\u201cMilgrom\u2019s engrossing study of taxidermy is both a general history … and an introduction to figures in its contemporary subculture.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is what The New Yorker says about Melissa Milgrom\u2019s book Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy<\/em>. In this book, Melissa follows her friend, retired taxidermist David Schwendeman. Mr. Schwendeman isn\u2019t your normal everyday taxidermist, he was the last chief taxidermist ever employed by the American Museum of Natural History. Everything Melissa learns in this book about how to taxidermy, she learns from him.<\/p>\n This novel is a chronicle of Melissa\u2019s adventures among taxidermists from learning the basics of taxidermy, mingling with the best taxidermists in the world for art, even talk about taxidermy for scientific purposes, and even attempting to taxidermize her own squirrel. How the author wrote this book was take us on this adventure with her and as she did that, she dipped into the history of why this information on taxidermy is important and then brings us back to the past. The number one thing I learned from this book is taxidermy isn\u2019t about \u2018stuffing\u2019 an animal, as I\u2019ve always thought, but rather it is an art form.<\/p>\n Overall, the book is rated a high 3 out of 5 stars with very positives reviews from The New Yorker, USA Today, The New York Times<\/em>, and much more. A review that stood out to me was from A.J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All <\/em>and The Guinea Pig Diaries<\/em>, \u201cWho knew a book about dead animals could be so lively? This is a wonderful look at a quirky, passionate, sometimes fanatical subculture.\u201d Which I think has to be a positive review about a book on taxidermy.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t much to say about the author, Melissa Milgrom, besides the basics. She is the author of Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy<\/em>. She holds a master\u2019s degree in American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, is a visiting professor at the Pratt Institute, and lives in New York City. On her LinkedIn page, she calls herself a journalist with wide-ranging experience as a public speaker.<\/p>\n Melissa Milgrom has written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal,<\/em> Salon, Marvels & Wonders, Travel and Leisure, and Metrop<\/em>olis, among other publications. Since the publication of her book in 2010, she has spoken about taxidermy at Yale, Harvard, The American Museum of Natural History, The Museum of Arts and Design, the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and at literary events, conferences, and book festivals.<\/p>\n Melissa\u2019s first book was selected as an Amazon Best Book of the Month and received praise from The New Yorker<\/em>, The New York Times<\/em>, People<\/em>, The Washington Post<\/em>, The<\/em> Chicago Tribune<\/em>, The<\/em> Boston Globe<\/em>, and Publisher\u2019s Weekly<\/em>, among others. Her style of writing is taking an interdisciplinary approach to culture, which has led her to write in-depth profiles of artists, artisans, inventors, and others whose work and passions speak to society at large. Milgrom\u2019s style of writing is investigative where she researches a topic to have a better understanding of it and then dives into the art to try it out. She likes writing about popular culture, subcultures, and people with eccentric areas of expertise going to places that are possibly misunderstood.<\/p>\n I wish I knew why she wanted to write this book, but I looked at her LinkedIn page, her website, and even her Facebook page. She doesn\u2019t have anything written down as to why she wanted to write this book or what she hopes to accomplish. I\u2019m sure there is an interview somewhere about this, but that is research for another day.<\/p>\n My idea is that she wanted to write this book to give people a different perspective on taxidermy without putting her own opinion into this piece. She never said ‘I dislike\u2026\u2019 or \u2018I like\u2026\u2019 or \u2018I think\u2026\u2019, she just gave the facts and wrote what she saw. I definitely have a different view on taxidermy after reading this book. What I thought was just a weird, kinda morbid, pastime\/hobby. I now see it as an art form and another way of expression, taxidermist try to capture life. Such as an artist tries to capture still-life.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not the only person who thinks this way, Lisa V (satyridae), reviews: \u201cOh, this was fun! Yep, a book about taxidermy was fun<\/em>. Milgrom delves into the history of taxidermy, and takes us on a fascinating natural history adventure in the process. She also, at the end, mounts her own squirrel. There are journeys into reconstruction of extinct animals as well as forays into fine art. It’s a delightful book, if you like that sort of thing. The writing is workmanlike, the storyline linear and clear. Nicely done.\u201d So, whatever Milgrom was trying to get across, didn\u2019t just change my view but another\u2019s, and probably much more as well. She doesn\u2019t even have to write this to change the mind of others but rather for her to learn more about the taxidermy industry.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, taxidermy is weird, but I do have a better understanding of why people do it now because I\u2019ve read this book. You can be freaked out by something but still have an understanding of it. I find now, I am much more educated on the topic and can have an opinion about the topic and justify my opinion because this book talks about the different aspects and uses for taxidermy because it\u2019s just not for decoration but also science. Overall, I would recommend this reading to a friend or anyone who asks about it. It\u2019s an interesting read if you\u2019re in the mood to learn about something and have a deeper understand for taxidermy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cMilgrom\u2019s engrossing study of taxidermy is both a general history … and an introduction to figures in its contemporary subculture.\u201d This is what The New Yorker says about Melissa Milgrom\u2019s book Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy. In this book, Melissa follows her friend, retired taxidermist David Schwendeman. Mr. Schwendeman isn\u2019t your normal everyday taxidermist, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":815,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38310],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-october-classthings","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/storiesinthedark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}