By Tanya Sousa
I’m a writer in large part because of a man who lived in Vermont and was already writing before I was born. He was writing about the very things I was and still am passionate about – nature and our human interaction with it.
“He” was naturalist and author Ronald Rood, a long-time resident of Lincoln, Vermont, who’s prolific career left the world with over 30 books and countless positive interactions with youth. When I’m asked who has influenced me, and I mention his name, I am shocked and saddened that most haven’t heard of this amazing man.
We had one of Rood’s most beloved books in our home library: How Do You Spank a Porcupine? When I needed to write a report for freshman high school biology, I chose to study the Eastern coyote, interviewing a number of people via mail including Ronald Rood. Not only did he write back and answer my questions, he gave me the name of another woman to contact for even more specific information, the name and address of a publication on nature in New England that I could get for free, and words of encouragement.
I wasn’t a 14-year-old starry-eyed over rock stars or actors. Someone who loved nature and made a living and name for himself writing about it was the star to me, so when Rood took it a step further and actually called me at home to talk to me more about my interests and what my goals with writing and nature might be, I was nearly unable to speak. When I got off the phone, my mother didn’t mince her words. “You had Ronald Rood on the phone and you sounded like a ninny!” But I didn’t know what to say. He was a celebrity to me. I was unprepared. I was lucky to squeak out yes and no to his questions. I saved face a bit by writing him a thank-you letter and telling him I’d received an “A” on the report. He wrote to me a last time, congratulating me, and when there were typos from using an old manual typewriter to create that letter, he wrote in his down-to-earth and humorous style, “Typewriter’s feeling frisky!”
Rood passed away in Lincoln at the age of 81 in 2001, and with his time he shared important information, largely through humor-laden stories. I discovered how perfect it was that I’d chosen the coyote for my high school report when I learned he’d written, Animals Nobody Loves and shared the necessity and beauty of species we generally revile. Later in life, I heard about his book, The Loon in My Bathtub and had to chuckle. I had a number of injured birds in my bathtub over the years as they awaited aide – most notably a gull I called “Livingston”. I didn’t know about Rood’s book then, and we had never discussed it, yet there we were on the same path.
Ronald Rood was a fellow wild-at-heart soul since childhood, and other than serving as a fighter pilot in World War II (he flew P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft on combat missions), that passion for nature was front and center to everything he did. He was a biology teacher while he began writing; his first publication was the children’s educational book The How and Why Wonder Book of Insects in 1960. He worked on and received a Master of Science degree in zoology. He taught biology at Middlebury College. He photographed nature. He was a commentator for Vermont Public Radio on nature themes and presented on natural history topics for all ages, especially for school-aged youth. And, of course, he was busy writing what amounted to over 30 books, all related to nature.
How could everyone not know this man’s huge body of work?
When I decided to write about the influence Ronald Rood had on my own career, I found out so much about this man that made me feel I was looking into a mirror. There wasn’t Internet when I was writing back and forth with him. I only knew about a handful of his books. I wondered what led him to writing to begin with and didn’t have to look far. On Grokipedia, I read, “A pivotal formative experience occurred around age seven, when Rood encountered a turtle on a cold morning and, inspired by the writings of naturalist Thornton W Burgess, penned a letter (to Burgess) describing his observation; Burgess’s encouraging two-page reply profoundly influenced the boy’s aspirations, as Rood later recounted: “I figured if that was what a nature writer was, someone who took time to write to little kids, I wanted to be one too. That’s how I got started.”
Burgess had a passion for nature and took time to write to a young person. Rood had the same passion and took the time to write to (and call, although I sounded like a ninny) me. I now try to take my passion and reply to or assist young writers and/or naturalists.
My husband listened as I read him Rood’s recalling how Thornton W. Burgess inspired him, and his face lit up. He wandered into our library, full of generations of his family’s books as well as newer ones of our own collecting, and came back holding one with reverence. The Burgess Seashore Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess – a first edition inscribed, “For David from Grandma – Christmas 1929. How perfect. My copy of Rood’s Land Alive will be nestled beside it from now on.
Loon in My Bathtub(Courtesy Photo)