A Year in the Notch: Exploring the Natural History of the White Mountains

by William Sargent

The author of Shallow Waters shares his discovery of the North Woods of New Hampshire in words and images that capture the geology, ecology, natural history, flora and fauna, and other wonders of the White Mountains and describes human impact on the region.

211 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

William (Bill) Sargent is a relative of the painter John Singer Sargent and a son of a former governor of Massachusetts. He was primed early for a career in politics, but since boyhood he was far more interested in science than in traditional forms of public service. Nonetheless, at Harvard University he declared himself a government major - a plan that gave way the day he had lunch at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, where huge plaster casts of dinosaur tracks and the smell of formaldehyde triggered in the freshman his inborn love of nature. Sargent immediately switched from government to biology.

Sargent is currently a consultant for the NOVA Science Series and has written eight books about science and the environment, including The House on Ipswich Marsh (UPNE, 2005); Storm Surge (UPNE, 2004); Sea Level Rising (Schifferbooks, 2004); Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Bioterrorism, and Human Health (UPNE, 2002); A Year in the Notch: Exploring the Natural History of the White Mountains (UPNE, 2001); The Year of the Crab: Marine Animals in Modern Medicine (1988). His Shallow Waters: A Year on Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay (1981) received the Boston Globe Winship award for the best book about New England and was the basis for a NOVA film, The Sea Behind the Dunes, selected by the National Audubon Society as the best natural history film of the year.

Reviews

[Kate Seader · Rating 4 out of 5]

The content covered in this book ranges from the more scientific; acid rain, peregrine falcon come back, geological history, to subjects that are more indefinite, is our influence on the world as humans natural, the unfolding of climate change in its early understandings, how our definition of globalism dictates its good. All of these subjects are weaved through short stories lived by the author around the White Mountains. An informative and digestible read that i will be referencing when i work in Franconia Notch this summer.

[John Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as engaging as his 1st book, this one jumps around a bit. I spent some time in the late 80s in this neighborhood so it was a nice trip down to old haunts. The Frost House and poetry was a nice touch and his writing is enjoyable but I just wanted more .... of something? He doesn't seem to have the same connection to the land as in Ipswich. Still recommended for the prose and you will learn something, I learned about Hubbard Brook Research Foundation and the story of the Bear hunters that was sad and chilling at the same time.

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

William Sargent is kind of the poor man’s Bill Bryson: he gives natural history and geologic background while trying to maintain a loose narrative structure, and he succeeds about as often as he fails.

I thought this book was going to be some kind of adventure tale of roughing it for a year, but it turns out that Sargent lives in the Notch, and kept a diary for a year. The book as a whole is kind of like the pictures in it: occasionally interesting, but fall short of being really beautiful because they’re rendered in poor-quality black-and-white printing.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful natural history of the White Mountains from a man who spent a year living there.