Twenty-five writers share their love, fear, and respect for the sea.

The sea is one of the most vital and recurring images in human culture. Every civilization has a flood myth, for example, and sixtyfive percent of the world's population lives on the coast of a sea. In these pages: Charles Darwin expresses his fascination with the glowing phosphorescence of the nighttime seaAnn Saunders, who crossed the Atlantic in 1826, describes the desperation of passengers stranded for a month at seathe story of the Biblical Flood is told in three versions (from Genesis, Inuit legend, and Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage)Yann Martel's Life of Pi portrays the modern arkliterary seawatchers Rachel Carson, Jonathan Raban, and Andrea Barrett are all excerpted.

Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation.

Wayne Grady is the general editor of this series of literary anthologies devoted to the world's natural wonders. One of Canada's foremost popular science writers and the winner of three Science in Society awards from the Canadian Science Writers' Association, he is the author of twelve nonfiction books on such diverse adventures as hunting dinosaurs in the Gobi Desert, investigating global warming at the North Pole, and discovering the wild in an urban metropolis. His books include the bestselling Tree: A Life Story, written with David Suzuki, and Bringing Back the Dodo. His most recent book is the award-winning The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region. He lives near Kingston, Ontario.

Wayne Grady's profile page