Coffee-table books offer nature, history

Essays by Tom Butler complement the photography of Antonio Vizcaino in the hefty celebratory volume "Wildlands Philanthropy: The Great American Tradition" (Earth Aware, $125), a testament to the wide-ranging legacy of the American conservation movement.

Butler and Vizcaino take readers on a spectacular tour of protected natural areas saved through private initiatives, from California's haunting Muir Woods to the Alaskan coast and Maine's vast Baxter State Park.

Embracing wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, national and state parks, and private nature sanctuaries, the book is an embodiment of America the Beautiful and a noble impulse.

"Wildlands Philanthropy" also relates the stories of heroes such as Isaac Wolfe Bernheim, who landed in New York City in 1867 a penniless immigrant, settled in Kentucky and made a fortune distilling bourbon. Bernheim bequeathed 13,000 acres of wild land near Louisville to the people of Kentucky, asking for a free park where "no distinction will be shown between rich and poor, white or colored ... every respectable man, woman and child will be made welcome."

The book, sharing 39 other such stories of this American tradition, including conservation successes in eight other countries, is one of the most impressive in the annual deluge of large-format "coffee-table" gift books for the holidays.

Natural world

--"Visions of Paradise" (National Geographic Books, $35): National Geographic's photographers answer the question "Where, or what, is heaven on Earth?" in a series of visual statements, portraits of what they considered spellbinding.

--"Solace of Nature" (Pelican Publishing, $40): Text by John R. Kemp augments the images of Julia Sims, who reveals how a closeness to nature forged by globe-trotting photography helped her overcome great personal tragedy.

--Others: "Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy" edited by Bonnie Gosel with images by Stephen Joseph (Heyday Books, $45); "Egg and Nest" by Rosamund Purcell (Harvard University Press, $40); "Equus" by Tim Flach (Abrams, $60): English photographer Flach has produced a stunner of a book of images for horse lovers; "Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent" (Firefly, $60); "Planet Earth: An Illustrated History" (Time Books, $30).

History

--"The Centennial Senator: True Stories of Strom Thurmond From the People Who Knew Him Best (University of South Carolina Press, $34.95): Collected by R.J. Duke Short, who served on Thurmond's staff for 30 years, this book affords readers unprecedented access to the public and private life of a complicated individual.

--"Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society" (Norton, $59.95): The Gilded Age (1865-1918) saw the emergence of America's first high society, an aristocracy based on recently accumulated fortunes, not lineage. But these families, including the Vanderbilts, Astors and Whitneys, sought to live like Europe's blue-blooded nobility. They flaunted their new wealth, especially with their homes. Celebrated art historian Wayne Craven ushers us inside.

--"Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings" by Judith Dupre (Black Dog & Leventhal, $25): What's the difference between merely tall and iconic? Find out in this handsome compendium, which is as witty in its lanky format as it is fascinating within.

--"Battle at Sea: 3,000 Years of Naval Warfare" by R.G. Grant (DK Publishing, $40): "Battle at Sea" presents the ships and armaments of three millennia, from oar-powered galleys to the German U-boats and the cruise-missile-equipped dreadnoughts of today.

--"Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs" (National Geographic Books, $40).

Americana

--"The Call of Trains: Railroad Photographs by Jim Shaughnessy" (Norton, $65): This monograph dedicated to the work of one of the most accomplished railroad photographers contains 170 evocative images taken between 1946 and 1988, following Shaughnessy's journeys throughout North America as he documented the dramatic steam-to-diesel transition and captured the trains, workers and infrastructure of the American railroad landscape.

--"In Search of Norman Rockwell's America" by Kevin Rivoli (Touchstone-Fireside, $40): With the artist's paintings and his own photographs, photojournalist Rivoli has recaptured the scenes Norman Rockwell first brought so resonantly to America's attention, touching scenes of everyday life and simple moments that are emblematic of "wholesome" values.

--"Cabins" by Ralph Kylloe (Gibbs Smith, $60): Cozy up to an assortment of compact dream dwellings, whether at the lake, a riverbank, in the mountains or deep in the backwoods. Rustic rules!

--"Pete Dye: Golf Courses, Fifty Years of Visionary Design" by Joel Zuckerman (The Vagabond Golfer, $50): The body of work Dye has created over the past half-century is a roll call of the greatest courses of the modern era, among them Hilton Head Island's Harbour Town and the Ocean Course at Kiawah.

--Others: "The Elvis Encyclopedia" by Adam Victor (Overlook, $65); "You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story" (Running Press, $50); "Odysseys and Photographs: Four National Geographic Field Men" (National Geographic Books, $40), commemorating the lives and work of famed photojournalists Maynard Owen Williams, Luis Marden, Volkmar Wentzel and Thomas Abercrombie.

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.