0
    • Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
    0 0
    Download high-resolution image Look inside

    The Forest Unseen

    A Year's Watch in Nature

    Author David George Haskell
    Look inside
    Paperback
    $18.00 US
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
    On sale Mar 26, 2013 | 288 Pages | 9780143122944
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    See Additional Formats
    Biologist and author of Sounds Wild and Broken David Haskell uses a one-square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window onto the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature's path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life.

    Each of this book's short chapters begins with a simple observation: a salamander scuttling across the leaf litter; the first blossom of spring wildflowers. From these, Haskell spins a brilliant web of biology and ecology, explaining the science that binds together the tiniest microbes and the largest mammals and describing the ecosystems that have cycled for thousands- sometimes millions-of years. Each visit to the forest presents a nature story in miniature as Haskell elegantly teases out the intricate relationships that order the creatures and plants that call it home.

    Written with remarkable grace and empathy, The Forest Unseen is a grand tour of nature in all its profundity. Haskell is a perfect guide into the world that exists beneath our feet and beyond our backyards.

    Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

    “Injects much-needed vibrancy into the stuffy world of nature writing.” —Outside, “The Outdoor Books That Shaped the Last Decade”
    © Katherine Lehman
    David George Haskell is a biologist acclaimed for his lyrical explorations of the living world. His books have twice been finalists for Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, in 2012 for The Forest Unseen and in 2022 for Sounds Wild and Broken. His 2017 book, The Songs of Trees won the John Burroughs Medal. Other literary honors include an Award in Literature from American Academy of Arts and Letters, two-time finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s Science Communication Award, the National Academies’ Best Book Award, Iris Book Award, Reed Environmental Writing Award, and National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a Guggenheim Fellow, and is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Sciences at Emory University. He was previously William R. Kenan Jr. Professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Haskell lives in Atlanta, Georgia. View titles by David George Haskell
    Praise for The Forest Unseen:

    “[Haskell] thinks like a biologist, writes like a poet, and gives the natural world the kind of open-minded attention one expects from a Zen monk rather than a hypothesis-driven scientist.”
    —James Gorman, The New York Times

    “Very much a contemporary biologist in his familiarity with genetics and population ecology, [Haskell] also has the voracious synthetic imagination of a 19th-century naturalist. More importantly, Mr. Haskell is a sensitive writer, conjuring with careful precision the worlds he observes and delighting the reader with insightful turns of phrase.”
    --The Wall Street Journal

    “I really enjoyed—and learned a tremendous amount from—[The Forest Unseen] . . . [it] opened the world up to me in a new way.”
    —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

    “What goes on over the course of a year, in one square meter of old growth forest? Everything, to those who look. Haskell’s writing is natural history, in every sense of the phrase, at its very best.”
    —Richard Powers, author of The Overstory, PBS Newshour

    "[Haskell] documents the marvelous profusion of life . . . [a] magical look at the interconnectedness of the natural world, and the invisible ties that bind us together." 
    —The Guardian

    “Haskell leads the reader into a new genre of nature writing, located between science and poetry.”
    — E. O. Wilson, Harvard University

    “[Haskell's] observations--of lichens, snowflakes, salamanders, and more--are deftly interwoven with the science. His account is fascinating, whether he's stripping off in January to experience the physiological effects of severe cold, describing the symphonic sounds of trees in a high wind, or wondering at the bacteriological properties of a vulture's digestive tract.”
    --Nature 

    “Mixing poetry with natural history, [Haskell] follows subtle scientific threads such as species interactions by observing the seemingly mundane--a deer track, scraps of lichens, even a golf ball--to conclusions of gratifying depth.”
    --Conservation Magazine

    “[The Forest Unseen] is a 'nature book,' and a great one, but it's also and less obviously a book about human nature. You can't read its lyrical, tactile prose without confronting the whole question of our place in the natural order, and of what we're doing here. If we want to last much longer on this planet, we'll have to learn to think differently and more deeply about those things, and Haskell can be one of our guides.”
    --John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead 

    About

    Biologist and author of Sounds Wild and Broken David Haskell uses a one-square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window onto the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature's path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life.

    Each of this book's short chapters begins with a simple observation: a salamander scuttling across the leaf litter; the first blossom of spring wildflowers. From these, Haskell spins a brilliant web of biology and ecology, explaining the science that binds together the tiniest microbes and the largest mammals and describing the ecosystems that have cycled for thousands- sometimes millions-of years. Each visit to the forest presents a nature story in miniature as Haskell elegantly teases out the intricate relationships that order the creatures and plants that call it home.

