Now Exploring "Elkhorn"

Driven by topophilia (love of place), former Kentucky Poet Laureate Richard Taylor focuses on the eight-mile stretch of the creek from the Forks of the Elkhorn to Knight's Bridge a few miles outside of Frankfort to provide a glimpse into the economic, social, and cultural transformation of Kentucky from wilderness to its current landscape. 

Taylor explores both the natural history of the region and the formation of the Forks community. He recounts the Elkhorn Valley's inhabitants from the earliest surveyors and settlers to artist Paul Sawyier, who memorably documented the creek in watercolors, oils, and pastels. Interspersed with photographs and illustrations ― contemporary and historic ― and intermixed with short vignettes about historical figures of the region, this book delivers a history that is by turns a vibrant and meditative personal response to the creek and its many wonders.

Elkhorn

Evolution of a Kentucky Landscape

by Richard Taylor

University Press of Kentucky, 2018

Book Notes Wild
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
The Nature Pages

Reading the History: Victorian Radicals

Starting with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and lasting through the dawn of the 20th century, the Victorian era's painters, writers, and designers challenged every prevailing belief about art and its purpose.

The full spectrum of the Victorian avant-garde is displayed in this book, accompanied by essays that illuminate issues the artists contended with, including the relationship to art and nature, questions of class and gender identity, the value of handmade versus machine production, and the search for beauty in an age of industry.

Characterized by attention to detail, vibrant colors, and engagement with literary themes and daily life, the paintings, works on paper, and decorative objects featured reveal the myriad ways Victorian artists and artisans made sense of a rapidly changing world.

Victorian Radicals
From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts & Crafts Movement
by Martin Ellis, Timothy Barringer and Victoria Osborne
Prestel, 2018

Out of the Past
Book List
History and American West Titles

Review: The Healing Code of Nature

The author of this book, Clemens G. Arvay, is the Austrian biologist who penned The Biophilia Effect examining the healing properties of nature, and forests in particular. This work is a sequel, reporting on the positive effects of plants and animals on the human immune system.

Arvay argues convincingly for the importance of trees in human nature. We evolved from forest-dwelling mammals, after all, and a verdant canopy of leaves is sown deeply into our genetic memory. He cites several clinical studies suggesting strong links between the presence of trees and human health.

"Our immune system is not strengthened by substances from trees," he asserts, "but it is rather weakened by the separation from these substances in modern life. Spending time in nature therefore does not lead to more defense cells; rather it brings their number and activity back to a natural level."

Separation from nature is as much a destroyer as any environmental toxin.

The Healing Code of Nature
Discovering the New Science of Eco-Psychosomatics
by Clemens G. Arvay
Sounds True, 2018

continued in The Book Stall
Health & Beauty