82-Year-Old North Carolina Adventurer Releases Memoir - "Born on a Buzzard's Stump"

Aug. 31, 2011 - PRLog -- When a young Alva Harris asked the question so many children do “Where did I come from?” the answer he received was far from ordinary – “A buzzard laid you on a stump and the sun came out and hatched you.” That answer spurred in young Alva a desire to discover the world around him and his place in it.

From his beginning as a penniless Depression-era child, Born on a Buzzard’s Stump—The Epic Saga of a Man and His Myth, takes the reader along on Harris’ journey as he treks his way through being a plow-boy, hunter, trapper, taxidermist, commercial fisherman, biological collector, gold miner, military serviceman, ecologist, professor, husband, father, and a man living through a myriad of changes and challenges.

The memoir chronicles journeys of varying lengths and conditions. For example, on Easter Sunday of 1949, Harris and a friend left Hyde County, North Carolina for a trip of high adventure to the territory of Alaska in a 1948 Jeep at a steady speed of thirty-five mph. Austere finances forced the pair to live off the land until they could become gainfully employed somewhere around Fairbanks, creating the reality of having to hunt or fish for their dinner or go hungry.

Along with providing intensely personal experiences from his life-long journey, Harris also dazzles the reader’s mind and imagination with his description of the remarkable natural world that inspired his lifelong passion and respect for the environment. After eight remarkable decades of adventures, Harris claims that his life will still have been too short to learn all he’d like to know and experience within our wonderful universe. Yet the adventures he has traversed within his lifetime would fill the bucket lists of many. Now in his eighties and adjusting to Parkinson’s Disease, Harris still dreams and records the memories of his past.

Harris was also the first student at North Carolina State University to receive a PhD in Animal Ecology. He has consulted for oil companies and commercial fishing interests and served pro bono on state and federal commissions regulating coastal and marine resources.

Born on a Buzzard’s Stump—The Epic Saga of a Man and His Myth will bring a sense of adventure to everyone who reads it—from real life adventurers to those of us who just dream about them.

Published by Boutique of Quality Books Publishing Company, Born on a Buzzard’s Stump—The Epic Saga of a Man and His Myth is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, booksellers around the country, www.bqbpublishing.com as well as through Kindle, Nook and iBooks.

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