017 - Jack Nisbet - The Dreamer and the Doctor

A conversation with author Jack Nisbet about his dual-biography,The Dreamer and the Doctor: A Forest Lover and a Physician on the Edge of the Frontier, published in 2018 by Sasquatch Books.

 

Jack Nisbet lives and works with his wife Claire in Spokane. He has authored several collections of essays that explore the human and natural history of the Northwest, award-winning biographies of cartographer David Thompson (Sources of the River) and naturalist David Douglas (The Collector), and additional illustrated volumes. In 2018, the Washington State Historical Society presented Nisbet with the Robert Gray medal for distinguished and long-term contributions to Pacific Northwest history. 

The Dreamer and the Doctor: A Forest Lover and a Physician on the Edge of the Frontier, published in 2018 by Sasquatch Books, relates the biographies of John and Carrie Leiberg and their late-19th and early-20th century experiences in the interior Pacific Northwest. John Leiberg was a would-be miner, turned botanist, naturalist, scientist, and government forestry employee. His reports on forest reserves, ecology, and other related fields were impressive in scope, detail, and influence. Carrie was a surgeon and physician who rose to regional prominence in her profession, published nationally on obstetrics, became politically active, and entertained entrepreneurial dreams. Their lives offer a fascinating glimpse into an oft-ignored region, stage of "frontier" development, and era of scientific discovery.

 

 Podcast Notes:

• Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an Associate Professor of History at BYU, General Editor of the Intermountain Histories project, and author of the 2018 book Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands. Links to other publications and projects here: https://linktr.ee/bwrensink
• Support provided by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University.
  
• Podcast Music was written and recorded by local Provo composer by Micah Dahl Anderson.
• Episodes are recorded via Skype or in person and amateurishly engineered and produced by Professor Rensink.
• To submit a book to be considered for a podcast episode, email writingwestwardpodcast@byu.edu.