[A] cascade of a story, colored by sun and water and driven by courage and determination.--Deborah Blum "New York Times Book Review"

Whip-smart, funny, meticulously researched, and beautifully written, Brave the Wild River is required reading for anyone interested in the Grand Canyon, river running, or the ingenuity of plants. It examines the challenges women in science faced in the 1930s--and still face today--but above all it's a story about what it means to risk everything, to follow your heart into the great unknown.--Ash Davidson, author of Damnation Spring

Makes the case that [Elzada] Clover and [Lois] Jotter's study...provides a crucial benchmark in assessing human impact on the environment.-- "The New Yorker"

[Melissa L.] Sevigny paints a picture by describing other elements of the canyon journey.... She goes beyond botanizing and writes about the ancestral Puebloan residents of the area, mapmakers, former explorers, honeymooners.--Mary L. Holden "Los Angeles Review of Books"

Highlights the little-known contributions two women made to our knowledge about the Southwest ecology. And it pays homage to a pair of scientists far ahead of their time.--Anita Snow "Associated Press"

[Melissa L. Sevigny] writes beautifully about the geology and botany of the Grand Canyon and the challenges Clover and Jotter met as they collected and preserved the extraordinary region's plants.... [An] artful account.--Ann Fabian "National Book Review"

Artfully bridges a gap of nearly 100 years to shape the timeless story of a shared human experience with nature.--Joan Meiners "Arizona Republic"

[Melissa L. Sevigny] whips jaw-dropping metaphor from thin air, not losing momentum as she weaves beautiful poetry through a clear, engaging narrative.--Rebecca Lawton "Boatman's Quarterly Review"

Sweeps up the reader in its seamless weaving of histories with a geographically rich narrative.... [A] brilliant and elegantly written book.--Geri Lipschultz "Terrain.org"

Brings the expertise of a science writer to a story partly about science and the challenges of women's place in it, about the botany of the Grand Canyon.... Sevigny is a fine writer and tells the story well.--John Miles "National Parks Traveler"

A beautiful tribute to two pioneering women of science.--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

[A] marvelous history.... Drawing on Clover and Jotter's journals and letters, Sevigny recreates their expedition in novelistic detail, producing a narrative as propulsive as the current of the Colorado. Readers will be swept away.--Publishers Weekly, starred review

[Melissa L. Sevigny is] a spellbinding writer of informed and ardent attentiveness, wit, and empathy.... A breath-catching, enlightening, and significant work of scientific, environmental, and women's history.--Booklist, starred review

Brave the Wild River is everything a book should be, at once a biography, a thriller, and a vivid piece of science writing. In Melissa L. Sevigny's breathtaking prose, the legendary Grand Canyon comes alive in honey mesquite, riparian forests, and desert blooms. Sevigny defines the wild as a 'place that changes us, ' and she has written a book that is destined to permanently alter the way you see the world.--Nathalia Holt, best-selling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars

Melissa L. Sevigny embroiders the Grand Canyon with plants who become as much characters as the people. She tells a ripping story full of heart, grit, and a river readers will take in the teeth.--Craig Childs, author of Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America

Melissa L. Sevigny, a rising star in science writing, has written a captivating book that journeys through the American West in company of two intrepid women botanists. This is a book celebrating women in science, particularly those adventurers who defied the bounds imposed on their gender to encounter the natural world in its wild power and beauty. Brave the Wild River redefines the Grand Canyon not as testing ground for masculine virility but as proving ground for women's tenacity and intelligence. Filled with adventure and fresh seeing, it makes a superb contribution to literature of the American West.--Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of A Woven World: On Fashion, Fishermen, and the Sardine Dress

Telling the story of Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter's expedition in vivid, riveting detail, Melissa L. Sevigny makes the Colorado River's Grand Canyon ecosystem come alive. At a time when the Colorado River is at a crisis point, Brave the Wild River provides a captivating narrative of Clover and Jotter's important scientific contributions along with fascinating historical details.--Christie Aschwanden, best-selling author of Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery

What a joy to venture down the canyons with two new heroines so ahead of their time. A remarkable tale masterfully told. I loved every page.--Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative

A page-turner...marvelous and informative.--Barbara J. King "Science"

A vivid history.... [G]ripping.-- "People"

One of the finest river stories of the Grand Canyon...a long overdue, richly deserved, and beautifully written tribute to a pair of legendary botanists.--Kevin Fedarko, author of The Emerald Mile

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2024-05-14

Length: 304 pages