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, at a time when human influences had begun to change it forever.
Review Quotes:
[A] cascade of a story, colored by sun and water and driven by courage and determination.--Deborah Blum "New York Times Book Review"
Whip-smart, funny, meticulously researched, and beautifully written, Brave the Wild River is required reading for anyone interested in the Grand Canyon, river running, or the ingenuity of plants. It examines the challenges women in science faced in the 1930s--and still face today--but above all it's a story about what it means to risk everything, to follow your heart into the great unknown.--Ash Davidson, author of Damnation Spring
Makes the case that [Elzada] Clover and [Lois] Jotter's study...provides a crucial benchmark in assessing human impact on the environment.-- "The New Yorker"
[Melissa L.] Sevigny paints a picture by describing other elements of the canyon journey.... She goes beyond botanizing and writes about the ancestral Puebloan residents of the area, mapmakers, former explorers, honeymooners.--Mary L. Holden "Los Angeles Review of Books"
Highlights the little-known contributions two women made to our knowledge about the Southwest ecology. And it pays homage to a pair of scientists far ahead of their time.--Anita Snow "Associated Press"
[Melissa L. Sevigny] writes beautifully about the geology and botany of the Grand Canyon and the challenges Clover and Jotter met as they collected and preserved the extraordinary region's plants.... [An] artful account.--Ann Fabian "National Book Review"
Artfully bridges a gap of nearly 100 years to shape the timeless story of a shared human experience with nature.--Joan Meiners "Arizona Republic"
[Melissa L. Sevigny] whips jaw-dropping metaphor from thin air, not losing momentum as she weaves beautiful poetry through a clear, engaging narrative.--Rebecca Lawton "Boatman's Quarterly Review"
Sweeps up the reader in its seamless weaving of histories with a geographically rich narrative.... [A] brilliant and elegantly written book.--Geri Lipschultz "Terrain.org"
Brings the expertise of a science writer to a story partly about science and the challenges of women's place in it, about the botany of the Grand Canyon.... Sevigny is a fine writer and tells the story well.--John Miles "National Parks Traveler"
A beautiful tribute to two pioneering women of science.--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
[A] marvelous history.... Drawing on Clover and Jotter's journals and letters, Sevigny recreates their expedition in novelistic detail, producing a narrative as propulsive as the current of the Colorado. Readers will be swept away.--Publishers Weekly, starred review
Melissa L. Sevigny is a science journalist at KNAU (Arizona Public Radio). She has worked in water policy, sustainable agriculture, and space exploration, and is the author of Under Desert Skies and Mythical River. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.
W. W. Norton & Company
Pub Date: May 14, 2024
0.8" H x 8.2" L x 5.4" W
304 Pages
Paperback