Edited by Steven J. Phillips &
Patricia Wentworth Comus
January 2000; 650 pages; 32 full-color plates, 450 pen-and-ink illustrations;
Dimensions 1.75 x 9.75 x 6.5 inches; Published in collaboration with The University
of California Press
Awards
- Southwest Book of the Year (2000)
- 2000 Western Book Design Award
- Benjamin Franklin Award
- BRLA Southwest Book Award
"Once in a generation, a guide to understanding a major North American
landscape comes along. This book is such a touchstone . . . sure to become a
classic." - Stephen Trimble, author of The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural
History of the Great Basin
"Definitive and delightful - a fabulous compendium of facts and experiences
written by the most knowledgeable scholars in the field. This encyclopedic guide
will make desert rats out of those who aren't already." - Ann H. Zwinger,
author of Downcanyon and Run, River, Run.
"This fine book offers one-stop shopping for authoritative answers to
all your questions about a most wonderful place, the Sonoran Desert. Bees, birds,
beetles, biodiversity, all right here in one place in accessible prose. Who can
ask for more than that?" - John Alcock, author of Sonoran Desert Spring and In
a Desert Garden.
Reviews Sunset Magazine "An indispensable guide for any desert visitor. . . . It offers a complete
look at Sonoran Desert ecology, with details on individual species and essays
that bring the desert alive."
Outside Magazine
"The award-winning text includes a calendar of natrual events highlighting
animal migrations, full moons, and the Sonoran Desert's awesome spring flower
show."
Environmental Practice
"A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert is a monumental work, accessible
to amateurs and professionals alike; it is a must for anyone planning to visit
the deserts of southwestern United States."
The Journal of Arizona History
"If I am exiled to a desert isle, I now have that proverbial one book to
take along: A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert. . . . It's all here. It's
like sitting on the patio with the best experts and having a private tutorial."
The Desert Sun
"Never before has a book appeared that so deserved a place on the bookshelf
of every desert aficionado. . . . This book is destined to become the bible of
Sonoran Desert nature literature."
New Mexico magazine
"This compendium [is] destined to become the mandatory reference for the
Sonoran Desert for yeart to come."
The Americus Journal
". . . immaculately produced. . . . Put together by the museum's exceptional
academic and curatorial staff, Natural History is a storybook, a field guide,
a lay geology, paleontology, and human ecology textbook, and a handy encyclopedia
- and it reads as enjoyable as fiction."
Audubon Naturalist News
". . . an authoritative introduction to the Sonoran Desert. . . . remarkably
thorough . . . the one book on the Sonoran Desert I'd recommend to both novice
and experienced naturalists."
Choice, G. Stevens, University of New Mexico
"This book is the next best thing to going there. . . . Thought the emphasis
is on the well-known and often-seen organisms of the region, the depth of coverage
of those organisms is remarkable for its completeness."
Rocky Mountain News
"Everything the traveler, birdwatcher, hiker, student, desert-dweller and
desert-lover will ever need to know about this region . . . is painstakingly
presented in clear prose, maps and pictures."
The Sonoran Quarterly
"This book is a long, long, love letter. . . . [It] tells you just about
all you can think to ask about this lush and most beautiful of America's four
deserts."
Geotimes
"It is heartening to read a no-nonsense and comprehensive description of
the natural history of the Sonoran Desert. . . . There is little missing in this
book and much to recommend it."
Taxon
"Exquisitly produced, richly illustrated . . . definitive account of this
hot desert."
- Southwest Book of the Year (2000)