The Forgotten Peninsula: A Naturalist in Baja California

I loved reading this book about the Baja of years past and relating it to the places I was now seeing -- but the changes over the years were tremendous! Don't expect this to reflect the Baja of today.

I first read Joseph Wood Krutch in an introduction he wrote to "Walden and other writings". Undoubtedly Thoreau influenced Krutch's world view and philosophy (so much so you would say that he evolved from a drama critic to a naturalist, although no doubt both of these interests occupied him concurrently at least for some portion of his life). The Forgotten Peninsula is a fine book by a naturalist. Krutch described the desert plants and marine animals as well as the human and natural history of Baja California based on several trips he made (some the "hard way" by 4-wheel vehicles, some the "easy way" by plane). The descriptions are crisp and vivid, if somewhat detached. I deduct one star because sometimes I wish he was a little more emotional, more personal and more passionate in his writing -- maybe this is why another reviewer thinks it is a "dry listing" (actually it is much better than that). Perhaps he was too content with being (and indeed he may have intended to be) merely an observer. The last two chapters posed some profound questions about the place of the human race in nature and the virtue of progress. This is a book written almost 50 years ago, reading these questions in the context of what the world has become now gives one much to ponder. No doubt a lot of things described in this book may have long disappeared, but ironically Baja is forgotten no more (ever heard of or seen on ESPN Baja 500?). Yet reading the book still makes one want to go to Baja California (a place I have not yet been to) to see what little still remains there.

This is the book we use on NOLS expeditions, and we have to literally carry these books. It is worth carrying.

This is one of the books that first drew me to Baja california years ago. Unfortunately much of what Krutch saw has inevitably been swept away by the rising tide of tourism & development, but enough remains that Krutch's lyrical prose is more than a eulogy, one can still find some of teh magic that he describes so well here. I would strongly reccomend this book to anyone planning on visiting Baja California and/or anyone who is interested in the intersection between natural history and literature -one gets both here.