Jack Rudloe, Naturalist-Author
by Will Morgan, March 2004
Watch the video: 3 Books by Jack Rudloe
Jack Rudloe is one of America’s foremost nature-writers. For over forty years he has scoured the seas, studied and helped protect marine species, and explored sea-life in six well- received books, The Sea Brings Forth, The Erotic Ocean, The Living Dock, Time of the Turtle, The Wilderness Coast, and Search for the Great Turtle Mother. Of his nature-writing William Schofield, in the Saturday Review, wrote: "You take up his book idly, anticipating nothing . . . the next thing you know an entire night has gone by . . . and you wish the book could go on, like the eternal lap of the tide."
"The planet earth," wrote the poet James Dickey, "must rejoice in the Jack Rudloes' of the world, for they stand foursquare with the original creation of things . . . we must hope in the end that they will win."
Rudloe's writing is brisk and intimate. It wins us because it combines so many virtues of description and action. We learn not only about sea-life and its environment but about the real people whose lives are entwined, for well or ill -- with that of every other living thing. Whether wrestling with an alligator or chasing the Giant Toadfish Rudloe loves the natural world, and this love is irresistibly communicated to his devoted readers.
Rudloe was born in New York City in 1943 and from his boyhood days wandering Prospect Park was fascinated by animals and their environments. In 1952, at the age of nine, he began his career of animal advocacy by appearing on New York television with a live alligator. When he was fourteen he moved to the remote Florida panhandle where he learned to hunt and fish on the coasts and swamps. From those days until the present, through writing and environmental activism, Jack Rudloe's work has grown to take on national and international significance."I am a practioner of marine biology and the oceans. Every day I have my hands in the sea and the sand. After studying sea-creatures for so many years, their intricacy and beauty, I have learned to make certain associations of how things work in the environment, knowledge of the system as a whole. This knowledge, which crosses that of the scientist with that of the fisherman who handles sea-life every day, is my specialty. You have to use all five senses in order to internalize this sort of knowledge, tasting, smelling, and listening. My writing is an extension of this exploration and celebration," Rudloe says.
"When I was twenty I met John Steinbeck in New York City. I brought him a rock with sea fans. He said "Marvelous! Lets look at this!" I stood back as he began to name all the living creatures on that rock. I couldn't believe that a writer could have a knowledge even surpassing that of marine biologist. This was a defining moment for me. That was when the life of a writer and naturalist opened for me," Rudloe explains. "Later, Steinbeck encouraged me in writing, and in the founding of my non-profit organization, Gulf Specimen Marine Lab, here on the Florida coast."
Rudloe and his wife, the biologist and author, Anne Rudloe, the author of Butterflies on a Sea Wind, and Priceless Florida have published articles in National Geographic, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Audubon, Natural History and National Wildlife, to name only a few publications. The Rudloes’ have also written many government and scientific studies. Jack Rudloe has submitted essays to a number of other writer's works and anthologies including The Seaside Reader, 1992, an anthology featuring works by Rachel Carson, John Steinbeck, Peter Matthiessen and Jacques Cousteau.
In recent decades the Rudloes' work has centered on the preservation of turtles (the endangered species Kemp's Ridley), disease-cures from the sea (Bryostatin) and new food sources from the sea (cannonball jellyfish). In each of these areas Jack Rudloe is now doing pioneering research.
Rudloe has led expeditions to Central and South America for the American Zoological society to capture specimens of the giant toadfish for the New York Aquarium. He has studied and collected for Harvard University, the American Museum of Natural History, the Philadelphia Academy of Science, The Marine Laboratory at Wood's Hole, the Centre d'Oceanographie et des Peches at Nossi-Be, Madagascar, the British Museum of Natural History, the Zoologic Museum of Amsterdam, the Howard Hughes Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1991 Rudloe traveled to Malaysia and Thailand under a grant from the Economic Development Authority to learn about Asian he traveled to China under a grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service to study Chinese consumption of jellyfish. These researches have advanced the potential of untried food-sources from the sea.
