Call number
578.09 SEV
Collections
Publication
W. W. Norton & Company (2023), 304 pages
Description
In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition held a tantalizing appeal: no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first. Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their daring forty-three-day journey down the river, during which they meticulously cataloged the thorny plants that thrived in the Grand Canyon's secret nooks and crannies. Along the way, they chased a runaway boat, ran the river's most fearsome rapids, and turned the harshest critic of female river runners into an ally. Clover and Jotter's plant list, including four new cactus species, would one day become vital for efforts to protect and restore the river ecosystem. Brave the Wild River is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a defining landscape in the American West.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member japaul22
This is the nonfiction account of a group of six people who make a trek down the dangerous Colorado River in the 1930s. Their goal is to provide opportunities for two women botanists, Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, to catalog the plants in this remote and unstudied region.
In the 1930s, few people
After a rough start, they and the group do have a successful journey and contribute much to the field of botany. Because they go before the Colorado River is significantly changed by dams and controlled water flow, their research illluminates plant life during a window of time that no longer exists after human interference.
I really enjoyed this book.
In the 1930s, few people
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had survived the trek down the Colorado River. This was before any significant dams and reservoirs had been built and there were tons of dangerous rapids. Also, the sheer faces of the cliffs rise straight up from the river, leaving few sandbanks to camp on. In fact, no women had survived the journey. Clover and Jotter had already faced tons of discrimination to even try to be recognized in the field of botany. In trying to organize this trip, they faced even more sexism and discrimination. After a rough start, they and the group do have a successful journey and contribute much to the field of botany. Because they go before the Colorado River is significantly changed by dams and controlled water flow, their research illluminates plant life during a window of time that no longer exists after human interference.
I really enjoyed this book.
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LibraryThing member Sheila1957
This is the story of Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, botanists, who ran the Colorado River from Green River, Utah to Boulder Dam, Nevada in 1938. It tells of their preparation and funding for the trip as well as the men who would steer the boats.
I loved this book. It read like a novel. I enjoyed
This is a book that all should read. It is fascinating.
I loved this book. It read like a novel. I enjoyed
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hearing the stories from the river as well as the naysayers about the trip. I got a little mad as I read that the women would do the cooking, set up, and packing each day for the trip down the river. The two women went through the same hardships as the men but the men got to sleep longer every morning as the women start their day. I liked how the women were not happy about the media coverage and the misinformation and sensationalism of it. This is a book that all should read. It is fascinating.
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LibraryThing member bell7
Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter were botanists, which was allowable for women in the 1930s, though they were generally discouraged from more than leisurely walks in the fields. Both where well-educated: Clover was a professor at the University of Michigan with a specialization in cacti, while Jotter
Sevigny's account of the trip is fascinating, as much about the river itself as about the Nevills Expedition - the one Clover and Jotter were on with Norm Nevills and a few others with disparate goals for the trip. Including stories of other expeditions and giving enough history and science for lay readers to appreciate the importance of the trip, Sevigny grounds the story in its time and place, letting us see the challenges of women in their field - many thought they shouldn't be on such a dangerous river at all, and when newspapers covered it, they sensationalized and often glossed over or didn't mention that the women were scientists. National parks' complicated history and ignoring of Indigenous peoples' knowledge (indeed, often moving tribes off the land to make the park) add to the details of the history. Sevigny also does a great job of balancing the science as known then versus now, detailing the changes in understanding of ecology through the changes in the river, as dams were added after the 1938 expedition. A compelling story about people that deserve to be remembered for their scientific contributions.
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was a graduate student whom Clover mentored. In 1938, these two women went on a trip down the formidable Colorado River, to collect plants and learn about the plants in and around the Grand Canyon.Sevigny's account of the trip is fascinating, as much about the river itself as about the Nevills Expedition - the one Clover and Jotter were on with Norm Nevills and a few others with disparate goals for the trip. Including stories of other expeditions and giving enough history and science for lay readers to appreciate the importance of the trip, Sevigny grounds the story in its time and place, letting us see the challenges of women in their field - many thought they shouldn't be on such a dangerous river at all, and when newspapers covered it, they sensationalized and often glossed over or didn't mention that the women were scientists. National parks' complicated history and ignoring of Indigenous peoples' knowledge (indeed, often moving tribes off the land to make the park) add to the details of the history. Sevigny also does a great job of balancing the science as known then versus now, detailing the changes in understanding of ecology through the changes in the river, as dams were added after the 1938 expedition. A compelling story about people that deserve to be remembered for their scientific contributions.
