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A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES |
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DIANE ACKERMAN'S A NATURAL HISTORY Of THE SENSES "This is one of the best books of the year -- by any measure you want to apply. It is interesting, informative, very well written. This book can be opened on any page and read with relish .... thoroughly delightful ... Don't miss it." -- St. Petersburg Times "This book is pure ecstasy. It is a treasure trove of information, diverse in space and time and culture but all related to the pleasures of sensory experience." -- Houston Chronicle "Ms. Ackerman is an athlete of the senses .... To think our way back into feeling: this is [her] mission, and she's very persuasive. On every other page, there's a nice apercu." -- The New York Times Book Review "[Ackerman's] fascinating book inspires an enthusiasm for the diversity of human experience and is a tribute to the amazing power of our senses. It's both a sensual feast and a celebration." -- Seattle Times "A Natural History of the Senses is as voluptuous a volume as its subject matter cries out for. The charm of Diane Ackerman's book is that it arouses awareness and appreciation of sensual life. In small, tasty morsels, it will delight you." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review "An intriguing, knowledgeable, and compelling book on the science, mood, character and geography of the human senses. But ... it is [Ackerman's] inquiry into the temper and disposition of the senses that endures and settles irresistibly just beneath the reader's skin. In exploring the extreme diversity of the human senses and their incredible variegation from culture to culture, Ms. Ackerman manages to reveal just Journal and Constitution "Often funny, often poignant...The synthesis here -- Ackerman's ability to help us see that the sum of our senses is greater than the individual parts, and to do so in language that often resembles a prose poem -- is all the more impressive for her finesse in linking science with our loftier aspirations." -- San Francisco Chronicle BOOKS BY DIANE ACKERMAN NONFICTION A Natural History of Love The Moon by Whalelight and Other Adventures Among Bats, Crocodilians, Penguins, and Whales (1991) A Natural History of the Senses (1990) On Extended Wings (1985) Twilight of the Tenderfoot (1980) POETRY The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral (1976) Wife of Light (1978) Lady Faustus (1983) Reverse Thunder: A Dramatic Poem (1988) Jaguar of Sweet Laughter: New and Selected Poems (1991) DIANE ACKERMAN: A NATURAL HISTORY Of THE SENSES Diane Ackerman was born in Waukegan, Illinois. She received her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University and an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. Her poetry has been published in many leading literary journals, and in the books The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral (1976), Wife of Light (1978), Lady Faustus (1983), Reverse Thunder: A Dramatic Poem (1988), and Jaguar of Sweet Laughter: New and Selected Poems (1991). Her works of nonfiction include, most recently, A Natural History of Love (1994); The Moon By Whalelight and Other Adventures Among Bats, Crocodilians, Penguins, and Whales (1991); A Natural History of the Senses (1990); and On Extended Wings (1985), a memoir of flying. She is at work on a second book of nature writings, The Rarest oft he Rare. Ms. Ackerman has received the Academy of American Poets' Lavan Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation, among other recognitions. She has taught at several universities, including Columbia and Cornell, and she is currently a staff writer for The New Yorker.
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