The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Name: The Log from the Sea of Cortez
SKU: 95503
Availability: InStock

4.5 | 956 ratings

Price: 13.78

Last update: 12-26-2024

About this item

The Log from the Sea of Cortez is the exciting day-by-day account of Steinbeck's trip to the Gulf of California with biologist Ed Ricketts. Drawn from the longer Sea of Cortez, it is a wonderful combination of science, philosophy, and high-spirited adventure.

Schuyler T Wallace

ONE OF THIS AUTHOR"S BEST BOOKS

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2020

I possess what I thought was a complete collection of John Steinbeck’s works but “The Log from the Sea of Cortez” is not included. In fact I knew nothing about it. When I saw it advertised, I had to read it. I have it now and I can say it might be my favorite Steinbeck effort. Yes, the usual Steinbeck meanderings are still there and somewhat distracting, but I found them to be more lucid here, as if he intentionally intended to wander but was willing to explain their presence with no apology. They were very interesting and I gobbled them up like the hungry tuna he explored on his journey. Why were they not distracting? Because this was an expedition with lots of time to search out and ruminate on other subjects, which he did.

Take teleology, for instance; the study of the presence of things and why they exist in the world. He devotes an entire chapter and makes numerous other references in his book to explain why things are what they are. The simple answer? Because they are. Simple as that. Of course he goes into great detail to reach that conclusion. As you read about it, you’ll find yourself nodding your head in agreement to what seems a senseless answer. You’ll also find yourself carelessly skimming over the scientific names of the flora and fauna collected by the adventurers and not even be ashamed of your indolence. You’ll find yourself enveloped in the ennui that heat and humidity and boredom can bring, even as you are strenuously dipping up thousands of remarkable and beautiful specimens. Hour after hour of this tedious work can wear on the reader as much as the explorer. Steinbeck explores this lapse of industriousness in his depictions of the beauty, peacefulness and heaviness of the surroundings.

But Steinbeck also captures the excitement of the expedition with all its hardship, mind numbing concentration, and thrill of discovery through his descriptive and graphic writing skills. The reader feels right in the middle of the heat and humidity, feeling the chill of tidal water swirling around his feet, the sting of sea urchin spines penetrating the hands and arms, and the pain of other cuts and lacerations from ferociously defensive small crabs and other unfriendly inhabitants of the tide pools. He is also adept at depicting the friendly reception they got from most of the human inhabitants of the Baja California gulf. As poor and hungry as they might appear to be, they seemed always trustworthy and honest during their encounters. There was some talk of native cannibalism, but the author was more concerned with the attitude of his hungry companions and wondered who would get the first bite should they meet some suspicious natives carrying a large boiling pot.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a different Steinbeck than I’m used to but still enjoyable, notwithstanding some typical stuffiness. If you like marine exploration adventures, and the complexities they bring, you should give it a try.

Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

Buyer BeAware

A wonderful book with two authors

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2024

This is the narrative portion of *The Sea of Cortez*, the report of the marine biological expedition to the Sea of Cortez conducted by Ed Ricketts and Steinbeck. This book, *The Log from the Sea of Cortez* is a wonderful book that I have read and reread a number of time. Much of the original book was Ed Ricketts' report of the scientific findings of the work conducted during this expedition. Ricketts is not credited for his central contributions to this the book's narrative log. Richart Astro's introduction to this book does, though, provide an important description of Ricketts' contribution (see page xvi). Steinbeck and Ricketts had long been friends dating from the 1930s and Ricketts provided a model for the central character in Steinbeck's novel *Cannery Row." Much of the log's philosophical excursions are Ricketts', although Steinbeck and their good friend Joseph Campbell and others had discussed it together over the years. It is filled with narratives of travel, biological field study, ecological musing, and more. A good Read!

Roland Beech

Not a must read but enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2024

Quite fun, although a bit repetitive on all the collecting passages...other Steinbeck books of course more powerful but good moments

C.J. PICKETT

Read at sea, and reviewed at sea

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2014

The following is a letter I received from a friend, away on a research cruise.
Before her expedition embarked, I gave to her my treasured copy of this book,
and this is what she had to say:

"Day 14 at Sea.

"After spending a good week of troubleshooting, rebuilding arrays,
breaking them, re-fixing them, dealing with conflicting egos
(including my own), switching wires, and dealing with the
unfamiliarity of sea-sickness (due in two parts to my cold and the
magnificent roll of this ship), I have finally finished Sea of Cortez.
While it's fresh in my mind, I thought I'd jot down my thoughts to
send your way. This is going to be more of a letter than a note, as
the mood has struck me. Sans cigarette, however. I do not favor the
idea of clinging to my laptop on deck, protecting it from the
elements.

"Also, holy crap, has it really only been two weeks?

