Field Guide Celebrates Roger Tory Peterson's Centennial
by Kevin Howell -- Publishers Weekly, 8/25/2008 7:49:00 AM
When Houghton Mifflin published Roger Tory Peterson’s original Field Guide to Birds in 1934, the 2,000 copy first printing sold out in two weeks. On August 28, the company is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Peterson’s birth by publishing the newly revised Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, with a first printing of 100,000 copies.
The new edition is the first time the publisher has combined the renowned ornithologist’s classic reference (covering birds of the eastern and central America) with his second guide devoted to western birds that was released in 1941.
The guide to eastern birds was last updated in 2002 while the western guide’s latest update was 1990, so for this new edition the text has been revised and taxonomy has been updated to include splits in breeds, name changes and newly recorded birds (such as Fea’s Petrel, Black-tailed and Yellow-legged gulls and La Sagra’s Flycatcher). New range maps were created and 40 new paintings were added. With new computer technology, some of Peterson’s original paintings have been digitally enhanced with touch-ups to make them accurate to current knowledge of birds.
“We put together a team of birding experts who could both update the book and honor the legacy of Roger Tory Peterson,” said Lisa White, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s director of guidebooks. “They made things current but kept his voice and the new artist painted in the Peterson style to blend in as seamlessly as possible.”
The book also contains a URL where readers can access 30 three-to-five minute video podcasts specially created to supplement the new book that explains how to use a range map, bird topography, identification basics, species overviews and biographical pieces. “We feel like if Roger were alive today, he’d really embrace podcasts,” said White. “He was always a fan of new technology and was a gadget-hound with new lenses and equipment. He was an innovator from the very beginning.”
Peterson’s son Lee Allen Peterson, naturalist author of The Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, is touring with the book, attending media events, birding festivals and museum presentations. Of all the Peterson guides HMH publishes, White said his Eastern Birds guide is by far the biggest seller in the field guide series; after five editions, it has sold eight million copies.
