The best books on fieldwork in wild places

Although best known for his extraordinary works of fiction, John Steinbeck’s sensitivity to place is most profoundly exposed in this daily account of his expedition to the Gulf of California with his good friend and marine biologist, Ed Ricketts. Their research on this remote body of water carried them into a world of deep insights about life, philosophy, and the nature of being that Steinbeck’s exquisite prose allows the reader to experience. Repeatedly, the important consequences of living in isolation from the rest of the world is beautifully conveyed. A lyrical unity of science, reflection, solitude, and the value of wilderness.

The relationship between ourselves and the sea is commonly constrained by beaches and tides. But Julia Whitty, deep-sea diver, and filmmaker opens the mind to the richness of deep waters through the scientific and soulful journeys she poetically shares in this book. Her time spent working in the South Pacific allows an expansion of our own experiences of the wild world. The delicate relationships of life’s many forms, from whales and sharks to rays and coral, contained within Earth’s liquid artistry, offers an opportunity to enrich our understanding of connections we seldom perceive but which, once acknowledged, expand the perception of life’s wealth.

Academic research into glacial processes seldom inspires deep reflection, but this fine book dramatically changes that narrative. Although Jemma Wadham does an outstanding job providing an introduction to the physical science of glaciology, her emotionally rich descriptions of many expeditions to study the melting ice around the world underscores why fieldwork matters. She frankly presents personal challenges, life-threatening health issues, and the arduous reality of living on the fringe of massive ice sheets and glaciers in a way that exposes the deeply human experience of academic scientific research in wild nature.

In this eloquent exploration, Loren Eiseley poetically describes his experiences conducting anthropological field research, and the reflections that work inspired. The Immense Journey is that rare blend of scientific curiosity, wonder, and wisdom that humbly explores the deep questions about human existence, inspiring rather than preaching. Although conveying with precision field observations and research endeavors, this book is, in reality, a literary masterpiece.

In the domain of nature writing, few books are as wondrous as Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. In a voice that is uniquely creative and with an eye that probes below immediate impressions, Annie Dillard delves into the purest world of emotional experience of place. Her prose invariably captivates and surprises. Although her field excursions were local her vision was vast. This book revolutionized my view of fieldwork and nature writing, teaching me that brilliant writing, ingeniously phrased, can transport the imagination to a new sense of the world.