Beyond Walden
The Hidden History of America’s Kettle Lakes and Ponds

by Robert M. Thorson

Walker & Company / Macmillan
www.walkerbooks.com
May 2009
ISBN 13: 978-0-8027-1645-3
Price: $26.00 Hardcover
Nature / geology, ecology /
kettle lakes and ponds in the Upper Midwest

The geology, ecology, and cultural history of kettle lakes in the Upper Midwest – including Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin - and from Maine to Montana.

“This book will be delightful reading for anyone who heads ‘to the lake’ every summer. (It belongs on the cottage bookshelf next to the frayed copy of the Peterson bird book and the local trail guide.) Thorson writes with intelligence and pleasure, and you will come away understanding your place in a new way.”
–Bill McKibben, author Deep Economy

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MBA Bookseller Information

For more information about this book, please contact your Macmillan sales rep.  Order from Macmillan or your preferred wholesaler.
If you would like to inquire about publicity and events for author Robert Thorson, who will be in our region this summer, please contact Peter Miller, Publicity Director, peter.miller@bloomsburyusa.com, 646-307-5579.

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About the Book

“The author’s enthusiasm shines through as he uses personal experience, literary references and the history of American popular culture-”going up to the lake” for the summer generally meant a kettle lake-to illustrate this lively chronicle of a hitherto obscure environmental feature. A rich, exhaustive account of one of America’s threatened ecological jewels.”-Kirkus Reviews

Lakes are a beloved part of the American landscape, and kettles are the most common type, spanning the northern part of the country from New England to the High Plains. Kettle lakes are depressions formed by meltdown of glacial ice and filled with freshwater. Unlike other kinds of lakes that have significant inlet or outlet streams, kettle lakes are natural wells tapping the groundwater table.

A source of joyful relaxation and recreation for generations, kettle lakes also have historical and cultural significance. Within a few years of the 1836 publication of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature, a pivotal book combining nature with spirituality and religion, Henry David Thoreau had permanently linked Walden Pond-America’s most famous kettle lake-to the Transcendentalist movement.

Each kettle lake tells a story, and in Robert Thorson’s hands their collective saga-and the threats to their health-give us crucial insight into the dangers facing our vulnerable freshwater ecosystem.

About the Author

 Robert M. Thorson — scientist, teacher, writer — is Professor of Geology at the University of Connecticut, where he holds a joint appointment between the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) and the Department of Anthropology, with additional resonsibilities to the Honors Program and the Integrated Geosciences Program. He teaches courses, advises students, performs sponsored research, serves on committees, and provides articles, reviews and interviews. Beyond the classroom, he writes a weekly Thursday column for The Hartford Courant, and coordinates the Stone Wall Initiative, now in the processs of being incorported into Connecticut State Museum of Natural History (Connecticut Archaeology Center). He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, The Geological Society of America, and the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science.

Originally from the Upper Midwest, Professor Thorson lived in Alaska, California, Washington, and Wisconsin before arriving in New England in 1984. Along the way, he earned a Ph.D (1979) from the University of Washington, spent five years with the U.S. Geological Survey (1975-1980) and worked for various federal, state, and private agencies, ranging from the National Geographic Society to the Japanese Ministry of Culture. He also taught at the University of Wisconsin (1979) and the University of Alaska (1980-1984), where he established an interdisciplinary center for climate change science. During his first twenty years at UConn he was with the Department of Geology and Geophysics, which has since evolved into the Integrated Geosciences Program. His visiting faculty appointments have been in the History Department at Yale University (1990), the Geography Department at Dartmouth College (1992), and in the Department of Civil Engineering (Obras Civiles) at the Universidad Tecnica de Federico Santa Maria in Valapariso, Chile (1999), as a Fulbright Scholar.

His scholarship took an unexpected turn in 2002 when his book Stone by Stone: The Magnficent History in New England’s Stone Walls (New York, Walker & Company) won the 2003 Connecticut Book Award in the nonfiction category, accelerating an already demanding schedule of speaking engagements and meetings regarding the investigation and preservation of stone walls. In turn, this precipitated a curriculum development project (grades K-8) funded by the National Science Foundation. and based on his earlier co-authored book, Stone Wall Secrets, which had been selected by the Smithsonian Foundation as one of its Notable Books of 1998. At the moment he is completing an illustrated scientific field guide titled Exploring Stone Walls, scheduled for publication by Walker & Company in December 2004-January 2005. He also serves as a member of the Hartford Courant’s board of contributors to its award winning commentary section PLACE.

Professor Thorson’s body lives a comfortable, settled, professor’s life in Storrs, Connecticut (married / four children /no commute), where his hobbies are reading, writing, cooking, walking beaches, and attempting to speak Spanish. At various times, his mind can be found in the Alaskan wilderness, here and there in the Earth’s crust, and in early 19th century New England.

Visit Robert M. Thorson’s website: http://stonewall.uconn.edu/

Midwest Connections Marketing Plans

• $100 in REBATES from MBA for display photos, ads, features in your newsletters, e-newsletters, and on your store website, and using this book with your book clubs and reading groups – print out the REBATE FORM above and follow instructions.
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