In 1934 Roger Tory Peterson, with manuscript and watercolor paintings in hand, went looking for a publisher for the bird identification book he had created.
He knocked on doors. No. No. No. No.
Then he found Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a publisher willing to take a chance on his idea. That was 85 years ago, and HMH surely hasn't regretted saying yes a single day since.
The seventh edition of the "Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America" was published recently, with its companion for birds of western North America.
Hundreds of thousands of Peterson's books are in use today. We have four; my oldest copy, printed in 1961, was the 28th revised and enlarged edition of the second revision of the original. I've had it rebound once; I wore the binding ragged.
The amazing part is that while changes aimed at improvement have been made, the newest books look like old friends. The artwork in the new books follows the Peterson style perfectly. The illustrations are larger, the colors brighter, the style comfortably familiar.
All the best parts continue. Those little arrows that guide you to the telling identification details on each bird? They're still there, just like Peterson drew them in the 1930s. (Peterson, by the way, borrowed the idea from fellow ornithologist Ludlow Griscom, known as the father of modern bird-watching.)
Peterson did not paint the illustrations for the newest editions. He died in 1996. An artist named Michael DiGiorgio gets credit for the new work, and credit for capturing Peterson's style perfectly.
The text in the new books often follows closely the text Peterson wrote, but has been expanded to include more information. Range maps accompany the text.
Peterson believed that people would be more likely to support bird conservation if they knew what they were saving. Putting names to birds was his goal.
If you look at a field guide by any other author you surely will find the birds appearing in taxonomic order — a systematic classification universally used. Vireos would appear just after shrikes and just before jays.
Peterson, however, believed that vireos and warblers shared sizes and shapes and to some degree colors, enough similarity to be confusing. So, in his books vireos always appear adjacent to warblers, making it convenient if the birder needs to check one to the other for a firm identification.
His earlier books also had a page for "confusing fall warblers," acknowledgment that there are indeed minimal differences in fall plumage. In the new book they remain, now simply "fall warblers," flocked on two pages for your ease in identification if ease is to be found.
Peterson helps the identification effort any way he can.
There is a checklist of species so you can mark your sightings. A good chunk of my birding history is so recorded.
The newest books are a bit larger than the originals — 5.25 by 8.25 vs. 4.5 by 7.5 inches. The old ones could be squeezed into a pants pocket. Not anymore, at least not in my pants.
The new books are perfect bound with a water-resistant self-cover. There are 464 pages including four pages of silhouettes of birds in flight and perched. The silhouettes are another holdover from the original, a useful idea continued.
Comparing his first books with the newest ones, given 85 years to make improvements if needed, it's easy to see how good Peterson's original ideas were.
He gets much credit for helping make birding as popular as it is.
Each book, eastern and western, is priced at $19.99, less than half the cost of other recent ID releases.
Oh, if you would like a first edition of the original, one of the 2,000 printed in 1934, I found one online in "like-new condition" for $5,000.
That first printing, by the way, that gamble taken on Peterson's ideas, sold out in three weeks.
Lifelong birder Jim Williams can be reached at woodduck38@gmail.com.
