At the Gentle Mercy of Plants by Hildegarde Flanner (review)

Reviews 221 eloquently pleaded for compassion and understanding of all animals, includ­ ing those not deemed “useful” to humans. In a day when utilitarian conserva­ tionists like William T. Hornaday and Teddy Roosevelt praised game birds and domesticable species but condemned hawks,wolves, rattlesnakes and other “noxious” creatures, Muir defended predators for both ecological and ethical reasons. As the editor implies, reverence for life in all its dimensions was Muir’smaxim long before Albert Schweitzer made it famous. Designed for general readers, the book contains 20 essays, all but three previously published. Included is the last and shortest published version of Muir’s best known and most beloved animal story, Stickeen, the name given to an eskimo dog (not to be confused with the Muir family pet illustrated in the book) who followed Muir on a hazardous glacier excursion in 1880 (not 1879). Scholars long familiar with these published essays may question the editor’s decision not to include pertinent holograph selections recently pub­ lished in microform but not yet available in print. For example, Muir’sbiting draft satire on hunting (frame 10945, Reel 45 of The John Muir Papers. Microform edition published by Chadwyck-Healey, Inc., 1986) would have tellingly documented his disdain for blood sports. This and a number of other short commentaries from the unexpurgated Muir would have notably enhanced the research value of the book. Reading Muir is no less uplifting today than it was nearly a century ago. Whether he is bounding over deep glacial crevasses or strolling in a springtime sea of wildflowers, his descriptive power is fresh and invigorating. Readers young and old will enjoy this sampling of one of America’sbest nature writers. RON LIMBAUGH University of the Pacific At the Gentle Mercy of Plants. By Hildegarde Flanner. (Santa Barbara: John Daniel, 1986. 89 pages, $10.00.) Within a year of their move to California in 1922, Hildegarde Flanner and her mother discovered one of the hazards of living in the chaparral country when a grassfire swept out of the foothills above Berkeley and burned their home and possessions. Leaving the charred remains of their previous life behind, the pair moved to southern California where they eventually settled in what Flanner described as a “delightful slum” surrounded by a colorful and fragrant tangle of plants. It was here in this luxuriant Pasadena garden home that Flanner cultivated the sense of place that characterizes the essays and poems in this collection. 222 Western American Literature Some of the essays included in this slim volume are biographic and nos­ talgic in nature, while others express Flanner’s deep appreciation of the plants around her. In the first essays, Flanner remembers the disastrous Berkeley fire and the early years of her married life in what was once a secluded garden home in the Pasadena suburbs. Flanner looks out from the shelter of her garden in the third essay and examines the natural history and folklore of some of the many alien plants, such as eucalyptus and palm trees, that influ­ ence California’s landscapes. In the last essay, she reveals a particular passion for one such alien, bamboo, as she explores the significance of this plant in terms of home, inheritance and family life. The same gentle, often lighthearted style that pervades Flanner’s essays isalso seen in the collection of short poems included in this book. Some of these poems celebrate the beauty and mystery of individual plants, while others view nature on a larger scale, exploring themes related to the seasons, cycles of life and death and humankind’s place in nature. The extent of Flanner’s devotion to plants is perhaps best illustrated in a line from the poem “On Forgetting the Name of a Small Plant” when she asks, “Can I forget your name and still know mine?” Readers who enter Hildegarde Flanner’s world of plants may find it hard to leave. This is a book to be read and enjoyed more than once. NANCY WARNER Utah State University Clear Fork Cowboys: Contemporary Cowboys along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. By Lawrence Clayton and Sonja Irwin Clayton. (Abilene: The Cowboy Press [3126 Salinas, Abilene, Texas 79605], 1985. 59...