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LibraryThing member juniperSun
Very entertaining and informative recount of the botanical expedition by river raft in 1930s, a time when "women don't do such things". A woman botanist and a grad student have a chance to join an expedition down the Grand Canyon during a time when there are efforts afoot to dam the river, and it
Sevigny uses descriptions that come alive. Describing Ocotillo, "green leaves erupted", "a spray of red flowers exploded", "lose precious water every time the pores open...sucking in carbon dioxide to transform into sugars" (p 191). "Every algae-slicked pool hummed with an uncanny chorus...chorus which rose, claiming sand, water, and stone. Nothing here belonged to humans, not now." (p.112). "Inside the rock, pressed thin as paper, tiny fish were forever frozen midswim" (p.135)
The botanists left journals and diaries which gave a personal perspective to their experience, and the author wrote vividly, filling in descriptions of what they were seeing and the interactions among the crew members. As women, it was 'naturally' assumed that they would do all the cooking. As women, they were often frustrated by not being allowed to run the wilder rapids, as they were assigned to walk the river edge (when there was one!).
Sevigny gives us a perspective which these botanists did not have in her inclusion of native people's use of the area; e.g. the Hualapai planted & tended a particularly large sweet species of Agave (p.144); when they were barred from their traditional wintering grounds they began planting Cottonwoods in order to have firewood (p.194). People called the Grand Canyon "pristine...ignoring centuries of stewardship by Native Americans" (p.172-3). She also comments on use of the canyon and river by other people of color; the park was segregated (p.157) and there is no record of Black people living in Boulder City despite it having been constructed to house the dam workers (some of whom were Black) (p.210).
Yes, there is some description of the plants (and their latin names), but Sevigny researched widely and brings in related items from previous trips down the river (by whites), American politics, geology, management of the National Park, and an introduction to the development of botany as a science. I never knew that Linnaeus classified plants by counting their stamens & pistils (now science is using evolutionary relationships based on DNA to reclassify them). It was up to Asa Gray, a confidant of Darwin in the 1850s, to develop a taxonomy based on the whole plant structure, even tho that required more specialized training.
The book contains a lengthy list of sources, including oral interviews and archived films.
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is a time when scientists are expanding ideas of evolution and ecosystems. They jump at the chance. Sevigny uses descriptions that come alive. Describing Ocotillo, "green leaves erupted", "a spray of red flowers exploded", "lose precious water every time the pores open...sucking in carbon dioxide to transform into sugars" (p 191). "Every algae-slicked pool hummed with an uncanny chorus...chorus which rose, claiming sand, water, and stone. Nothing here belonged to humans, not now." (p.112). "Inside the rock, pressed thin as paper, tiny fish were forever frozen midswim" (p.135)
The botanists left journals and diaries which gave a personal perspective to their experience, and the author wrote vividly, filling in descriptions of what they were seeing and the interactions among the crew members. As women, it was 'naturally' assumed that they would do all the cooking. As women, they were often frustrated by not being allowed to run the wilder rapids, as they were assigned to walk the river edge (when there was one!).
Sevigny gives us a perspective which these botanists did not have in her inclusion of native people's use of the area; e.g. the Hualapai planted & tended a particularly large sweet species of Agave (p.144); when they were barred from their traditional wintering grounds they began planting Cottonwoods in order to have firewood (p.194). People called the Grand Canyon "pristine...ignoring centuries of stewardship by Native Americans" (p.172-3). She also comments on use of the canyon and river by other people of color; the park was segregated (p.157) and there is no record of Black people living in Boulder City despite it having been constructed to house the dam workers (some of whom were Black) (p.210).
Yes, there is some description of the plants (and their latin names), but Sevigny researched widely and brings in related items from previous trips down the river (by whites), American politics, geology, management of the National Park, and an introduction to the development of botany as a science. I never knew that Linnaeus classified plants by counting their stamens & pistils (now science is using evolutionary relationships based on DNA to reclassify them). It was up to Asa Gray, a confidant of Darwin in the 1850s, to develop a taxonomy based on the whole plant structure, even tho that required more specialized training.
The book contains a lengthy list of sources, including oral interviews and archived films.
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Awards
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Nonfiction — 2024)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Nonfiction — 2024)
National Outdoor Book Award (Winner — History/Biography — 2023)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Non-Fiction — 2023)
Pages
304
ISBN
0393868230 / 9780393868234
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