The Snow Leopard: Peter Matthiessen

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Chapter 46: Joining up the Spots: Aligning Approaches to Big Cat Conservation from Policy to the Field Schaller, G., R. Junrang, Q. Mingjiang. 1988. Status of the snow leopard Panthera uncia in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, China. Biological Conservation, 45(3): 179-194.

Brings together the most current scientific knowledge, documents the most pressing conservation issues, and shares success stories in alleviating the broad threats that now jeopardize the long-term survival of this species

A masterpiece that exceeds the boundaries of the travel genre and envelops you with its incredible prose.”— Wall Street Journal I listened to this read by Gunnar Johnson in Swedish, the translation having been done by Maj Frisch. Both the translation and the narration are in my view exemplary. I had no trouble listening. The narrator’s calm tone fits the book’s message well. Four stars to Gunnar Johnson. I will keep an eye out for this narrator in the future.

The Hook - Peter Matthiessen passed away April 5, 2014 at the age of 86. I had read some of his fiction, loving the way his adventuresome novel Far Tartuga (1975) made me feel. I decided it was time to give this memoir, The Snow Leopard (1978) recounting his climb of Mount Everest in search of Blue Sheep and a quest to spot the elusive snow leopard a try. But there is a disarming directness and honesty to Matthiessen's account, he tells us that his relationship with his wife was bad, until he really realises that she is going to die, he tells us about his restless travels and drug taking, he tells us that his boots are not broken in before the journey, he tells us of his longing for inner peace just as in the next paragraph he will talk about how angry he is, indeed how angry he was even before his wife died. For two months of 1973, from late September to late November, Matthiessen joined zoologist George Schaller on a journey from the Nepalese Himalayas to the Tibetan Plateau to study Himalayan blue sheep. Both also harbored a hope of spotting the elusive snow leopard.I'm a little embarrassed to say I hadn't paid attention to much of Matthiessen's work before he died. I had Shadow Country on my shelf and every intention of getting to it soon, but didn't realize he had this whole other nonfiction output. I read the Snow Leopard after I read his obit three weeks ago and discovered he was the only person (?) to win the National Book Award for BOTH fiction and nonfiction. OK, so, maybe it was time to throw off my veil of ignorance and start reading some Matthiessen. I figured 'The Snow Leopard' was a good place to start. Perhaps the argument is that, until you are at peace with yourself, you cannot really do much for others. But I don't buy that, and if there's the second half of the argument, then it wasn't made in this book. So I'm afraid that his experiences under the sacred Bodhi tree are somewhat wasted on me. Geraghty, V., J. Mooney, K. Pike. 1981. A study of parasitic infections in mammals and birds at the Dublin Zoological Gardens. Veterinary Research Communications, 5(1): 343-348. Chapter 21: Role of Zoos in Snow Leopard Conservation: Management of Captive Snow Leopards in the EAZA Region