"No season is without insects..." SuZan Swain, 1957

{HISTORY}

All your favorite beneficial bugs are here... butterflies, fireflies, bees, moths, lace wings, lady bugs and ground beetles along with a bevy of other fascinating creepy crawlies that capture attention and illicit all sorts of ooooohs and ewwwwwws.

A thorough field guide of major North American families and orders, The Insect Guide, published in 1948 was the intensive work of husband and wife team, Ralph & SuZan Swain. It took them eleven months to complete the guide, and in that timeframe they had a very important mission to accomplish - to make insects seem appealing and wondrous by  dispelling notions that they were pesky or insignificant. To highlight the key roles they played in the environment, Ralph created a section under each insect's description titled "Importance" which described how they were of help to specific types of plants, flowers, animals and other insects. 

Ralph Brownlee Swain (1913-1953) was an American entomologist who worked with the United States government conducting lab and field work around North America and also served as a specialist to the US Embassy in Nicaragua. 

One of the first projects that Ralph and SuZan worked on together, The Insect Guide was also the first bug-related field guide geared towards novice nature enthusiasts both in content and imagery. Receiving rave reviews upon debut for its interesting descriptions and lifelike art of of various insects, The Insect Guide was illustrated entirely by SuZan Noguchi Swain (1916-2010), a noted American nature artist.  Containing over 450 portraits of insects in various life stages from larvae to adults, two thirds of the illustrations were presented in full color to make them easily identifiable for readers in the wild. 

Hugo Roderick, the director at the University of Colorado Museum, called SuZan's work "very close to being the best entomological art ever produced, from the standpoint of accuracy, beauty and general excellence of technique." 

It was that winning combination, between Ralph's engaging descriptions and Suzan's devotion to accuracy, that turned The Insect Guide into a bestseller beloved by nature enthusiasts for decades. 

Tragically, Ralph's career ended suddenly, just five years after this book was published,  when he was murdered by masked gunman in a robbery attempt while he and his wife and sons were returning home from a vacation in Mexico. At the time, Ralph was 40 years old and at the height of his career.

In 1955,  the National School of Agriculture in Managua, Nicaragua dedicated the Ralph Swain Memorial Library in honor of Ralph's contributions and commitment to the field. SuZan went on to illustrate over 30 books throughout the rest of her long career, all inspired and influenced by the work she first created with Ralph. 

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

• 1948 First Edition published by Doubleday & Company
• Includes original dust jacket 
• 261 pages
• Illustrated throughout with black and white line drawings and full color plates 

{CONDITION}

In lovely vintage condition, this book is clean and bright throughout. its no markings or notations. The dust jacket contains some scuffing, unfading on the spine, and foxing on the inside of the jacket. The exterior foredge of the book also contains foxing. The light khaki coverboards are very clean and bright with no spots or stains. The front and back endpapers are decorated with insect order charts. The spine is tight and al pages are intact.

{SIZE}

Measures 7.75" inches (length)  x 4.75" inches (width) x .75" inches (thickness) and weighs 14 oz.