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Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell
Beyond the Outer Shores The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell Author:Eric Enno Tamm In the 1930s, while the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression sent most of America into the doldrums, a lively intellectual and artistic community formed in the West, revolving around three legendary friends: Ed Ricketts, John Steinbeck, and Joseph Campbell. Steinbeck immortalized Montereys bohemian spirit in Cannery Row, but the areas ... more »true lifeblood was his best friend and mentor, Ed Ricketts. Today Ed Ricketts is usually remembered as "Doc"the beer-drinking philosopher-scientist who presided over Montereys population of "whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches" in Cannery Rowbut Ricketts was actually a trailblazing ecologist who did seminal work in the emerging field on the Pacific Coast. His ideas were decades before their time, and his two books, Between Pacific Tides and Sea of Cortez (coauthored with Steinbeck), are still considered classics. Now, some sixty years after his untimely death, Ricketts ecological approach and ethic seem more relevant than ever.« less