Kerasote, Ted 1950-

PERSONAL:

Born March 17, 1950.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Kelly, WY. E-mail—ted@kerasote.com.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, editor, and naturalist.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Outdoor Book Award, for Out There: In the Wild in a Wired Age.

WRITINGS:

Navigations: One Man Explores the Americas and Discovers Himself, Stackpole Books (Harrisburg, PA), 1986.

Bloodties: Nature, Culture, and the Hunt, Random House (New York, NY), 1993.

Heart of Home: People, Wildlife, Place, Villard (New York, NY), 1997.

Return of the Wild: The Future of Our Natural Lands, Pew Wilderness Center/Island Press (Washington, DC), 2001.

Out There: In the Wild in a Wired Age, Voyageur Press (Stillwater, MN), 2004.

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Audubon, Outside, Salon.com, National Geographic Traveler, Field & Stream, and the New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ted Kerasote is a journalist, editor, and naturalist whose writing often focuses on animals and wildlife, the outdoors, and the undeniable connections between humans and the natural world. Kerasote grew up in Manhattan, but even as a young boy he had a longing to leave the city and encounter the wilderness. "My earliest childhood memories are of being unhappy in Manhattan, of not feeling comfortable in my skin until my family bought a summer place on Oyster Bay, in what was then rural Long Island," he commented in an interview on the Harcourt Web site. "I really became a native there, on the water, fishing, and hunting; but soon that place wasn't native enough for me," he continued. "Even as a twelve-year-old boy I had photos of the Rockies and its wildlife hanging on the walls of my bedroom, and I left for the West as soon as I could." Now a resident of Wyoming, Kerasote has seen his work published in prominent anthologies and periodicals covering nature and the outdoors.

In Bloodties: Nature, Culture, and the Hunt, Kerasote explores the multiple moral, ethical, and philosophical issues raised by hunting and the killing of animals for food, hides, and other resources. An avid hunter, Kerasote is well aware of the eternal paradox that for one organism to live, another must often die. He looks at hunting in the context of his own search for elk in his home area of Wyoming. For Kerasote, hunting brings humans closer to their natural heritage, placing them in a position to develop greater respect and reverence for the animals that supply life-sustaining food. He recognizes that for himself, hunting is not a necessity for survival. In these terms, he looks at hunting from the perspective of another two extremes: subsistence hunters in Greenland who kill seals to survive, and trophy hunters pursuing snow sheep in Siberia. Kerasote explains how hunting is a useful and natural activity for those who make use of the animals they kill. He further notes that, despite the best intentions of activist groups, human activity of all types disrupts natural environments to the detriment of animals; even those who buy their vegetables from supermarkets, he says, often purchase vegetables that were grown on large farms that displace and discourage wildlife. Kerasote encourages readers to carefully consider all aspects of hunting, both pro and con, before reaching their own well-informed conclusions about it. Jeff Rennicke, in a Backpacker review, concluded: "If you hunt, read this book. If you are against hunting, read this book. If you live and breathe, read this book."

In Heart of Home: People, Wildlife, Place, Kerasote further expands on his musings about the nature and ethics of hunting, and adds his consideration of fishing as well. Even though he is a practicing hunter and fisherman, "Kerasote is, foremost, an ecologist who believes deeply in living with nature—not destroying it, but protecting it," observed a Publishers Weekly critic. Kerasote's attitude toward hunting finds him attempting to reconnect with the attitude expressed by humanity's hunter/gatherer ancestors, who looked on hunting as a necessity and with a "near mystical respect for the wildlife who are the prey." He has little use for the type of hunter who intrudes on nature just to bag a trophy. He considers aspects of fishing, such as whether fish feel pain and whether catch-and-release fishing is abusive to the fish. Elsewhere in the book, Kerasote advocates for some dramatic changes to hunting laws, greater access for female hunters, the elimination of sport and trophy hunting, and increased licensing fees. The Publishers Weekly reviewer called Kerasote's work "beautifully written."

