{"product_id":"the-bathysphere-book-isbn-9781662603259","title":"The Bathysphere Book","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2024 National Book Foundation's Science + Literature Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Washington Post top 10 best book of 2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e best nonfiction book of 2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hypnotic . . . Beautifully written and beautifully made.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eW. M. Akers, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"one of the most beautiful books-as-objects of the year\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eGlobe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"...one of the most fascinating and unusual new books I’ve read in some time.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eBenjamin Shull, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"...a weird and often beautiful fusion of science writing, history and poetry that explores our own relationship with the unknown...\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eEdward Posnett, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mesmerizing . . . Original and often profound, [\u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book\u003c\/i\u003e] is a moving testament to the wonders of exploration.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Imbued with the adventurous spirit of science and exploration . . . [\u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book\u003c\/i\u003e is] an enchanting cabinet of curiosities.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA wide ranging, philosophical, and sensual account of early deep sea exploration and its afterlives, \u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book\u003c\/i\u003e begins with the first ever voyage to the deep ocean in 1930 and expands to explore the adventures and entanglements of its all-too-human participants at a time when the world still felt entirely new.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the summer of 1930, aboard a ship floating near the Atlantic island of Nonsuch, marine biologist Gloria Hollister sat on a crate, writing furiously in a notebook with a telephone receiver pressed to her ear. The phone line was attached to a steel cable that plunged 3,000 feet into the sea. There, suspended by the cable, dangled a four-and-a-half-foot steel ball called the bathysphere. Crumpled inside, gazing through three-inch quartz windows at the undersea world, was Hollister’s colleague William Beebe. He called up to her, describing previously unseen creatures, explosions of bioluminescence, and strange effects of light and color.\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eFrom this momentous first encounter with the unknown depths, \u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book \u003c\/i\u003ewidens its scope to explore a transforming and deeply paradoxical America, as the first great skyscrapers rose above New York City and the Great Plains baked to dust. In prose that is magical, atmospheric, and entirely engrossing, Brad Fox dramatizes new visions of our planetary home, delighting in tales of the colorful characters who surrounded, supported, and participated in the dives—from groundbreaking scientists and gallivanting adventurers to eugenicist billionaires.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book\u003c\/i\u003e is a hypnotic assemblage of brief chapters along with over fifty full-color images, records from the original bathysphere logbooks, and the moving story of surreptitious romance between Beebe and Hollister that anchors their exploration. Brad Fox blurs the line between poetry and research, unearthing and rendering a visionary meeting with the unknown.\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2024 National Book Foundation's Science + Literature Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This account of the early days of deep-sea exploration is scientifically and literarily mesmerizing.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eLaura Thompson, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e(Paperback Row)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"By turns philosophical and elegiac, Fox’s history of Beebe’s explorations is a hypnotic ode to the world beneath the waves. This is no straightforward narrative but a book built from scraps that belie its intricate engineering. It is also an exceptionally beautiful object, bursting with full-color illustrations and paintings of the creatures Beebe encountered.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eCarl Hoffman, A Washington Post top 10 best book of 2023\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The fatal implosion of the Titan submersible is a reminder that, for all its beauty, the ocean can be an unforgiving place, one that should be explored with humility. William Beebe held the primordial waters in awe. His reflections from a half-mile down suffuse one of the most fascinating and unusual new books I’ve read in some time.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eBenjamin Shull, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hypnotic . . . Beautifully written and beautifully made, \u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book\u003c\/i\u003e is a piece of poetic nonfiction that strives to conjure up the crushing blackness of the midnight zone. Full color, overflowing with stunning illustrations of the uncanny creatures that live beyond the sun, it raises questions of exploration and wonder, of nature and humanity, and lets readers find answers on their own . . . A dreamy, relaxing read.