Field Guide to the Birds: Giving Field Marks of All Species Found in Eastern North America.

PETERSON, Roger Tory.

$3,500.00

Item Number: 102012

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934.

First edition, third state with the date on the copyright page of Peterson’s first book. Octavo, original green pebbled cloth, illustrated with 4 color plates with printed overlays, 32 monochrome plates. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Claire Kelly, charmer of serpents – why not try the birds? – Roger T. Peterson (Dictator) – C.M. Beal (Interpreter).” The recipient Claire Kelly, while a student at Cornell dated Peterson’s personal assistant C.M. Beal and at the time she was also working with snakes at the Museum of Natural History. In very good condition with some light dampstaining.

Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world's greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars. “Many people have noted that Peterson changed the world because he made nature accessible to the general public. Before his Guide, bird watching was the province of the few, often done with bird remains in hand” (Eirik A.T. Blom).