What's Just One More Book?

It's not as if I don't have a gracious plenty already.

But.

One called out to me from a seller's shelf at the Tennessee Antiquarian Book Fair today. A fellow from Kansas (yes, Kansas) sold it to me.

"Is this a famous children's book and I just haven't ever heard of it?" I asked.

He answered, "It's the only one I've seen. I thought it was funny."

"Me, too," I said, having audibly laughed and snorted several times behind his back.

At home, I looked up the author and book (of course). Robert Williams Wood (1868-1955)  was a physicist. Albeit, a physicist with a sense of humor. G. H. Dieke (1993), in his "biographical memoir," writes that Martin "made important contributions to the increasing knowledge of the structure of the atom, chiefly through his experimental research in in physical optics" (p. 442). Further, he states that Wood "went wherever his insatiable curiosity led him," including into "art" (p. 442).

And here we land upon my little jewel: How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers, 1917. Pay attention to that date. Almost one century ago. And then read this, one of my favorite pages.

The Bee. The Beet. The Beetle.

Good Mr. Darwin once contended
That Beetles were from Bees descended,
And as my pictures show I think
The Beet must be the missing link.
The sugar-beet and honey-bee
Supply the Beetle's pedigree:
The family is now complete, --
The Bee, the Beetle and the Beet.

Who knew? His is the comedic tone I most love in writers like Jon Sciezka and Maira Kalman, coupled with charming pen-and-ink drawings. (Lucky for you, a book fair doesn't have to come to your neighborhood, as you can read this little wonder here.)

Oh, what a happy find!