“As the author of a definitive biography on 20th century naturalist and children’s author, Thornton W. Burgess, I was moved to tears in reading his account of watching the last Heath Hen on Martha’s Vineyard, Booming Ben as the Vineyarders named him, emerge alone from scrub brush onto his species’ mating grounds in the final years of the 1920s. This was the sole bird of its kind, without a mate or even a companion to answer his questioning calls.”
Thus began Christie’s crusade to encourage the next generation of children to become aware of how so many species on this planet can disappear for a number of reasons.
Christie writes, “When I was pondering how I could possibly bring this subject of unmitigated loss to a child without causing despair, the book’s final message came to me: we make the effort because life, all life, in its grand and glorious diversity matters. It will always matter. ”
The Last Heath Hen: An Extinction Story is supported by the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, and by the Thornton Burgess Society.
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