Keith County Journal

Bison, 1996. Trade paperback. Like New. 84x7x128. To learn from nature, not about nature, was the imperative that took John Janovy Jr. and his students into the sandhills, marshes, grasslands, canyons, lakes, and streams of Keith County in western Nebraska. The biologist explores the web of interrelationships among land, animals, and human beings. Even termites, snails, and barn swallows earn respect and assume significance in the overall scheme of things. Janovy is a parasitologist with a strong research interest in parasite ecology. The publication of his Keith County Journal in 1978 made him famous as a writer of best selling natural history of the highest literary quality. His theme in this and several later books was, as he put it, "what you can learn from nature while learning about it." Yellowlegs and Return to Keith County were similar, well received natural histories. Civilization, the magazine of the Library of Congress, described Janovy as the 'literary son of Thoreau.' Janovy was Interim Director of the University of Nebraska State Museum, 1984-86 and Director of the Cedar Point Biological Station outside Ogallala, NE, where he has taught biological field school along with colleague Paul Johnsgard.