I can't resist sharing that I originally procured my copy when I came upon it in a garage sale circa 1990 and decided to acquire it to resell it a profit, since I could immediately detect its quality. When a local bookseller refused to buy it, I was so annoyed I resolved to keep it and read it. I haven't finished it but have become an Anna Comstock devotee, and even visited Cornell as an act of homage to her and founded a group in Tacoma called the Anna Comstock Dinner Club and Literary Union. Anna Comstock was a great-souled person. ( )

During the severe agricultural depression of 1891, a group of New York charities concerned with the poverty in the neighborhoods assembled a conference devoted to the topic: "What is the matter with the land of New York State that it cannot support its own population?" A strong plea was made for interesting the children of the country in farming as a remedial measure. Committees and Associations were formed. The Director of the Department of Agricultural Education maintained that the "first step" toward agriculture was "Nature Study". The author of this teaching text, Ms Comstock was among those appointed to the Committee for the Promotion of Agriculture. The committee concluded that "such a fundamental movement must be public rather than a private enterprise". Ms Comstock began publishing leaflets in support of the movement, with a syllabus for a Home Nature Study Course. This 1911 text is finally the result of "the whole trend of her activities" changed by her attendance at that conference during that depression, her drafting of the home-study program, and her teaching at Cornell. Ms Comstock provided "questions" to as additional teaching devices. She was the first to encourage ecology classes to go into the field. The Handbook has seen over 25 editions since. I hold the revised 1939 edition, "re-issued" in 1986 with the Foreword by Verne N. Rockcastle.

While most of the animals, plants, and minerals presented are those that would be "familiar" to students in the Northeast, many are so common as to be widespread as well. Every page has photographs and drawings illustrating the subjects. Much has changed since the first publication in 1911. The common elms and chestnuts of her day have disappeared. Few children are "close to" chickens, goats, or even their pets -- nature is largely displaced by electronic devices. However, Nature Study remains -- the clouds, the inter-connected life around an apple orchard, and the weeds persist.

The author exhibits genius and charm. She exemplifies the Nature Study movement, as a philosophy of life informed by science, practical methods, and the curiosity of students which even teachers can acquire. The author's purpose is so "the children of our land learn early to read nature's truths with their own eyes" [xiii b]. ( )

Wonderful resource for nature study. ( )