The Essential Gilbert White of Selborne

by Gilbert White, H.J. Massingham

Gathers selections from the letters, journals, and observations of the eighteenth-century English naturalist.

361 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Gilbert White was a "parson-naturalist", a pioneering English naturalist and ornithologist. More than any other writer, Gilbert White has shaped the relationship between man and nature. A hundred years before Darwin, White realised the crucial role of worms in the formation of soil and understood the significance of territory and song in birds. His precise, scrupulously honest and unaffectedly witty observations led him to interpret animals' behaviour in a unique manner. He is best known for his Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, and remained unmarried and a curate all his life.

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of its time. If you wonder what damage we are doing to habitat, flora and fauna, know only that generations before us started the trend. Gilbert White seems oblivious to his effect on his locality and doesn’t seem to understand that a local decline in the bird population may be down to the numbers of birds he’s being brought to study...