Every time I dive, no matter where I am, I am always filled with wonder. Ever since I was four years old and wandered the beaches of South Carolina, wondering what lay beyond and under the water, I have been fascinated with the sea. Each time I walked the beach, the sea would deliver these incredible living creatures to my feet - seashells. I became enamored with these exquisite gems and dreamed of someday seeing them living in all their finery. I became certified to dive in 1981, and the sea has never once disappointed my sense of awe in its creatures. Everyone knows what a seashell is but do they really know what makes these incredible shells? Have they ever seen the living animals? Very few of my readers have seen or even encountered the living animal, and thus my two previous books have been a success vis-à-vis demonstrating the animals. They have educated and (hopefully) elevated those people who have seen a living mollusk. In my previous two books. Living Shells and Living Mollusks, I have photographed living mollusks, including living shells, in their native habitat and introduced my readers to the exceptional beauty of living mollusks - living seashells. I have been astonished at the worldwide acclaim garnered by these books. So, why a third book about living shells? With this book I am hoping to open the world to an artistic interpretation of these living mollusks - to share with the world a unique view that is the beauty of these creatures. As William Blake noted: "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till the sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern." I began to view these mollusks in a different way, a cleansed perception if you will, and in a way that I wanted to show other people. I wanted to photograph these mollusks in a way that would highlight their form, their color, their pattern; in a way that presented them in their true uniqueness. I photographed them using different lighting techniques, angles, and in their abstract beauty. They became my muses. Moreover, I have provided a personal insight into those photographs. Be they photographs of cephalopods from New Guinea, volutes from Australia, nudibranchs from Baja, or shells from the Pacific Northwest, I have provided the how, why, where and when for each photograph. This is art from a source that is quickly disappearing. Living mollusks are disappearing due to climate and environmental degradation as well as human destruction of habitats. Enjoy them while you can. Charles E. Rawlings MD, JD

Excerpt from The Shell Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Families of Living Mollusks, and an Aid to the Identification of Shells Native and Foreign Every person interested in shells has felt the need of a manual of the shell-bearing animals of sea and land, comparable to the comprehensive manuals provided for those who wish to study birds or insects or trees. Small hand-books serve as guides to the seashore, but they treat only detached portions of the great kingdom, Mollusca. What is needed for more serious study is a larger book in which the families of mollusks are arranged in their proper order, to give a general idea of the size and scope of the important genera, and their natural relationships. Such a popular guide should give precedence to the accepted English names of the families and of the individual species described, while attaching to each its scientific name. It is quite possible to give the general reader the information he desires in his own language, without sacrifice of scientific accuracy. A book of this kind must be the outgrowth of extensive acquaintance with living mollusks in their natural surroundings, or it will be as dead as the shells in a cabinet, and dry as the dust on the old shell catalogues. It must bring together as much as can be found out about the habits of the mollusks described, and the uses people make of them, if they have any economic value. Many shells have never yet been seen alive; others are practically unknown. It is astonishing how little is known about many species of mollusks. The standard literature of conchology has a limited circulation. The classics are rare and sumptuously illustrated volumes locked up in glass cases in the great libraries. These are out of date, of course. The newer treatises are expensive and very technical. Many facts of the highest interest and value are hidden away in official reports of scientific expeditions, not easily obtainable nor easily read by anyone untrained in the sciences. If I have failed in my attempt to make an interesting and useful shell book, it is not because conditions were unfavorable for my purpose. Everything and everybody worked together to help me. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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