What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/913321
DECEMBER 10-16, 2017 WHAT'S UP! 9 out to "take the job seriously." He met Smith at an Arkansas Academy of Science meeting in 1975, he recalls, when the state was trying to come up with a preliminary biota — a survey of the animal and plant life of the region — to get some kind of grant. When Smith spoke, he mentioned his plan to publish his treatise on vascular plants, and Bonar says he bought the book at the University of Arkansas bookstore within a month of its publication. "It was the first comprehensive guide for Arkansas since 1943," he says in the tone of voice someone might use for a much-anticipated video game or movie these days, then takes off on a side story about how a competition between two scientists in 1943 called their results into question. But Bonar didn't set out to illustrate it for anyone but himself. "The best way to learn stuff is by drawing it," he says simply, explaining that he would find extant examples at a herbarium or photos or even line drawings to work from, then draw the plant again in situ when he found it. "It was real enlightening when the plant didn't look anything like what I expected," he says with a ready chuckle. It was on an expedition at Hurricane Creek four or five years ago that Bonar realized he needed to take steps to save his drawings: He slipped crossing the creek and dumped himself, his backpack and the book into the water. He spent the night drying the pages over a campfire, and says that "wake-up call" led him to Special Collections at the UA Libraries. That's about the time Cochran comes into the story. An outdoorsman named Trey Marley made him aware of the book with Bonar's illustrations, and the new "Arkansas Character" series was serendipitously kicking off at University Press with the publication of "True Faith, True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley" by Fayetteville musician and history collector Kelly Mulhollan. Cochran got his brother, a rare book specialist, to come and take Smith's now illustrated manuscript apart, and it was scanned by UA staffer Joshua Youngblood for reprinting by University Press and saved for posterity in Special Collections. "So there's this group of people who sort of kidnapped the book from Bonar — with his cooperation," Cochran says. "Edwin Smith spent about 30 years writing it, and Kent Bonar spent about 30 years illustrating it, and now it's coming out this week." Smith's son Stephen Smith — along with his other two children and one of his brothers — will be on hand Dec. 14 when the book is unveiled at a party at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. A pilot in Houston, Stephen Smith says he remembers his dad spending hours working on his manuscript in the evenings in the "TV room" and how no car trip was ever accomplished without stopping for an investigation of some plant seen along the road. "At the time, I thought it was really boring," he says, laughing. "I have a bigger appreciation for what he did these days." Bonar really just wants to get through all the festivities and get back to his cabin near Nail, in Newton County, where he says he tries to live like it's the 1800s. "I do have a solar charger for flashlights and the radio," he admits. "I like to listen to UA football and basketball games and NPR." FAQ Book Release: 'An Arkansas Florilegium' WHEN — 7-9 p.m. Dec. 14 WHERE — Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville COST — Free; books will be available INFO — Email mak001@uark. edu BONUS — Still on the Hill will perform an "Ode to Kent Bonar"; speakers will include Bob Cochran, Don House & Sabine Schmidt; and Kelly Mulhollan will interview Bonar on stage. Courtesy University of Arkansas Press "An Arkansas Florilegium" will be released this week by University of Arkansas Press. Edwin Smith is pictured at left. Photo courtesy Kelly Mulhollan The "Atlas and Annotated List of the Vascular Plants of Arkansas" was published by University of Arkansas botanist Edwin B. Smith in 1978. Naturalist Kent Bonar added the illustrations over about 30 years.