Wind How the Flow of Air Has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land [Paperback]

The wind has sculpted Earth from the beginning of time, but it has also shaped humans—our histories, religions and cultures, the way we build our dwellings, and how we think and feel. In this poetic, acclaimed work, Jan DeBlieu takes the tempests of her home, the North Carolina Outer Banks, as a starting point for considering how the world’s breezes and gales have made us who we are. She travels widely, seeking out the scientists, sailors and sages who, like her, are haunted by the movement of air.

“A stunning view of the Earth.” —Los Angeles Times
 
“This is the kind of writing that transforms the reader’s experience of nature.” —Audubon Magazine
 
“The wind will never be the same for readers after finishing this book. DeBlieu has achieved the Big Two: enlightenment and high entertainment.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“A poetic compendium of wind phenomena and a hymn of praise to these towering movements of air.” —San Francisco Chronicle
 
“One of the best nonfiction books I can remember.” —Robert Michael Pyle
 
“DeBlieu’s graceful writing animates this unseen force of nature.” —Library Journal, Best Sci-Tech books of 1998

Jan DeBlieu is the author of four nonfiction books and dozens of articles and essays about nature, people, and our deep attachment to the places where we live and work.Windwas awarded the 1999 John Burroughs Medal for Natural History Writing, the highest national honor in the genre.