A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SHELLS
And a detailed account of how I became obsessed with them
Bibliography: Shell Books
Cavanna, Betty. The First Book of Sea Shells. Illustrated by Marguerite Scott. New York: Franklin Watts, 1955.
Harasewych, M.G., and Fabio Moretzsohn. The Little Book of Shells: Gems of Nature. London: Ivy Press, 2020.
Rehder, Harald A. Rehder. National Audubon Society Field Guide to Shells: North America. New York: Knopf, 1989.
Salvador, Andreia. Fascinating Shells: An Introduction to 121 of the World's Most Wonderful Mollusks. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Vermeij, Geerat J. A Natural History of Shells. Princeton Science Library, Volume 15. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
Additional Reference Cited
Shakur, Tupac. "Runnin' (Dying to Live)." Performed by 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. Produced by Eminem. Better Dayz. Amaru/Interscope Records, 2003.
The Little Book of Shells:
Gems of Nature
Around January 2023, I became obsessed with shells. It was one book in particular that did it for me: The Little Book of Shells by M.G. Harasewych (research zoologist, curator of marine mollusks at the Smithsonian Institution) and Fabio Moretzsohn (who played a major role in creating BioGoMx, a comprehensive biotic inventory for the Gulf of Mexico). Published in 2020, this was part of Ivy Press's beautiful "The Little Book of..." series. (There is also a Little Book of Orchids that intrigues me, but I've never seen it in person...)
...and then, less than six months after, I found myself in Morro Bay, California. It was an affliction that felt utterly surreal.
Fascinating Shells:
An introduction to 121 of the world's
most wonderful mollusks
This was the second really electrifying book I was able to find on shells (I think it came from Kepler's Books in Menlo Park). Andreia Salvador is Senior Curator of Marine Mollusca at the Natural History Museum of the UK, and the book is from U. of Chicago Press, 2002. Chunky little format, fat like a brick, and full of the most terrifying pictures and explanations. This book is what confirmed for me that this is surely a mollusk's world, and we are merely living in it.
A Natural History of Shells
Princeton Science Library, Volume 15
Here was another book on shells that I had found, and seeing as the author, Geerat J. Vermeij, was Dutch, I thought it would be the answer to all my questions. Instead I learned my questions, upon being answered, still begged even further questions. He goes into much more detail about the architecture of a shell, its evolutionary purpose. However, he glossed far too quickly over the story of his early childhood blindness. The man went completely blind at the age of three. Somehow he became one of the most preeminent malacologists in the world. Overall the book was extremely dry and mathematical, unfortunately. I could not, in fact, bring myself to finish the damn thing. (Princeton Science Library Book, 2021.)
National Audobon Society
Field Guide to Shells
(North America)
I carried this book with me on my Morro Bay adventures, but it was only on the train ride home that I immersed myself in it deeply, and truly learned how to use it. Out in the "field," I was too taken by the sea, its sounds, smells, scattered sand dollars, beguilingly turned fragments of driftwood, etc. (as you would have been, too, had you seen an Opalescent Nudibranch / Hermissenda crassicornis)...
The First Book of
Sea Shells
It was at this point that my obsession truly becomes ridiculous. Betty Cavanna's children's book from Franklin Watts (now an imprint of Scholastic Books/Hatchette), published in 1955, felt like a crowning jewel in my collection. (I found it on eBay.)
Cavanna was a journalist active from the '40s to the '80s and published serials in magazines like American Girl, Boys Today, Gateway for Girls, Pioneer for Boys... There is a tragic dearth of information on Marguerite Scott, the illustrator, though. I'd kill to know more.
As Tupac put it: "I wouldn't be here today if the old school didn't pave the way." 1 It's women like Cavanna and Scott who made my own dreams feel possible.
And that's the story of how I fell down the sea shell rabbit hole. I have to assiduously avoid looking at them in antique malls and craft shops because it'll just happen all over again: I get sucked in, and it's really hard for me to climb my way out. My dream is to go to Florida (Sanibel Island) or the Bahamas or someplace where the beaches are, in certain places, actually just made of tiny shells, but the trouble is, I've got jars and cotton-packed boxes and baskets full of all kinds of shells already. And I'm not a discriminating collector: they're all beautiful to me, even land snail shells.
On my bucket list are:
- The mysterious Shell Grotto in Kent, England (4.6 million shells, nobody knows why, though I suspect it was probably just made by somebody who shares my obsession, who happened to have some time on their hands
- The Shell Beach on Herm Island, Channel Islands, which gives you the impression that it's in the tropics, but it's not. There's a house built in the '30s by the incredibly hot Scottish raconteur, snooker player, and spy Sir Compton Mackenzie, which looks worth a visit...
- The Saint Anne Shell Chapel in Indiana, of all places, sounds terribly romantic
- Ocracoke Island, North Carolina (whelks!)
- Bandon, Oregon in winter (murexes!)
- The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum, also in Sanibel, FL
- It would be interesting to revisit the natural history museums and wunderkammers of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, etc., with a particular focus on their shell collections.
Should any of the above dream vacations ever happen, I'll be sure to update this page again. Until next time, though, I remain, as ever, your humble and ever-loving bookworm.
1. Tupac Shakur, Runnin' (Dying to Live), performed by 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G., produced by Eminem (Amaru/Interscope Records, 2003).
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