Description: An immensely engaging and profusely illustrated natural history of the sperm whale by a world-renowned writer and artist of marine life. This is a supreme guide to the planet's most intelligent, elusive, and endangered species--and also goes further to explore this iconic whale's impact on our history, environment, and culture.
Review Quotes:
"Richard Ellis is a prolific and graceful writer who's written some of the best natural history books of the past decade."--New York Times Book Review
"Ellis is fun to read, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic."--Washington Post Book World
"Ellis's great book on the great sperm whale is encyclopedic, compelling, and quite simply very difficult to put down."--The Quarterly Review of Biology
"Ellis's engaging book is the most definitive account to date of this fascinating and iconic species."--American Scientist
"A remarkable book which cleverly and unsentimentally combines scientific and historical material in a way which will be of great interest to whale enthusiasts. As an entertainingly written review of the sperm whale literature, it is something of a triumph . . . The portrait of the sperm whale that emerges is of a truly amazing example of mammalian evolution."--Times Literary Supplement
"A noted whale artist explores the natural history of the sperm whale, to spectacular effect. . . . A principle joy of The Great Sperm Whale is its wonderful illustrations. But he also evokes the leviathan in all its guises--scientific, literary, and legendary--from the history of whaling to the sperm whale's great adversary, the giant squid."--BBC Wildlife
"A rich exploration of the evolution and biology of this giant sea creature."--Science News
"At once a richly detailed, informative, scientific exploration as well as a love sonnet to the ocean's greatest leviathan, this will appeal to fans of nautical history, nature, Melville, and armchair cetologists. A superb addition to Ellis's canon."--Library Journal