The Nanticoke: Portrait of a Chesapeake River

by David W. Harp, Tom Horton

Overview

Once again marrying photography with prose, longtime collaborators David W. Harp and Tom Horton capture the natural beauty and rich history of the Nanticoke River, one of the Chesapeake’s least known waterways.

Despite rampant development and agricultural abuse, the Nanticoke remains one of the most pristine rivers of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, looking much as it did when Captain John Smith first sailed its waters four hundred years ago. While parts of the river drain stormwater off the flat fields of the Delmarva Peninsula, most of the Nanticoke serves no purpose except natural beauty. Its meandering waters and fertile wetlands sustain a remarkable diversity of life. The Nanticoke is home to beavers, otters, woodpeckers, freshwater fish and shellfish, watergrasses, bog orchids, bald cypresses, and the rare Atlantic white cedar.

More than one hundred color photographs reveal unspoiled waters rarely glimpsed other than by Native Americans, tugboat captains, naturalists, and commercial waterman. The Nanticoke makes clear the urgency of preserving this vital but fragile ecosystem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801890574
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	12/31/2008
Edition description:	20
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	650,420
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David W. Harp saved to acquire his first camera at the age of 12 and has been taking pictures ever since. Former staff photographer for the Baltimore Sun Magazine, Harp has received awards from the Maryland, Delaware, and D.C. Press Association and the National Press Photographers Association. His photography is regularly featured in national environmental and lifestyle magazines.

Tom Horton reported on the Chesapeake Bay for the Baltimore Sun for fifteen years before becoming a freelancer in 1987. Available from Johns Hopkins, Horton's first book, Bay Country, won the John Burroughs Medal for our nation's best natural history book of the year. David W. Harp and Tom Horton's previous books, Water's Way: Life along the Chesapeake and The Great Marsh: An Intimate Journey into a Chesapeake Wetland, are also published by Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Rivertops
2. The Confluence
3. Vienna
4. Tuggers
5. Lower River
6. Options
7. 400 Years
8. River Time

What People are Saying About This

William Baker

Dave Harp's photography and Tom Horton's text are nothing short of inspirational.

— William Baker, President, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

From the Publisher

Dave Harp's photography and Tom Horton's text are nothing short of inspirational.
—William Baker, President, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Editorial Reviews

Harp's photographs . . . have, I think, finally surpassed the late Aubrey Bodine's famously romantic shots of the Chesapeake.
—John Goodspeed, Easton Star Democrat

Tom Horton has a poet's touch and a realist's frankness as he writes of the delicate ecology of this great aquatic system.
—Islands Magazine

A paean to this chief river of Delaware and Maryland . . . Horton and Harp offer an exquisite look at the people, plants and animals living on the river and its marshlands.
—Diane Scharper, Baltimore Sun

This book matches Harp's stunning nature photography with Horton's shrewd observations and informed analysis.
—Baltimore Magazine

Horton mixes poetic sensibiity, profound knowledge and hard-edged realism in his descriptions of one of Chesapeake Country's best-preserved rivers. Harp's photographs make you want to set out in a canoe.
—Ben Miller, Bay Weekly

Like a stroll back hrough time to a peaceful place, the reader will find this book relaxing and enjoyable.
—Wildlife Activist

From the Publisher

Like a stroll back hrough time to a peaceful place, the reader will find this book relaxing and enjoyable.

Wildlife Activist

This book matches Harp's stunning nature photography with Horton's shrewd observations and informed analysis.

Baltimore Magazine

Harp's photographs . . . have, I think, finally surpassed the late Aubrey Bodine's famously romantic shots of the Chesapeake.

Easton Star Democrat - John Goodspeed

A paean to this chief river of Delaware and Maryland . . . Horton and Harp offer an exquisite look at the people, plants and animals living on the river and its marshlands.

Baltimore Sun - Diane Scharper

Horton mixes poetic sensibiity, profound knowledge and hard-edged realism in his descriptions of one of Chesapeake Country's best-preserved rivers. Harp's photographs make you want to set out in a canoe.

Bay Weekly - Ben Miller

Tom Horton has a poet's touch and a realist's frankness as he writes of the delicate ecology of this great aquatic system.

Islands Magazine

Horton mixes poetic sensibiity, profound knowledge and hard-edged realism in his descriptions of one of Chesapeake Country's best-preserved rivers. Harp's photographs make you want to set out in a canoe.

— Ben Miller

Bay Weekly

A paean to this chief river of Delaware and Maryland... Horton and Harp offer an exquisite look at the people, plants and animals living on the river and its marshlands.

— Diane Scharper

Baltimore Sun

Harp's photographs... have, I think, finally surpassed the late Aubrey Bodine's famously romantic shots of the Chesapeake.

— John Goodspeed

Easton Star Democrat