From: Nancy Werlin <nwerlin>
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 11:40:56 -0500

Here are W.A. Bentley's words as reprinted in SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY. I find I cannot resist typing them out:

the cow yard. I get up at dawn, too. But it is because I want to find some leaf, hung with dew; or a spider web which the dew has made into the most delicate ropes of pearls . . . I take my camera with me, get down on my knees in the wet grass, and photograph these exquisite bits of nature. Because I do this I can show these lovely things to people who never would have seen them without my help. They will get their daily quart of milk, all right. Other farmers will attend to that. But I think I am giving them something which is just as important."<<

Below this quote -- which lets you see that Bentley's appreciate of beauty in nature went beyond snow -- are three of Bentley's snow crystal photographs. They take your breath away. Above it is a picture of Bentley, in profile, looking out out of the picture but at the controls of his camera, completely absorbed in his work.

I cannot stop staring at him, and wondering. And here, Jackie Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian and Ann Ryder have shown us this man, who was real, and who inspires me so much... and who I would not know if not for this book, any more than I would on my own find the natural beauties he points out... because I am one who needs these things pointed out to me.

And I think of all the people now snapping up Bentley's book on Amazon.com... and my heart is very full.

-Nancy Werlin, who will shut up now. :> nwerlin at world.std.com
Received on Fri 05 Feb 1999 10:40:56 AM CST