Rudloe continues his work his environmental activities, his consulting services, his expeditions, his TV and Radio appearances, his frequent teaching and lecturing, as well as his never-ending fight to preserve the fast-disappearing Florida coasts and wetlands. He has also returned to the writing of fiction, and in 2003 he published Potluck, a novel about Florida's shrimp fisherman. Reviewing the book, the author Joe Hutto wrote:
"Rudloe has for decades dazzled us with his acumen as a naturalist and outspoken environmentalist. Celebrated as a non-fiction writer, he now proves himself a literary man for all seasons. Potluck grabs you from the first page and doesn't let you go."
Articles about Jack Rudloe have appeared in The New York Time, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated and Audubon.To arrange a lecture or appearance by Jack or Anne Rudloe E-mail them at: gspecimen@sprintmail.com
See University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries Special Collections for Jack and Anne Rudloe's archived manuscripts.
| SELECTED ARTICLES ABOUT JACK RUDLOE | |
| AUDUBON | "Jack and the Dragline. One man's unwavering battle to save North Florida's Marshes." Wyatt Blassingame, Vol.75, No.3:53-59,May,1973. |
| THE NEW YORK TIMES | "Ex-Drifter Advises Potential Dropouts. Sea Specimen Expert in Florida Trains 'underachievers.'" Martin Waldron,July l5,l967. |
| "The Sea Yields Rare Living Treasure." George Goodman, Jr..Tuesday, January 13, l976.(Times Wire Service). | |
| "Bizarre Catch," by Edward B. Garside. New York Times Book Review June 9, 1968. p. 26, 550 w. | |
| Jellyfish Alert: taking the sting out. New York Times Magazine, September, 1995. | |
| SCIENCE DIGEST | "Giant Sea roach Captured in Ocean Depths." Update.January-February,198l. |
| SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | "Panacea for a Salty Yankee. Jack Rudloe, out of Brooklyn, fell in love with Florida's unspoiled Big Bend. Now he is becoming famous pioneering the collecting of marine creatures for scientific study." Robert H. Boyle,Vol.32, No.16:28-39,April 20,1970 |
| "To Rudloe Even a Toadfish Has Charm." Letter from the Publisher. Philip G. Howlett. March 23, l981. | |
| WALL STREET JOURNAL | The Bookshelf, "Fish Stories," review by Edmund Fuller, Vol. 171, May 17, 1968. p. 16. |
| The Book Shelf. "Fascinating Lore of the Deep," by Edward Fuller. Vol. 79, Jan. 7, 1972. p. 8. | |
| "Lonely Causes. Jack Rudloe's Crusade to Save Tidal Swamps Wins Him Few Friends. He Says Dredging Projects Will Ruin Florida's Coast: An Altruist or a 'Nut'?" Neil Maxwell, Vol. CLXXXIII No.22, Thursday, January 31, l974. | |
| "A man with a plan in Panacea wants to send Jellyfish packing." by Eric Morgenthaler, December 14, 1992 | |
| BOOK CHAPTERS ABOUT RUDLOE | |
| THE BOOK LOVERS GUIDE TO FLORIDA edited by Kevin M. McCarthy, pp.397-398, Pineapple Press, 1992. | |
| BORDER OF BLUE: a travel book on the Gulf Coast. Frederick Turner, Atlantic Monthly Press. l993. | |
| THE FLORIDA HANDBOOK by Herb Hiller, Moon Publications, Inc. Chico, CA, December 1994 | |
| THE SOUTH, Cajins, Crackers and Tom Heel. Ron Strickland, Paragon House, New York. 1994 | |
GULF SPECIMEN MARINE LAB • PO BOX 237 • PANACEA, FL 32346 USA • (850) 984-5297 • FAX (850) 984-5233