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog chronicles Kerasote's many-year relationship with his faithful, but highly independent, canine companion, Merle. The author describes how Merle came into his life. While he and friends were camping along the San Juan River, an emaciated Labrador-retriever mix approached him and, almost as if concluding that Kerasote wasn't great but was good enough, climbed aboard his raft. Merle came back with Kerasote and soon became a well-known fixture in his home town of Kelly, Wyoming. In allowing Merle the greatest possible range of freedom, Kerasote installed a dog door that permitted the dog to come and go as he pleased. Kerasote found that this greater level of autonomy resulted in a stronger and more trusting bond between human and animal.

Reviewer Barbara B. Petura, writing on WorkingDogWeb, commented that "people who want to really understand their dogs, their intelligence, their emotions, and their potential will find this book very worthwhile. At the heart of this book is the idea that the dog can think, learn, communicate, decide for themselves what is best, and exhibit a range of emotions." Kerasote expressed a similar sentiment in explaining the reasons why he wrote the book. "One of my aims in writing Merle's Door was not only to tell the story of a remarkable dog who was one of my best friends, but also to give readers accurate information about the origins of dogs, the dog-human partnership, and how dogs think," Kerasote stated in the Harcourt Web site interview. With this book, "Kerasote gives readers much to consider that will enrich their own relationships with their pets," commented Edell M. Schaefer in a Library Journal review. A Kirkus Reviews critic named it a "thoughtful look at animal intelligence and the human-dog connection."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Animals' Agenda, January 1, 1995, Jim Mason, review of Bloodties: Nature, Culture, and the Hunt, p. 40.

Backpacker, June, 1994, Jeff Rennicke, review of Bloodties, p. 102.

Booklist, July, 1993, Gilbert Taylor, review of Bloodties, p. 1936; December 15, 1997, Gilbert Taylor, review of Heart of Home: People, Wildlife, Place, p. 680; June 1, 2007, Nancy Bent, review of Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog, p. 13; November 1, 2007, Laurie Hartshorn, review of Merle's Door, p. 72.

Choice, February, 1994, J.G. Hoff, review of Bloodties, p. 967; May, 2002, D. Goldblum, review of Return of the Wild: The Future of Our Natural Lands, p. 1612.

Entertainment Weekly, June 29, 2007, Karen Leigh, "Marley's Ghosts," review of Merle's Door, p. 143.

Environmental Ethics, winter, 1997, Steven J. Bissell, review of Bloodties.

Internet Bookwatch, September, 2007, review of Merle's Door.

Journal of American Culture, March, 2005, Jeffrey P. Cain, review of Out There: In the Wild in a Wired Age, p. 148.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2007, review of Merle's Door.

Library Journal, June 15, 1993, Roland Person, review of Bloodties, p. 74; November 15, 1997, Randy Dykhuis, review of Heart of Home, p. 73; May 15, 2007, Edell M. Schaefer, review of Merle's Door, p. 108.

New York Times, August 9, 1993, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Bloodties, p. 14.

New York Times Book Review, September 12, 1993, Cullen Murphy, review of Bloodties, p. 29.

Publishers Weekly, July 11, 1994, review of Bloodties, p. 76; November 17, 1997, review of Heart of Home, p. 48; April 9, 2007, review of Merle's Door, p. 39; September 24, 2007, review of Merle's Door, p. 68.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2007, review of Merle's Door.

Reference Services Review, annual, 1996, review of Bloodties, p. 39.

SciTech Book News, September, 2002, review of Return of the Wild, p. 56.

Utne: A Different Read on Life, March 1, 2005, Chris Dodge, review of Out There, p. 28.

ONLINE

Harcourt Web site,http://www.harcourtbooks.com/ (January 8, 2008), interview with Ted Kerasote.

Ted Kerasote Home Page,http://www.kerasote.com (January 8, 2008).

WorkingDogWeb,http://www.workingdogweb.com/ (January 8, 2008), Barbara B. Petura, review of Merle's Door.