Above & Below: A Journey through our National Underwater Parks

NY: McGraw Hill, 1976. First edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near fine. Inscribed on the red front free endpaper: "For Richard--'Sweet and lo -- wind of the western sea' --p. 122, love -- Helga Sandburg and Barney Crile, 15, Jan 78." The inscription is in Sandburg's hand but the signature of her co-author and husband George (Barney) Crile, Jr., is in his hand. Laid in is a gift card to the inscribee, Richard, dated much later in 2002, and mainly thanking him for sending tea: "Ah -- sun on the garden and a crisp morning -- and my first cup of Richard's gift of 'Harrod's Darjeeling No. 25' tea ...." Helga Sandburg Crile is the author of seventeen books and the daughter of famous poet Carl Sandburg. She traveled and collaborated extensively with her third husband, George Crile, Jr. (who was already accomplished as an author and as the Chief of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic), making films and this book, an early look at ocean protection via their visits to the Everglades, Dry Tortugas, the Virgin Islands, and the Channel Islands of California. What the inscription's reference is to page 22 is unclear, but that section is set in the Dry Tortugas. In their brief acknowledgments they thank Secretary of the Interior Stuart Udall for helping arrange their visits to the parks they visited. A fine book in green cloth with a blue topstain; in a fine jacket except for spot of Sharpie on the front flap where the price has been marked out.