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Originally published in 1997, One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest is a fascinating chronicle of ethnobotanical adventure amidst a vanishing forest. This is the story of three scientists – RE Schultes, the dean of ethnobotany, and his students, Tim Plowman and Wade Davis – who, over the course of several decades, explored the Amazon Basin, studying what the Indians knew of the rainforest, and trying to learn some of these secrets before both the Indians and the rainforest disappeared. One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest is both an elegy to irredeemable loss and a celebration of the diversity of the plant-life and culture of the Amazon.
An Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, Wade Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Davis is the author of 15 books including The Serpent and the Rainbow, One River, and The Wayfinders. His many film credits include Light at the Edge of the World, an eight-hour documentary series produced for the National Geographic Channel. In 2009 he received the Gold Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for his contributions to anthropology and conservation, and he is the 2011 recipient of the Explorers Medal, the highest award of the Explorers' Club, and the 2012 David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration, the most prestigious prize for botanical exploration.
"Davis writes magnificently [...] A great lyrical book, as richly varied as the rain forests it describes"
- New York Times Book Review
"An exceptional tale of 20th-century scientific exploration and a rousing travelogue to places both real and illusory"
- Kirkus Reviews
"Extraordinary [...] a biographical tapestry rich in history, adventure, intrigue and scholarship"
- Nature
"A wild ride through one rapid after another [...] magnificent"
- Boston Globe
