“America’s Snake” Author Talk with Ted Levin

By Sarah Liebowitz; A&E Editor

On September 8, 2016

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“America’s Snake” Author Talk with Ted Levin

Sarah Liebowitz

A&E Editor

svl1010@plymouth.edu

There aren't many rattlesnakes in New England, but the few that survive in forests and mountains are mostly timber rattlesnakes. It is the only snake with a true rattle that lives in New Hampshire.

Ted Levin will talk about this iconic creature and his new book “America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake” on Tuesday, Sep. 13 at the Pease Public Library. Levin is a naturalist and former zoologist at the Bronx Zoo. He has written several other books, and contributed to publications such as Audubon, National Geographic Traveler, and Sports Illustrated.

Although Levin had been thinking of the book for years, the journey began in 2007 when he began a self-generated assignment through Audubon magazine. He spent time with Rulon Clark, a postdoctoral scholar who studied the social behavior of timber rattlesnakes.

“He made the snakes, for me, come alive in a way that I never in a million years would have imagined,” said Levin, during a talk at Vermont’s Norwich bookstore this past May.

This led to Levin’s study of rattlesnakes, which has occupied the biggest part of the last ten years of his life.

Levin’s 520 page book isn’t simply a scientific account. It blends natural history with entertaining stories and creative language.

As an example, in one line, Levin describes how a rattlesnake moves. “It flows in a straight line rather like melting candle wax,” he wrote. These types of lines, as well as elements of humor and fun, are commonplace in Levin’s book. The book succeeds in being entertaining, engaging, and informative at the same time.

Perhaps most importantly, Levin’s book places the timber rattlesnake in the context of the U.S. and its surroundings. “What does a timber rattlesnake mean to an eastern deciduous forest or to the talus or to the white-footed mouse or to the hungry red-tailed hawk that hangs on a draft above a gestating site, its wings as level as Nebraska?” The book asks. “What precisely does a rattlesnake mean to you?”

The book talk and book signing for “America’s Snake” take place on Tuesday, Sept. 13 from 5:30-6:30 p.m., at the Pease Public Library.