Book Review The Birdman of Koshkonong: The Life of Naturalist Thure Kumlien
Marth Bergland plucks Kumlien from obscurity and sets him next to Wisconsin naturalists John Muir, Increase Lapham, and Aldo Leopold.
Birdman Details
The Birdman of Koshkongong: The Life of Naturalist Thure Kumlien, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, By Martha Bergland, 2021, 303 pages.
Not Just Another White Male Biography
The Birdman of Koshkongnog is a beautiful biography, rich in the detailed and respectful unearthing of history, place, science, people, culture, and vanishing wilderness. Berman may sense fatigue in our times for yet another biography of a white male. Early in the book, she shares a poem by Kumlien’s mother; the verse laments how “bliss” might be usurped by marriage and motherhood. Women in this biography do have a say by virtue of their tether to the specific roles of their culture. Implicit is the notion that while Kumlien could pursue his passion through brawn and intellect, women’s narrow range of opportunity blunted talents and dreams. Bergland offers a similar nod of respect to the Native Americans who lived in scarce numbers as refugees in the land that had been theirs; she depicts Kumlien knowingly walking trails worn by first-person nations.
Sweden to Wisconsin Story
The Birdman guides the reader through an immigrant life: Sweden to Wisconsin. During the 1800s Kumlien worked to build a life that indulged his naturalist passions while wilderness dissipated. Despite, most of his life lived in pioneer poverty, food was plentiful because he could hunt, fish, and forage, and he owned land. His wife and sister-in-law met the challenge with ardor. Kumlien, with a talent for friendship as well as ornithology, botany, taxidermy, and entomology collected accounts and natural specimens for the museums and collectors of the western world and corresponded with leading naturalists of his day. He discovered several new species of birds and plants and contributed to the bedrock of nature knowledge about Midwest flora and fauna.
Bergland Animates the Kulmliens
Bergland weaves research into a dramatic narrative of the specific gains and losses entwined within the transformation from wilderness to civilization. Within this tale of graves and gains, Kumlien’s longsuffering wife never lives in the long-promised grand home. Yet, a hardscrabble career finally brings him a predictable income as the curator of the new Milwaukee Museum. Danger and hardship follow him while he maintains his commitment to a life lived in proximity to the natural world. His death presents as one sacrifice of many. The Birdman of Koshkonong casts a wide net in the scope of questions and it raises mulls as it considers the “magnificence of the world we are trying to save (p.250).”
About the Author
MARTHA BERGLAND is the coauthor, with Paul Hayes, of Studying Wisconsin—a Society Press biography of famed Wisconsin naturalist Increase Lapham, which won the Milwaukee County Historical Society’s Gambrinus Prize. She taught for many years at Milwaukee Area Technical College. She lives in Glendale, Wisconsin. Visit Bergland's Amazon page.
Wisconsin Historical Society Press provided a copy of The Birdman of Koshkonong for review. A version of this review was previously published in the Sierra Club’s Green Review.
Amy Lou Jenkins is the author of Every Natural Fact. Contact her through JackWalkerPress.com if you would like to forward a book for possible review.
