Just Before Dark

Mariner Books, 1999. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Near Fine. Association copy, inscribed on the half title page to naturalist-author and MacArthur Genius Grant-recipient Gary Paul Nabhan and his wife: "To Gary and Laurie, for food & wine! Abrazos fuertes, Jim." Uncommon signed in this Mariner paperback edition, first thus. Nabhan is known in particular for his writing on Indigenous populations and ethnobotany in the Southwest and is a winner of the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing among many other honors. Nabhan and Harrison both lived in Patagonia, Arizona (Harrison part-time) and were friends for more than twenty years. Nabhan wrote a touching remembrance of Harrison after his death, detailing their lunch a week before and some of their more surprising connections (Nabhan's cousin had been Harrison's college roommate and introduced Harrison to his wife). Nabhan writes, "Harrison was more than just another pretty face, skilled angler, hedonistic hunter, and bizarre story-teller: he had a deeply moral view of the right ways to treat the creatures of the seas, the streams the farmsteads and desert grasslands of this planet, and he minced no words when describing the ugly consequences of treating creation the wrong way." A near fine book with a little edge wear and toning. A nice association between standout contemporary environmental writers. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in ecology, natural history, nature writing, the environment, and environmental literature, with a special passion for association copies and notable inscriptions.