Schenectady, N.Y. (October 6, 1997) – Anthropologist and nature writer Richard Nelson will give a talk titled “Deer in Modern America: An Ecology of Heart and Blood” on Wednesday, October 22 in Union College's Reamer Campus Center Auditorium at 4 p.m. Nelson's talk will be based on his book Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997).
Deer came close to extinction at the turn of the century in many parts of the United States, especially the northeast, Nelson explains, but since then deer have made a phenomenal comeback, adapting almost too well to the modern mix of wild, rural, and suburban environments. Throughout the country, people struggle to live harmoniously with deer that inhabit neighborhoods, seriously damage farm crops, overbrowse natural preserves, and carry lyme disease ticks. In his talk, Nelson will address the often controversial relationship between people and deer, with particular attention to hunting issues.
Of Heart and Blood, Jim Harrison wrote: “I can't imagine a more splendid volume on a single species than Richard Nelson's Heart and Blood. It is frankly an incredible book, and I suspect that it will be widely read by hunters and anti-hunters, environmentalists and politicians, and anyone who cares about what's left of the natural world in America.”
Nelson is a writer whose work focuses on human relationships to the natural world. He has spent many years studying the Eskimo and Athabaskan Indian people in Alaska and based on those experiences wrote Hunters of the Northern Ice, Hunters of the Northern Forest, Shadow of the Hunter, Make Prayers to the Raven, and The Athabaskans. His work has appeared in Life, Harpers, Outside, Orion, Audobon, Wilderness, Pacific Discovery, Northern Lights, and others.
His book The Island Within — a personal journey into the natural world surrounding his home — received the John Burroughs Award for nature writing. He was also granted a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and was a recipient of the 1995 Lannan Literary Award for creative nonfiction writing. Nelson was voted “least likely to succeed” upon graduating from high school.
Nelson received a bachelor's and a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison; he earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from University of California, Santa Barbara.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The sixteen-sided Nott Memorial is located at the center of campus and parking is available on campus and on nearby sidestreets.
For more information, call 388-6131.