Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library
John Burroughs Medal for Natural History
Award Winning Books in the Sowell and the Southwest Collection/Special
Collections Library
Collection
Writing:
John Burroughs was one of our country’s finest writers on the observable world of nature. The first John Burroughs Medal, named in his honor, was awarded in 1926 for William Beebe’s Pheasants of the World, while the most recent award went to Elisabeth Bailey Tova for The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. Seventy-five other writers have received this prestigious award, including Sowell Collection writers Barry Lopez for Of Wolves & Men (1979), Gary Paul Nabhan for Gathering in the Desert (1986) and David Quammen for The Song of the Dodo (1997).
A distinguished judging panel awards the medal to books displaying high literary quality, firsthand fieldwork, and scientific accuracy. Judges may consider not only the nominated book, but also the author’s entire publication history. The Southwest Collection and the Sowell Collection have been able to acquire 56 of these significant natural history books, enabling students to follow this literary genre’s growth.
- Celebrating the Sowell Collection Conference
- Sowell Collection Conference Schedule. New!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- April 26-28, 2012
- April 26, 2012
-
David Quammen, speaking at our Celebrating the Sowell Collection Banquet
Frazier Alumni Center
6-9 p.m.
April 27, 2012
ENGL 001
7:00 p.m.
Ongoing
- 12/11-5/12
- Michael Martin Murphey: Singer-Songwriter, American Legend