Archipelago: Islands of Indonesia by Gavan Daws and Marty Fujita

The Indonesian archipelago is a land of timeless natural beauty that in the twenty-first century faces unprecedented environmental degradation. It was also the biological laboratory of Alfred Russel Wallace, who, working independently of Charles Darwin, discovered the theory of evolution by natural selection.
 
Wallace, who traveled for eight years in the archipelago, was one of the greatest field naturalists and nature writers of his century. No one was more skilled in observing and describing living things. A prodigious collector, he was the first to bring living Birds of Paradise to the West. He was also a great thinker, a theorist as formidable as any on earth at the time.
 
This magnificent account of a true explorer sweeps from the time of Wallace's nineteenth-century discoveries in biogeography to the looming biodiversity crisis of the twenty-first century - from the exploration of natural wonders to the exploitation of natural resources. The result is a history that powerfully portrays the intricate connections of human life and natural life.
 
This unique story, published by the University of California Press in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy, is resplendently presented with maps, archival materials, and more than 200 color photographs depicting the stunning landscapes and exotic flora and fauna of Indonesian archipelago.
 
Interspersed in Wallace’s epic tale of discovery are informative sidebars that offer a more in-depth look at topics ranging from specimen collecting in Victorian times to the dire ecological challenges faced by Indonesia today.
 
The author Gavan Daws is an historian and author of nine books about the Pacific and Asia, including a previous   Nature Conservancy book, Hawaii: The Islands of Life (1988). The co-author Marty Fujita, who lived and worked in Indonesia for over seven years, is a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution and founding director of The Nature Conservancy's Indonesia Program.
 
Frank Stewart of A Natural History of Nature Writing wrote of the book: "The narrative is extraordinary for its  storytelling quality, making even the collection of beetles seem like high adventure."
 
Archipelago: Islands of Indonesia. Gavan Daws and Marty Fujita. Hardcover 254 pages, ISBN 0520215761, 10.9 x 10.4 x 1.3 inches.
 
Available for $50 from Amazon Australia (shipping weight 4 pounds) or directly from University of California Press 1999 (http://www.ucpress.edu).   
 
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