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The Lost Words
Robert Macfarlane
Item #:
9781487005382
Price:
$35.00
In 2007, when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary —
widely used in schools around the world — was published, a
sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around forty common words
concerning nature had been dropped. Apparently they were no
longer being used enough by children to merit their place in
the dictionary. The list of these “lost words” included acorn,
adder, bluebell, dandelion, fern, heron, kingfisher, newt,
otter, and willow. Among the words taking their place were
attachment, blog, broadband, bullet-point, cut-and-paste, and
voice-mail. The news of these substitutions — the outdoor and
natural being displaced by the indoor and virtual — became
seen by many as a powerful sign of the growing gulf between
childhood and the natural world.
Ten years later, Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris set out
to make a “spell book” that will conjure back twenty of these
lost words, and the beings they name, from acorn to wren. By
the magic of word and paint, they sought to summon these words
again into the voices, stories, and dreams of children and
adults alike, and to celebrate the wonder and importance of
everyday nature. The Lost Words is that book — a work
that has already cast its extraordinary spell on hundreds of
thousands of people and begun a grass-roots movement to
re-wild childhood across Britain, Europe, and North America.
Book, 128 pages. This book is published in a
larger
than usual format measuring 14.4" x 10.75".
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