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eW. M. Akers, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"This isn’t a conventional biography—it’s a mosaic of rich snippets, unafraid to consider poetry alongside the flaws of Beebe and his companions. The result is a messy and delightful portrait of a life shaped by fascination with the natural world.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eHelen Czerski, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book\u003c\/i\u003e] is a weird and often beautiful fusion of science writing, history and poetry that explores our own relationship with the unknown—how we make sense of something fundamentally new with the limited tools at our disposal.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eEdward Posnett, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book\u003c\/i\u003e... holds up a mirror to a pioneering explorer of the deep seas... Fox unspools a quirky, digressive series of meditations on Beebe, his times and ours\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Wondrous... Beebe’s descent becomes a Blakean heaven or hell, as the giant eyeball of the bathysphere hangs in the abyss... As Fox dives into Beebe’s biography, the book itself becomes the bathysphere\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Philip Hoare, \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Bathysphere Book\u003c\/i\u003e is wonderful, in the literal sense: filled with wonder. Brad Fox illuminates the extraordinary discoveries of the ocean depths, to be sure, but also of the scientists and artists who first explored them, less than a century ago. To read this glorious and beautifully illustrated account—relayed with what its protagonist William Beebe called 'the oblique glance', the wisdom that everything is connected—is to feel again a child's awed delight at human ingenuity, and at our planet.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Claire Messud, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Emperor's Children \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eA Dream Life\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What is this sublime, remarkable book? It’s a black unreadable eye sliding past a submarine window, it’s a color on an alien spectrum, it’s a fish made of filaments and lit by its own light. I don’t know what it is, I only know that it’s luminous.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Shelley Jackson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Melancholy of Anatomy \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRiddance\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \"Exquisite and shocking, endless space and hypnotic details all pressed together at once, just as any exploration of the deep should be. Brad Fox shows there is so much in the deep ocean to know and think about and change who we are.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Helen Scales, author of\u003ci\u003e The Brilliant Abyss\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Brad Fox has created a brilliant work of literary art—at once almanac and seance, wonder-cabinet and hallucinogen. The vigor, pluck, and compression of his language turn a linear chronicle into a time-bending, gem-laden constellation, with surprising flashes of wit, gossip, and melodrama.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Wayne Koestenbaum, author of \u003ci\u003eUltramarine \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Cheerful Scapegoat \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Brad Fox knows that the descent into the deep meant a sea-change not just in science, but in aesthetics, philosophy, the sense of what it is to be human. All have been changed, become rich and strange, as this rich, strange book shows so beautifully.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—China Miéville, author of \u003ci\u003eThe City in the City\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e This Census-Taker\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“In Brad Fox's retelling the life work of an explorer-scientist becomes a thing of rich poetry, strange imaginings and otherworldly beauty. A wonderous, mesmerising collage of a book, one that celebrates the natural world while pushing up against the tantalising limits of human knowledge and perception.”\u003cb\u003e \u003cbr\u003e—Helen Gordon, author of \u003ci\u003eNotes from Deep Time: A Journey Through Our Past\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFuture Worlds\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Brad Fox has produced an impressionistic work of art depicting one of the greatest moments of discovery in human history. Fashioned from short, nimble verbal strokes, this gem of a book provides tantalizing glimpses of deep-sea life, alongside flashes of insight into the lives of William Beebe and his team of explorers.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Edith Widder, author of \u003ci\u003eBelow the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eBrad Fox is a writer living in New York. His novel, \u003ci\u003eTo Remain Nameless\u003c\/i\u003e, was published by Rescue Press in 2020. His stories, articles, and translations have appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuernica\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePublic Domain Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and the Whitney Biennial. He has worked as a researcher and story consultant for novelists and filmmakers, and he had an earlier career as a journalist and relief worker in the Balkans, Mexico, the Arab world, and Turkey.","brand":"Astra House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233624338661,"sku":"NP9781662603259","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781662603259.jpg?v=1767738271","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-bathysphere-book-isbn-9781662603259","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}