ironically self-styled 'the most commonplace of men'. He talked to insects, fought with snakes, rode an alligator and lived like a monk. He was made famous in his own lifetime by publication of his wide-ranging travels and natural history observations - always fun, often perceptive, and unfailingly individual. One of his more notable contributions to science was the introduction into Europe of curare, now an invaluable drug in surgical operations. He turned his family estate into an extensive nature reserve, long before such things were heard of, and threw open his gates to the local populace as long as they understood that birds and animals had security of tenure.

Waterton wrote three volumes of Essays on Natural History and the best-selling Wanderings in South America, which has never been out of print since the first publication in 1825. He was a fearsome satirist and pamphleteer, attacking prominent figures of his day both with his powerful pen and with his taxidermy skills. His simple charm made a mockery of all those enemies who tried to capitalise on his human failings.

Unlike previous biographies, this book is an unabashed celebration of his eccentricity, a fond salute to a fine old English gentleman. In the centenary year of the Canadian national park which is named after him, the life of Charles Waterton should encourage the preservation of what remains of his kind of world, and remind us of what the world has lost to insensitivity and greed.

About the Author

B.W. Edginton has, he asserts, been variously and sometimes ignominiously a grammar-school truant, zoo keeper, trapper, stage hand, animal technician, guide-book writer and bird-observatory warden. He proudly professes to having no qualifications, but meekly confesses to being a member of Mensa. He used to live in a lighthouse but has now graduated to a council house. Much of his adult life has been spent in trying to escape from the Black Country.

He first became interested in Charles Waterton in the late 1970s, whilst researching a short history of nature conservation and intellectual anti-nature, a very unpleasant exegesis of which he is now planning to write.