The Ghost Tree Speaks
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Ross & Haines, Inc., [1965]. Second printing. Hardcover. First published in 1964. 73 pages. Inscribed by the author to wildlife artist Les Kouba. Hardcover. Book is flawless; jacket is crisp and unworn but has a narrow two-inch coffee-colored stain on the front panel. Bound in green cloth with black lettering and decoration, in a pale green jacket. Item #892
A book-length poem about forests in Minnesota. The author, who began working for the state's conservation department in the 1930s, led efforts to preserve forest areas and waterways in southeast Minnesota; a two-million-acre area in southeast Minnesota, the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest, was given his name in 1974. Accompanying the text are 28 full-page, woodcut-type illustrations by naturalist, wildlife artist and museum educator Walter Breckenridge, who was curator and then director of the Minnesota Museum of Natural History (now the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History) at the University of Minnesota for nearly half of the twentieth century. Wildlife artist Les Kouba's copy, inscribed by the author in black ink on the front free endpaper: "This narrative poem is/inscribed for a/good friend,/a fellow-conservationist/and/a nationally known/artist,/Les Kouba,/with best wishes/of/the author,/Richard J. Dorer." Kouba's self-designed bookplate is on the front pastedown. The Dorer-Kouba-Breckenridge combination makes this an interesting copy.
Price: $50.00