    Written with remarkable grace and empathy, The Forest Unseen is a grand tour of nature in all its profundity. Haskell is a perfect guide into the world that exists beneath our feet and beyond our backyards.

    Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

    “Injects much-needed vibrancy into the stuffy world of nature writing.” —Outside, “The Outdoor Books That Shaped the Last Decade”

    Author

    © Katherine Lehman
    David George Haskell is a biologist acclaimed for his lyrical explorations of the living world. His books have twice been finalists for Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, in 2012 for The Forest Unseen and in 2022 for Sounds Wild and Broken. His 2017 book, The Songs of Trees won the John Burroughs Medal. Other literary honors include an Award in Literature from American Academy of Arts and Letters, two-time finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s Science Communication Award, the National Academies’ Best Book Award, Iris Book Award, Reed Environmental Writing Award, and National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a Guggenheim Fellow, and is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Sciences at Emory University. He was previously William R. Kenan Jr. Professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Haskell lives in Atlanta, Georgia. View titles by David George Haskell

    Praise

    Praise for The Forest Unseen:

    “[Haskell] thinks like a biologist, writes like a poet, and gives the natural world the kind of open-minded attention one expects from a Zen monk rather than a hypothesis-driven scientist.”
    —James Gorman, The New York Times

    “Very much a contemporary biologist in his familiarity with genetics and population ecology, [Haskell] also has the voracious synthetic imagination of a 19th-century naturalist. More importantly, Mr. Haskell is a sensitive writer, conjuring with careful precision the worlds he observes and delighting the reader with insightful turns of phrase.”
    --The Wall Street Journal

    “I really enjoyed—and learned a tremendous amount from—[The Forest Unseen] . . . [it] opened the world up to me in a new way.”
    —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

    “What goes on over the course of a year, in one square meter of old growth forest? Everything, to those who look. Haskell’s writing is natural history, in every sense of the phrase, at its very best.”
    —Richard Powers, author of The Overstory, PBS Newshour

    "[Haskell] documents the marvelous profusion of life . . . [a] magical look at the interconnectedness of the natural world, and the invisible ties that bind us together." 
    —The Guardian

    “Haskell leads the reader into a new genre of nature writing, located between science and poetry.”
    — E. O. Wilson, Harvard University

    “[Haskell's] observations--of lichens, snowflakes, salamanders, and more--are deftly interwoven with the science. His account is fascinating, whether he's stripping off in January to experience the physiological effects of severe cold, describing the symphonic sounds of trees in a high wind, or wondering at the bacteriological properties of a vulture's digestive tract.”
    --Nature 

    “Mixing poetry with natural history, [Haskell] follows subtle scientific threads such as species interactions by observing the seemingly mundane--a deer track, scraps of lichens, even a golf ball--to conclusions of gratifying depth.”
    --Conservation Magazine

    “[The Forest Unseen] is a 'nature book,' and a great one, but it's also and less obviously a book about human nature. You can't read its lyrical, tactile prose without confronting the whole question of our place in the natural order, and of what we're doing here. If we want to last much longer on this planet, we'll have to learn to think differently and more deeply about those things, and Haskell can be one of our guides.”
    --John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead 

    Additional formats

    Other Books by this Author

    Related Articles

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Book Covers: Cowboys and East Indians 9798217006892 Advocate 9781984862495 THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS 9780593831878 IT RHYMES WITH TAKEI 9781603095747
    General

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

    Each May, we honor the stories, histories, and cultures of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Below is a selection of acclaimed fiction and nonfiction books by AANHPI creators to share with your students this month and throughout the year. Find our full collection of titles for Higher Education here.

    Read more

    Books for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

    General
    Books for International Day for Biological Diversity
    Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

    Books for International Day for Biological Diversity

    Here is a collection of titles to acknowledge International Day for Biological Diversity, which takes place on May 22nd. These books explore various ecosystems and habitats and give insight on biodiversity, the ways of life and the struggles of living creatures within them.

    Read more

    Books for International Day for Biological Diversity

    Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
    Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Environmental Science

    International Day for Biological Diversity

    International Day for Biological Diversity is meant as a day to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. This year’s theme is “building a shared future for all life.” We encourage educators who are interested in spreading awareness of biodiversity issues in their classrooms to browse our book list, which offers a range of the

    Read more

    International Day for Biological Diversity

    Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Environmental Science
    Subscribe

    Penguin Random House Higher Education

    © 2026 Penguin Random House

    Back to Top
    0
    Wish List (0)