Nisbet details more Northwest history on Thursday

In 1994, Jack Nisbet gave us a book that detailed the exploits of one of the great white explorers of the Northwest: David Thompson. His book was titled "Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across North America" (Sasquatch Books).

Now Nisbet is back, and this time his book explores the life and times of a far less well-known figure: "The Dreamer and the Doctor" (Sasquatch Books, $24.95 hardcover) tells the story of a pioneer physician, Dr. Carrie Leiberg, and her Swedish-born husband, John Leiberg, who was a self-taught naturalist who as an agent for the U.S. Forest Commission sounded an early warning about potential ecological devastation.

 Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, had this to say about Nisbet's newest work:

“Jack Nisbet’s 'The Dreamer and the Doctor' is a textured, insightful history of the waning frontier days of the American West that reads like a novel. The featured couple, a female doctor and an obsessed botanist, provide an unusual lens to a time that is both familiar and antique, a time when science and medicine were rapidly evolving but were still intensely personal. Entwined in the narrative are the roots of the battle for Western public lands, the impact of federal science, and a growing awareness of the impact of forest fires.”

Nisbet will read from "The Dreamer and the Doctor" at 7 p.m. Thursday at Auntie's Bookstore.