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Summary: A must read for all "chicken neckers"
Review: A wonderfull read of life on the Chesapeake. My next charter will be to explore all the historic towns brought to life in this facinating book.
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Summary: Great little-known classic
Review: Although not nearly as well known as it should be, I consider this one of the 20th century's great works of popular science and/or nature writing, among which I would include Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring, Paul de Kruif's Microbe Hunters, Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape, Lincoln Barnett's The Universe and Dr. Einstein, Freud's The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Lancelot Hogben's Mathematics for the Million, Martin Gardner's Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine, and so on. It is the most readable and enjoyable by far of all of these books, and yet is the least known, so if you've missed this little gem, you are in for a rare experience, because this is a wonderful book.
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Summary: A wonderful book, please read it now!
Review: An exquisite book that becomes more important with time as the baymen disappear & bay ecosystems continue to be pressured by overdevelopment. I've read this book a number of times, always with pleasure. It has helped me to understand & see Jersey's waters more clearly - Barnegat, Delaware, Raritan & Newark Bays, & all the mucky urban estuaries where the blue claws thrive again although they cannot be eaten. Yes, it is true that Jerseyans favor chicken over bunker. But Jersey crabs belong to the Crustacean Union & their contract stipulates chicken. Bob Rixon, WFMU-FM
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Summary: My Favorite Book of All Time
Review: As a kid in Marblehead, Mass. I liked to catch crabs off the rocks. When I grew up a bit, I learned to eat them too---a very succulent food that I still love. But, I must confess that I never thought of reading books about them until one day I ran across William Warner's BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS in a college bookshop. This wonderful work contains all you ever wanted to know about the life cycle of one particular kind of crab that lives in Chesapeake Bay (the kind you probably smashed with mallets if you ever went to that area). Surprisingly, for most of its life, the Atlantic blue crab has nothing to do with beer. Taking it for a focus, Warner draws connections with the sea, the rivers, the crab-friendly environment that produced such a wealth of the creatures, and then the people who live from that wealth, the islanders who lived isolated for centuries, but are now firmly within the web of modern life. Warner tells of the marketing of crabs, the catching of other Chesapeake products like oysters, and even of festivals like a Miss Crustacean contest ! You can learn about esoterica like crab pots, the Waterman's Union, the religious heritage of crabbers, and lots more. My edition came with a number of excellent pencil drawings of crabs, crabbers, and maritime scenes from the area. I was disappointed by only one thing----reaching the end of this great book.
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Summary: Beautiful book on an unlikely subject
Review: As a kid in Marblehead, Mass. I liked to catch crabs off the rocks. When I grew up a bit, I learned to eat them too---a very succulent food that I still love. But, I must confess that I never thought of reading books about them until one day I ran across William Warner's BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS in a college bookshop. This wonderful work contains all you ever wanted to know about the life cycle of one particular kind of crab that lives in Chesapeake Bay (the kind you probably smashed with mallets if you ever went to that area). Surprisingly, for most of its life, the Atlantic blue crab has nothing to do with beer. Taking it for a focus, Warner draws connections with the sea, the rivers, the crab-friendly environment that produced such a wealth of the creatures, and then the people who live from that wealth, the islanders who lived isolated for centuries, but are now firmly within the web of modern life. Warner tells of the marketing of crabs, the catching of other Chesapeake products like oysters, and even of festivals like a Miss Crustacean contest ! You can learn about esoterica like crab pots, the Waterman's Union, the religious heritage of crabbers, and lots more. My edition came with a number of excellent pencil drawings of crabs, crabbers, and maritime scenes from the area. I was disappointed by only one thing----reaching the end of this great book.
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Summary: Engaging exploration of relationship between man and the sea
Review: As a recovering 20th-century American lit major, regrettably my reading list (beyond Melville's classic and a certain Hemingway novella) lacked a certain maritime flavor in deference to social issues, the human experience, and anything that could somehow be interpreted as sublime or lead to a seriously insightful opium habit. Having said this, I encourage everyone to read William W. Warner's 'Beautiful Swimmers: Waterman, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay'. In terms of exploring the relationship between humanity and the sea, I have never read anything more eloquent. Its prose is refreshingly simple, but very engaging, with detailed sketches to enhance the authenticity. I've read several books twice, a handful three times. As of last night, 'Beautiful Swimmers' is the only one I've read for a fourth time. Many books (Moby Dick for example) merit more than a single reading mostly because they are too dense to "get" on a first run. It is the rare book that begs for multiple sittings simply because it's a joy to go back to the same words again and again. I'm a voracious reader, read my first novel (Jack London's 'Call of the Wild') when I was seven and have been buried in some book ever since; in my experience, 'Beautiful Swimmers' is one of about six or seven books that fit this "joy to read" category.
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Summary: It Takes You There....
Review: Beautiful Swimmers will make you feel like you are a part of growing up in the Chesapeake Bay region. If you already did so, it will bring you back home.
Beautiful Swimmers serves as excellent literature for a multitude of readers: naturalists, historians, travellers, and folks who enjoy reading a good novel. It also provides a good blend of natural and cultural resource history.
I moved to the Chesapeake Bay area (Deale, MD) several years ago and was referred to Beautiful Swimmers by several members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Prior to reading Beautiful Swimmers, I grew extremely fond of living on the bay. Since reading the book, I have that much more appreciation for the culture of the bay.
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Summary: This is a book to share...
Review: I discovered this book on my brothers bookshelf while visiting the Eastern shore, and read it in two sittings. An absolutely fascinating book on the Bay, the Eastern shore, the blue crab and more. William W. Warner's gifted prose depicts the watermen and their life in a way that is both honest,sympathetic and informative. As a non-native Washingtonian, this book finally explains so many of the mysteries of the bay -- from soft shell crab and how/why they get that way --to Tangier Island and how/why it became so popular. It is the kind of book you immediately want to share with your friends... your family... your lunch bunch... the guy sitting next to you on the subway..
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Summary: A superior "real life" visit along The Cheseapeake Bay
Review: I have treasured this book that was a gift from my late grandmother who was a native of Norfolk, Virginia and lived along the Chesapeake Bay during her entire life. Beautiful Swimmers is one of the finest books in my library. I have both a hardbound and softcover copy. This book brings "The Bay" to life in a very rich and abundant way. Warner has accomplished a perspective that places you comfortably among the waterman and the life of the Chesapeake Bay. Having grown up in coastal Virginia, this book allowed me to gently return to my childhood and my times spent in pursuit of blue crabs to sell to neighbors for pocket money and for my family's dinner table. A fine read! I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: An enduring classic: man, commerce, sea, and crab intertwine
Review: I left my last copy of this book on an airline, where I was re-reading it for probably the tenth time, and am once more at this site to purchase a bunch more copies, for myself and as gifts to friends. This is a magnificent naturalist book, for anyone who has ever eaten a blue crab, caught one (they are smart and dumb at the same time, getting immersed in their eating the bait that they don't see your net, but brilliant escape artists the moment they focus on their peril), spent time anywhere along the Chesapeake, wondered about the lives of fishermen, or the cycles of the sea.
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