Wolves & Honey

Book excerpt: A journey through upstate New York’s Finger Lakes: “One of those rare nature books that mix a perfect combination of personal insight and historical depth” (USA Today). “The Finger Lakes region of western New York is remote from much of the state, and, unlike the Hamptons, the Catskills, and the Adirondacks, was never really settled by summer people. It is nevertheless a beautiful and somewhat mysterious part of America—with long, clean lakes, hidden valleys, and towns bearing Greek names like Hector and Ithaca—and was the birthplace of Mormonism, spiritualism, and the American women’s-suffrage movement. Morrow grew up in Geneva, at the north end of Seneca Lake (where F. Scott Fitzgerald’s doomed Dick Diver ended up). Her short, affecting book is partly a memoir recalling the habits of bees, the return of wolves, and ‘a life spun together through layers of sense impressions,’ and also a meditation on the outdoors that evokes ‘the smell of damp earth, the sweetness of maples and pines . . . as though it were freedom itself.’” —The New Yorker “Her ruminations are loosely based on her memories of two men—one a trapper, the other a beekeeper—whose ability to connect with nature had a profound influence on the way she views the world. In a poetic narrative, she contemplates the natural history of the area and tells of the people who have inhabited it—the Seneca, spiritualists, fur traders, artists, scholars, scientists and nurserymen . . . Morrow’s language is rich and sensuous.” —Publishers Weekly “A riveting compendium of observations from a very curious, very interesting mind.” —The Boston Globe