The Great Sperm Whale

Richard Ellis is a prolific and graceful writer who’s written some of the best natural history books of the past decade.""- New York Times Book Review;

""Ellis is fun to read, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic.""- Washington Post Book World;

""Ellis’s great book on the great sperm whale is encyclopedic, compelling, and quite simply very difficult to put down.""- The Quarterly Review of Biology;

""Ellis’s engaging book is the most definitive account to date of this fascinating and iconic species.""- American Scientist;

""A remarkable book which cleverly and unsentimentally combines scientific and historical material in a way which will be of great interest to whale enthusiasts. As an entertainingly written review of the sperm whale literature, it is something of a triumph . . . The portrait of the sperm whale that emerges is of a truly amazing example of mammalian evolution.""- Times Literary Supplement;

""A noted whale artist explores the natural history of the sperm whale, to spectacular effect. . . . A principle joy of The Great Sperm Whale is its wonderful illustrations. But he also evokes the leviathan in all its guises—scientific, literary, and legendary—from the history of whaling to the sperm whale’s great adversary, the giant squid.""- BBC Wildlife;

""A rich exploration of the evolution and biology of this giant sea creature.""- Science News;

""At once a richly detailed, informative, scientific exploration as well as a love sonnet to the ocean's greatest leviathan, this will appeal to fans of nautical history, nature, Melville, and armchair cetologists. A superb addition to Ellis’s canon.""- Library Journal;

""The most mysterious of all mammals is richly chronicled in this mesmerizing voyage that includes battles with whaleboats and giant squid. Ellis’s rigorous scientific insights are matched only by his eloquent plea for this magnificent creature’s future.""- Dick Russell, author of Eye of the Whale