MY DOUBLE LIFE: Memoirs of a Naturalist...

MY DOUBLE LIFE: Memoirs of a Naturalist by Frances Hamerstrom (University of Wisconsin Press: 316 pp., paperback original, illustrated). Raised amid wealth and privilege in Germany and the United States, Frances Hamerstrom was groomed to preside over an elegant, extensive household. She rebelled at the prospect and turned to field biology at a time when most educated women were either school teachers or governesses. Hamerstrom married a fellow scientist she adored, and the couple spent the next several decades happily studying Prairie Chickens, an endangered bird native to Wisconsin. Instead of a diplomatic salon, she managed a ramshackle farmhouse, often with filled with dozens of bird watchers, and published learned papers. Her lively memoir presents an entertaining picture of a singular life.