C. S. Rafinesque: A Field Guide by Joe and Steve Winhusen

Sumptuously illustrated, “C.S. Rafinesque: A Field Guide” centers on the life and accomplishments of the Nineteenth Century naturalist, Constantine Rafinesque. A French polymath without academic credentials, Rafinesque invented himself in the American wilderness as a professor of medicine and botany at a time when America was inventing itself  and the discipline of natural philosophy was inventing itself into what we now call “science”. An early advocate of “evolution,” Rafinesque’s work would later prove useful to Darwin in his “On the Origin of Species”. Taking inspiration from nature illustration, the book brings to life not only the naturalist but a variety of fauna and flora named by him from spiderwort to hickory and from newts to curlews.