About the Author

Graeme Gibson is the acclaimed author of Communion, Perpetual Motion, and Gentleman Death. He is a past president of PEN Canada and the recipient of both the Harbourfront Festival Prize and the Toronto Arts Award, and is a member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Toronto with writer Margaret Atwood.

Reviews

A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year

"The most compulsively readable of a clutch of bird-themed books out this autumn. Taking in everything from classic nature-writing to poetry via folklore and Mayan creation myths, The Bedside Book Of Birds is by no means for 'twitchers' only."
--Daily Mail (London) "The perfect book for armchair ornithologists with an eye for words as well as feathers."
--The Daily Telegraph (London) "A wonderful collection of poetry and prose, folk tales and myths, which pay tribute to our feathered friend. . . . A perfect Christmas present, even for non-anoraks."
--Mail on Sunday (UK) "Anyone who has watched birds, studied them, given them the least attention, will find this a treat. It is a compilation of writings that celebrate themany ways people have engaged with birds - made companions of them, mythologised them, hunted and eaten them. There's an account of a mocking thrush drinking from Charles Darwin's hand on the voyage of the Beagle, and of a woman in Ohio who incubated 50 hens' eggs by laying them alongside the body of her dying, fevered husband. This book is well worth buying for the illustrations alone."
--New Scientist "The diversity of the book's offerings is testament to Gibson's superb researching skills, and the final product reflects well upon his aesthetic sense, resulting in a wonderful marriage of word and image. The breadth and depth of the offerings are impressive, and each visit between the covers will leave you inspired and a little wiser. I cannot think to ask more of a book. It will entertain and enlighten birder and non-birder alike, and it will occupy a prominent position on the bookshelf, close to hand."
--Nova Scotia Birds

"The beauty of the writing and the illustrations contained in The Bedside Book of Birds is matched by the beauty of the physical book itself. Great pains have been taken by the author and the publisher to make this book a work of art, and they have succeeded marvellously."
--The Globe and Mail

"The most spectacular bird book of the year."
--The Globe and Mail "An astoundingly beautiful book . . . featur[ing] some of the most sublime writings to be found on the subject."
--The Globe and Mail "The Bedside Book of Birds is a superb gift, a compulsive must-have, for the bird-lover, the storyteller, and the anthropologist in the family. As a collection it is exemplary of how fascination can re-order the world. Readers will be thinking feathered thoughts for days and they will be happier."
--The Calgary Herald "This book in the hand is worth two on the shelf."
--The Calgary Herald "A beautiful volume, sumptiously illustrated."
--The Vancouver Sun "[Gibson]'s book is a stunner. The wealth of imagery and the range of intelligence are grand, the kinds of relationships with birds he sets out nearly bewildering.... Gorgeous.... It's what I'll take to bed tonight to incite my dreams."
--Barry Lopez

Many good bird books have been published in recent years, but this 20-year labor of love is different. Novelist and birdwatcher Gibson (Five Legs) has assembled all manner of expression relating to birds: paintings, drawings, poems, essays, stories, and scientific observations. Contributors are legion-ancient and modern, primitive and accomplished, famous and obscure. Bedside readers, as Gibson advises, will not learn so much about the birds themselves as about their influence on the human imagination over millennia. It might be observed, for example, how black birds (e.g., ravens, crows, vultures) and birds whose element is blackness (e.g., owls) seem to have held an unusually powerful, sinister appeal over the ages; odd that the cheery influence of true songbirds has not had nearly the same impact. Appalling but not surprising is the depth and variety of humankind's malice toward avian creatures. Gibson's preambles are as satisfying as the texts and accompanying illustrations. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year

"The most compulsively readable of a clutch of bird-themed books out this autumn. Taking in everything from classic nature-writing to poetry via folklore and Mayan creation myths, The Bedside Book Of Birds is by no means for 'twitchers' only."
--Daily Mail (London)

"The perfect book for armchair ornithologists with an eye for words as well as feathers."
--The Daily Telegraph (London) "A wonderful collection of poetry and prose, folk tales and myths, which pay tribute to our feathered friend. . . . A perfect Christmas present, even for non-anoraks."
--Mail on Sunday (UK) "Anyone who has watched birds, studied them, given them the least attention, will find this a treat. It is a compilation of writings that celebrate themany ways people have engaged with birds - made companions of them, mythologised them, hunted and eaten them. There's an account of a mocking thrush drinking from Charles Darwin's hand on the voyage of the Beagle, and of a woman in Ohio who incubated 50 hens' eggs by laying them alongside the body of her dying, fevered husband. This book is well worth buying for the illustrations alone."
--New Scientist "The diversity of the book's offerings is testament to Gibson's superb researching skills, and the final product reflects well upon his aesthetic sense, resulting in a wonderful marriage of word and image. The breadth and depth of the offerings are impressive, and each visit between the covers will leave you inspired and a little wiser. I cannot think to ask more of a book. It will entertain and enlighten birder and non-birder alike, and it will occupy a prominent position on the bookshelf, close to hand."
--Nova Scotia Birds

"The beauty of the writing and the illustrations contained in The Bedside Book of Birds is matched by the beauty of the physical book itself. Great pains have been taken by the author and the publisher to make this book a work of art, and they have succeeded marvellously."
--The Globe and Mail

"The most spectacular bird book of the year."
--The Globe and Mail "An astoundingly beautiful book . . . featur[ing] some of the most sublime writings to be found on the subject."
--The Globe and Mail "The Bedside Book of Birds is a superb gift, a compulsive must-have, for the bird-lover, the storyteller, and the anthropologist in the family. As a collection it is exemplary of how fascination can re-order the world. Readers will be thinking feathered thoughts for days and they will be happier."
--The Calgary Herald "This book in the hand is worth two on the shelf."
--The Calgary Herald "A beautiful volume, sumptiously illustrated."
--The Vancouver Sun "[Gibson]'s book is a stunner. The wealth of imagery and the range of intelligence are grand, the kinds of relationships with birds he sets out nearly bewildering.... Gorgeous.... It's what I'll take to bed tonight to incite my dreams."
--Barry Lopez