A few weeks ago, I published a book titled: A Field Guide To Medicinal And Useful Plants Of The Upper Amazon. This book was a labor of love, and an enjoyable yet incredibly time-consuming project. It took up the better part of a year and the majority of my life savings to self-publish, but I feel it was worth it. I met some extremely interesting, knowledgeable, and hospitable people along the way and learned a lot about a subject in which I had a great interest. Here's how it happened.
A little over a year ago, I resigned from a position as a Scientific Photographer with a major university, disgusted with the politics of academics and the blatant favoritism exhibited by administrators. I have since earned a living as a freelance photographer and writer. For the past 12 years, I have studied the biodiversity of the insect fauna of the Peruvian Amazon, with a particular interest in leaf-mimicking katydids. This work familiarized me with the area around Iquitos in northeast Peru.
For the past four years, I have led tours to the rainforests outside of Iquitos through my own company called Rainforest Ventures. With my good friend, Stephen Timme (who is a tropical botanist and co-founder of the company), we bring groups down and show them some of the wonders of the jungle flora and fauna, as well as expose them to some of the cultural aspects of life along the Amazon. My doctoral degree is in entomology with a minor in botany, so Dr. Timme and I complement each other well.
Our trips use the facilities of Explorama Tours, owned by our friend Peter Jenson, who for years has supported our scientific research with logistical support and significant discounts. Part of each tour, includes a visit to shaman Antonio Montero Pisco and the ReNuPeru Medicinal Plant Garden that he curates. This garden has over 160 species of medically-important or useful plants cultivated in it. Following our visit during the summer of 1997, I was struck with the idea of creating a field guide that could be used by visitors to the garden to help them identify the plants, and to free them from taking copious notes and having to photograph all the species themselves if they wanted a record.
My excitement could hardly be contained on the Aeroperu flight back home to Miami. This book was the perfect type of project for a self-publishing venture, which was exactly the direction in which I wished to go after leaving the university. Here was a topic with a lot of interest in it worldwide. Information on the plant species themselves could be obtained from existing reference sources, from conversations with the shaman, and from conversations with colleagues who were medicinal plant experts. The majority of plant photos Dr. Timme and myself had in our files or took specifically during several trips back to Peru in order to obtain the illustrations we needed. Our many tropical colleagues generously provided those species we couldn't get ourselves.
We split the writing duties and I spent the winter scanning photos, typesetting the text, and designing the layout of the book. I had some practice at this based on a 1990 book that I had self-published titled: Rainforests - A Guide To Research And Tourist Facilities At Selected Tropical Forest Sites In Central And South America. It was at this time that I established my publishing company, Feline Press (so named because I like cats and had two black ones).
While working on the medicinal plant book, we had cause to seek the help of one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, our good friend, Dr. Jim Duke. Jim graciously agreed to not only lend us his expertise and advice, but to come on as a third author of the work. We are very grateful that he did and indebted to his guidance. The very existence of the ReNuPeru Medicinal Plant Garden where we did most of our research is due to Jim's generosity and support over the years.
After many, many delays, and more revisions of the manuscript than I care to mention, the book was finally sent to the printer. We received it several weeks ago, just after I returned from doing insect research in Peru. We are delighted with the final product and especially pleased with the quality of the color photographs. It is these 240 color photos by the way, that are mainly responsible for the high price of the book. We could have used less, or gone to black and white photos, but all of us felt the book would have lost much of its usefulness had this happened. As it is, we feel we have produced a work that we can be proud of, and that will continue to have usefulness for many years to come. We hope those who use it will agree with us. There are always other species that could have been included, and certain medicinal uses that were left out, but we tried to put together in one work the most important medicinal plants, tropical fruits and crops, hallucinogens, and other plant species of utilitarian or industrial importance.
We do not have a budget to widely advertise this book. Appropriate organizations willing to publish book reviews in their journals or publications can request review copies. We are interested in knowing more about such various organizations, societies, institutions, and courses/workshops/tours that deal with the topic of medicinal plants/herbal healing/Amazon culture. Please contact me by email if you have any such suggestions, and they need not be restricted to the United States.
A Field Guide To Medicinal And Useful Plants Of The Upper Amazon is available from Feline Press, PO Box 7219, Gainesville, FL 32605. The price is $38 including shipping. If you're ordering multiple copies or if you are ordering from Florida, ask for the special rates and sales tax information. For info, email JLCastner@aol.com.
Exploring the Amazon Eco Travels in Peru
Home |
About |
Advertise! |
Books |
Central America |
Ecotourism |
Headlines
Learn Spanish |
Mexico |
Media |
Site Map |
South America |
World Travel |
Updates