THE YEAR OF THE TURTLE, A Natural History
“A natural history filled with science, beauty, and deep emotions that seems destined to become a classic of natural history.”
—The Boston Globe
My first book contract was a long time in coming. The concept for The Year of the Turtle, a Natural History, was well-formed in my mind at age sixteen. It arose from my work in my high school art class with Bill Miller, who immediately became an intimate friend and mentor – for life.
It was he who opened up to me the essential meaning of art in human life, history, and culture. Through the influences of his unique, remarkable teaching and our personal relationship (which extended just as closely to his wife and three young daughters) I was also made aware of the gifts I had, principally for art, but also writing.
He went so far as to call me a genius. I write about this profound touchstone in my life as artist, naturalist, and writer in a chapter in my SELF PORTRAIT WITH TURTLES – A Memoir: “Bill and DeDe”.
Our first project in his art class was to make a hand bound book in which we were to do art work in styles and subjects of our own choosing. And he strongly encouraged us to integrate creative writing with the visual art.
As I worked in my treasured book I envisioned writing and illustrating a book about turtles. Hand bound books were to become a major feature of my and my artist wife Laurette’s creative work in our earliest years together.
The first page in my first hand bound book
By age sixteen I had been in the swamps with the turtles for eight years. I wanted to do a book with art and writing that would center on them and their habitats, their natural landscapes, detailing my experiences and observations, my own intimate relationship with the turtles and their world. I would also seek to integrate turtle biology and ecology by way of res conducting research in the scientific journals.
I finally got a contract for the “turtle book” that became THE YEAR OF THE TURTLE when I was forty six years old. I had been sending out proposals to publishers in my twenties and thirties.
A writer friend who was going to a writer’s conference at Skidmore College, where a part of the conference involved meeting with literary agents from New York City to discuss how to go about finding an agent for their work.
By this time it was necessary to have an agent, as publishers would not consider submissions from individual authors. My friend generously told me that she would like to take examples from my several proposals to show along with her own.
She called from the conference to tell me that literary agent Meredith Bernstein had asked if she could take my material back to her office for consideration… permission readily granted.
In time Meredith contacted me to request me to send more drafts and prints of art work, and took me on as one of her authors. Patient – very patient – a firm believer in my work and fully confident that she could sell it, she began talking with publishers about my proposals.
Every six months or so she would send me copies of correspondence she had had with editors at major publishing firms who had looked over my material. All of them expressed their highest regard for both my writing and my art work. But, in a variety of ways, they concluded in the end that my subjects were not right for their list.
Meredith would periodically ask me to send more material, always saying that she was certain she could sell a book. Patient… she represented me for seven years before a contact was signed for YEAR OF THE TURTLE.
She remained a dedicated agent for my work through my next four books, and has remained in contact, urging me to send her another proposal. It has been thirteen years since my last book (FOLLOWING THE WATER) went to press.
I have piles of notes and drafts for a book with the working title of LOOKING FOR ARIADNE, and often think of working with Meredith on seeking one more contract. But I have not yet been able to commit to taking on such a year-consuming project.
Striding Snapping Turtle
“David Carroll’s fascinating book [is] the work of an accomplished naturalist and artist of great talent.”
—Smithsonian
Notes on YEAR OF THE TURTLE Archival Content:
I welcome contacts from parties interested in making an archival acquisition, for a more detailed discussion or written inventory/catalog of the following items. These considerations apply to all five books.
My book art gallery features a selection of original drawings and watercolors from this book. A number of the selections pictured are available for purchase as individual pieces.
I invite inquiries from anyone interested in acquiring an original in any of my books that might not be shown in this gallery.
*A first-edition copy of the book, signed, with an original pencil and watercolor drawing on the title page (usually a detail of a spotted turtle), dated and signed. An example appears on my “published books” account for FOLLOWING THE WATER.
*My notes and drafts; editorial notations and correspondence.
*My Swamp Sketchbook. This object is an integral aspect of my producing the book, with studies of turtles; plants; etc. and preliminary sketches for the finished watercolors I produced to illustrate the book. I discuss this sketchbook in detail, with sample images, in my “Swamp Sketchbook” archive component.
*Art work: 88 pen and ink drawings; 9 watercolors (some of these have been sold or gifted; the great majority of the drawings remain available… v. representative examples in my Book Art Gallery.)
*Hundreds of photos and slides of turtles and their habitats, etc., the majority from the Digs, but many other venues of my field work. This includes selected collections used in my more than a thousand lectures, keynotes, seminars, presentations of all forms. I have accompanying text to slide collections developed for my principle “Turtles and Wetlands” presentations, although my appearances always featured considerable spontaneous dialogue, and ample discussion, Q & A, with audiences form preschool through university and agency seminars as well as turtle and ecological conferences. I also gave many presentations to conservation commissions and land trusts. I continue to give selected talks, most recent examples being plenary speaker for a Northern Woods Center for
Education in Vermont and keynote for the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions.
*Correspondence with colleagues, career researchers, from over the years following publication. This is a voluminous collection within my collection, a rich personal, informal, and scientific body of literature.
*Selected letters from readers and ensuing correspondence. Two especially significant examples of letters leading the way to an extended communication about turtle field work and conservation/preservation issues (ongoing) are Mike Jones, for whom I signed a copy of YOT when he was eleven years old; and Peter B. Mills, who wrote to me after reading the book when he was ten years old. He decorated his letter with a watercolor of s spotted turtle’s carapace.
Mike has gone on to become the pre-eminent researcher with the American wood turtle, in addition to working with endangered turtle species and conservation initiatives from places as distant as Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula. He is now married to Liz Wiley, another leading turtle researcher. Mike founded the American Turtle Observatory with global extensions in preservation concerns.
Peter has for years been an intense observer and chronicler of spotted, Blanding’s, and wood turtles in Ontario Canada. His annual photo-Journal reports from his field season are remarkable and artistic records of unique habitat scenarios. I have had many connections with graduate students conducting research with those three turtle species of my central focus. One of the most affirming aspects of my work has been the acknowledgements, personal and in PhD theses, of the next generation.
*Reviews and articles pertaining to this book and my field work with and advocacy for turtles and wetlands. I can provide specific references for these.
My Five Published Books
Trout Reflections
Following the Water
Year of the Turtle
Self-Portrait With Turtles, A Memoir
Swampwalker’s Journal
Hand Bound Books
A Book of a Number of Hours
A Book of Winter Buds
A Book of Winter Branches
Borradores
Landscapes – January 20, 1978 – April 1978
Variations: February 1, 1967 – August 1, 1968
Visions: Drawings and Paintings: 1976 – 1988
Exhibitions
“Seldom Seen” Exhibition at the Davidow Center
“Beyond Words” Exhibition at the Currier Museum
Galleries
“Seldom Seen” Gallery
David’s Wildlife Studies Sketchbook
Virtual Gallery of Art Produced for My Five Books
“Regarding Women Regarding…” Introduction
Sketchbook Gallery: 4/1/1985 – 10/14/1987
Swamp Sketchbook
The Swamp Dialogs
Drawings and Watercolors Produced to Illustrate my Published Books
CODIT – Compartmentalization of Decay in Trees