Diane Ackerman - A Natural History of the Senses

This is one of the best books of the yearby any measure you want to apply. It is interesting, informative, very well written. This book can be opened on any page and read with relish. thoroughly delightful Dont miss it.

St. Petersburg Times

This book is pure ecstasy. It is a treasure trove of information, diverse in space and time and culture but all related to the pleasures of sensory experience.

Houston Chronicle

Ms. Ackerman is an athlete of the senses. To think our way back into feeling: this is [her] mission, and shes very persuasive. On every other page, theres a nice apercu.

The New York Times Book Review

[Ackermans] fascinating book inspires an enthusiasm for the diversity of human experience and is a tribute to the amazing power of our senses. Its both a sensual feast and a celebration.

Seattle Times

A Natural History of the Senses is as voluptuous a volume as its subject matter cries out for. The charm of Diane Ackermans book is that it arouses awareness and appreciation of sensual life. In small, tasty morsels, it will delight you.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

An intriguing, knowledgeable and compelling book on the science, mood, character and geography of the human senses. But it is [Ackermans] inquiry into the temper and disposition of the senses that endures and settles irresistibly just beneath the readers skin. In exploring the extreme diversity of the human senses and their incredible variegation from culture to culture, Ms. Ackerman manages to reveal just how exceptional, rather than common, human senses are.

Atlanta Journal and Constitution

Often funny, often poignant The synthesis hereAckermans ability to help us see that the sum of our senses is greater than the individual parts, and to do so in language that often resembles a prose poemis all the more impressive for her finesse in linking science with our loftier aspirations.

San Francisco Chronicle

NONFICTION

A Natural History of Love

(1994)

The Moon by Whalelight and Other Adventures
Among Bats, Crocodilians, Penguins, and Whales

(1991)

A Natural History of the Senses

(1990)

On Extended Wings

(1985)

Twilight of the Tenderfoot

(1980)

POETRY

The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral

(1976)

Wife of Light

(1978)

Lady Faustus

(1983)

Reverse Thunder: A Dramatic Poem

(1988)

Jaguar of Sweet Laughter: New and Selected Poems

(1991)

Diane Ackerman was born in Waukegan, Illinois. She received her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University and an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. Her poetry has been published in many leading literary journals, and in the books The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral (1976), Wife of Light (1978), Lady Faustus (1983), Reverse Thunder: A Dramatic Poem (1988), and Jaguar of Sweet Laughter: New and Selected Poems (1991).

Her works of nonfiction include, most recently, A Natural History of Love (1994); The Moon By Whalelight and Other Adventures Among Bats, Crocodilians, Penguins, and Whales (1991); A Natural History of the Senses (1990); and On Extended Wings (1985), a memoir of flying. She is at work on a second book of nature writings, The Rarest of the Rare.

Ms. Ackerman has received the Academy of American Poets Lavan Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation, among other recognitions. She has taught at several universities, including Columbia and Cornell, and she is currently a staff writer for The New Yorker.

VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, FEBRUARY 1995

Copyright 1990 by Diane Ackerman

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1990.

Portions of this work were originally published as first-serial contributions to Parade magazine. Portions of this work were originally published in different form in The New York Times Book Review and Cond Nast Traveler.

Owing to limitations of space, all acknowledgments for permission to reprint previously published material may be found on .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ackerman, Diane
A natural history of the senses / Diane Ackerman.
1st Vintage Books ed
p cm
eISBN: 978-0-307-76331-0
1. Senses and sensation 2 Manners and customs
3 Human behavior I. Title
[BF233A24 1991]
152 1dc20 91-50048

Marbled art 1993 Ashley Miller

v3.1_r1

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

J UDITH R. B IRNBERG : Excerpts from the My Turn column from the March 21, 1988, issue of Newsweek. Reprinted by permission of Judith R. Birnberg.

H ARCOURT B RACE J OVANOVICH , I NC., AND F ABER AND F ABER L IMITED : Three lines from The Dry Salvages from Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot. Copyright 1943 by T. S. Eliot.

Copyright renewed 1971 by Esme Valerie Eliot. Rights throughout the world excluding the United States administered by Faber and Faber Limited. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., and Faber and Faber Limited.

D AVID H ELLERSTEIN : Excerpt from article about skin from the September 1985 issue of Science Digest. Copyright 1985 by David Hellerstein. Reprinted by permission of the author.

L IVERIGHT P UBLISHING C ORPORATION : i like my body when it is with your and two lines from notice the convulsed orange inch of moon from Tulips & Chimneys by e. e. cummings, edited by George James Firmage. Copyright 1923, 1925 by e. e. cummings. Copyright renewed 1951, 1953 by e. e. cummings. Copyright 1973, 1976 by the Trustees for the e. e. cummings Trust. Copyright 1973, 1976 by George James Firmage. Rights throughout the British Commonwealth, excluding Canada, are controlled by Grafton Books, a division of the Collins Publishing Group. These poems appear in Complete Poems, Vol. I by e. e. cummings, published by Grafton Books. Reprinted by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation and Grafton Books, a division of the Collins Publishing Group.

T HE M EDIA D EVELOPMENT G ROUP : Excerpt from an advertisement for Chinese Exercise Balls from The Lifestyle Resource. Copyright 1989 The Lifestyle Resource, The Media Development Group, Norwalk, Conn. Reprinted by permission.

N ATIONAL G EOGRAPHIC S OCIETY : Chapter entitled How to Watch the Sky by Diane Ackerman from The Curious Naturalist. Copyright 1988 by the National Geographic Society. Reprinted by permission of the National Geographic Society.

T HE N EW Y ORK T IMES : Excerpt from an article by Daniel Goleman from February 2, 1988. Copyright 1988 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission. S TERLING L ORD L ITERISTIC , I NC. Excerpt from Curious World by Philip Hamburger. Copyright 1987 by Philip Hamburger. Reprinted by permission of Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.