"SUCH a romantic story, from start to appendix. This idea that even
post Depression Era people could scrap together enough savings to
afford such a lavish, albeit business, adventure. I think of the
modern day scramble to get grants, itemized so precisely, spent only
on what you thought you may need six month prior. I far prefer the
notion of pooling together funds until one can afford to hire or buy
the required equipment, sketching out the necessities and desired
goods as you go. I took to reading this book during my breaks up on
the flying bridge, wind and sea around me. Reading this book at sea
was a good idea, though I was frequently interrupted by visual
observers passing by and asking me what part I was up to. Many of
them harbored a great fondness for the book.

"The passage about the futility of hope and how it weakens us as a
species set the whole tone of the book for me. We have hope, and
therefore we are disillusioned. I imaged the different outlook on
life high school graduates may have if that paragraph was recited to
them at graduation, instead of the usual spiel about how special they
all are. It shouldn't be read in a negative way, as that's not how
it's written. But in a matter-of-fact way, that this is an obstacle
in life which one must acknowledge if they are going to be satisfied
with whatever the end up setting their minds to.

"The descriptions of the towns along the peninsula made me sore for
travel. Though I am certainly on a current adventure, I love traveling
to new places and walking around, getting a feel for the people (as
well as their beer and coffee). This book, however, also sets you
back in time to villages that likely do not exist in the same manner
anymore. They mention how either La Paz or Loreto was in the middle
of constructing a hotel-like building that would bring floods of
weekenders from LA and elsewhere, and how sick that makes them. How
sick would they be now with the modern "Floridaization" of sea side
Mexico. I'd love to take a road trip down, compare and contrast their
experience (albeit through the lens of stylized storytelling) with the
current reality (of course through my own lens, as that's the only
reality I can know).

"The bit about the Japanese shrimping fleet broke my heart a bit,
because the authors were spot on. The Gulf of California fishing
industry is a shell of what it could have been mostly thanks to gill
netting and those huge bottom trawlers that destroyed everything in
their path. The fact that this was evident 60 years ago to people of
an academic mind and no protective actions were taken gives me little
faith in our ability to save anything now. The Vaquita, the smallest
porpoise in the world, which lives exclusively in the northern region
of the Gulf, is quickly being exterminated by a barely profitable gill
netting industry. The extinction of a species can be avoided if people
just fished a different way. There is such a wall against doing
things the right way rather than the first way we happened to stumble
upon. I have heard fisherman say "God will always make sure there is
enough fish in the sea." *facepalm* Because the bible never says
anything about an angry and vengeful god testing his people to live
within their means.

"Speaking of God, I enjoy the idea of such an entity being expressed as
a mathematical symbol for an expanding universe. As a non-believer,
that notion suits me.

"What also broke my heart is the amount of animals they killed. Not
just the ones they took (and as they often repeated 'a great many of
them'), some they just mortally wounded. Then they head out on a
hunting trip and repeat frequently how they don't like killing things,
they only do it when necessary. People used to have such a causal
attitude towards killing things, like the cats which may or may not
have been pets. I don't have a strong objection to killing for the
sake of the animal. As we have previously discussed, once its dead it
doesn't know the difference. Life is only as precious as the pedestal
we place it on. But that poor shark they left to suffocate on their
deck, that's a horrible death. I also understand that most for most
people, to properly study biology you have to sacrifice the animal you
work with. That isn't a reality for me. Not because I don't have the
stomach for it, but because that isn't the nature of my work. But when
I was killing fish on a regular basis, you at least try to only kill
the ones you need, rather than killing as many samples as possible to
the point of not having enough collection jars to hold them. It's
superfluous. If something can live, let it live. If the purpose of
their expedition was to go tide pooling, why did they need to harpoon
a great manta ray? Mantas don't make a regular practice of checking
out tide pools, as far as I am aware.

"It's an older way of thinking. An older methodology. One of the
reasons the Ivory-billed Woodpecker went extinct was because
naturalists found out they were disappearing, and then promptly went
out and killed as many as possible to preserve specimens. I don't
think we, the biological community, are that out of touch now. Or at
least, I hope not.

"There were some other notes about the old-fashion-ness of this story,
but I fear this letter is too long, and I don't want to bore you. All
of these thoughts are just at the front of my mind, and the more I
type the more I remember. I'll end with Steinbeck's attempt to "lay
the ghost" of Ed Ricketts, which is just as sweet as you had promised.
His snapshot of the man he knew, as beautiful as it was, does not rid
him from the loss of his late friend. This was a bittersweet moment
for me, as it rang true for my own losses. Memories of them still
tingle with every day occurrences, mostly unexpected. Reading that
Steinbeck still carried the ghost of Ed Ricketts brought both comfort
and sadness.

"I suppose it'll always be confusing. So I will leave it for now.

"I hope all is well with you. :)

"x x"

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