Author Guide · Nature Writing
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For a whole year, the biologist David George Haskell closely followed the natural life of a tiny patch of old-growth Tennessee forest. The book that came out of it, The Forest Unseen (2012), was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, and E. O. Wilson called it “a new genre of nature writing, located between science and poetry.” Haskell, who studied zoology at Oxford and took his PhD at Cornell, taught biology at the University of the South in Sewanee from 1995 to 2025. He went on to write about the ways trees and humans are connected, about the story of sound on Earth, and, in 2026, about flowers. This guide covers his five key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 key books · 2012–2026 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
David George Haskell has published five books: The Forest Unseen (2012), The Songs of Trees (2017), Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree (2021, UK only), Sounds Wild and Broken (2022) and How Flowers Made Our World (2026). Two were Pulitzer Prize finalists, and The Songs of Trees won the John Burroughs Medal. Start with The Forest Unseen; each later book takes the same close attention to a different part of the living world.
Where to Start with David George Haskell
If you want the book that made his name
→ The Forest Unseen (2012) — a year in a tiny patch of forest.
If you want trees and the people around them
→ The Songs of Trees (2017) — how trees and humans are connected.
If you want the story of sound on Earth
→ Sounds Wild and Broken (2022) — from the first animal songs to human music and language.
If you want his newest book
→ How Flowers Made Our World (2026) — how flowering plants shaped the world.
5 David George Haskell Books, in Order
The Forest Unseen
Published by Viking in March 2012, the book closely follows, for a year, the natural wonders in a tiny patch of old-growth Tennessee forest. It was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction and runner-up for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and it won the National Academies’ Best Book Award, the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the National Outdoor Book Award. It has been translated into twelve languages.
The Songs of Trees
Published by Viking in 2017, it is a study of the many ways that trees and humans are connected. It won the John Burroughs Medal in 2018 and has been translated into fourteen languages.
Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree
A book on the scents of trees, published by Hachette in 2021 in the United Kingdom only. The botanist Sir Peter Crane called it “eclectic, brilliant and beautifully written”, and Kate Humble named it her favourite book of the year in the Radio Times.
Sounds Wild and Broken
The story of sound on Earth, from the origins of animal song through Earth history, including human music and language. The Pulitzer citation called it a work that “scientifically reconsiders natural sound as a wonder of evolution”. It was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction and for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, an Editors’ Choice of The New York Times Book Review, and winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s Science Communication Award.
How Flowers Made Our World
Published by Viking in March 2026, it tells how flowering plants reshaped life on Earth: they turned some animals into partners, especially pollinators, and built and sustained rainforests, savannas, prairies and ocean shores. It covers familiar flowers such as magnolias, orchids and roses, less-noticed ones such as seagrasses and tea, and the grasses rice, maize and wheat, which supply about two-thirds of humanity’s food calories.
In What Order to Read David George Haskell
The books stand alone, so you can begin with whichever subject draws you. Publication order shows a widening view: one small patch of forest (The Forest Unseen), then the ties between trees and people (The Songs of Trees), then the sound of the whole planet (Sounds Wild and Broken) and the flowering plants that shaped it (How Flowers Made Our World).
Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree is a UK-only book on tree scent; it is the easiest to skip if it is hard to find where you live.
A reading path
1. The Forest Unseen (2012)
2. The Songs of Trees (2017)
3. Sounds Wild and Broken (2022)
4. How Flowers Made Our World (2026)
The years · 1995–2026
Quick facts about David George Haskell
- Known for
- David George Haskell is known for nature writing that grows out of a biologist’s close, patient attention to one place, one tree or one sound at a time.
- 1995
- Joins the biology faculty at Sewanee
- Nationality
- British and American
- Education
- BA in zoology, University of Oxford; PhD in evolutionary biology, Cornell University
- Teaching
- University of the South, Sewanee, 1995–2025, now professor emeritus; adjunct professor at Emory University from 2025
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellow (2014); Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (2022); American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature (2024)
- Prizes
- Two Pulitzer finalists (2013, 2023); John Burroughs Medal (2018)
- Translations
- The Forest Unseen into twelve languages; The Songs of Trees into fourteen
The red mark is 2012: The Forest Unseen, his first book and a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
How David George Haskell Writes: A Biologist Who Listens
Haskell starts from close, patient attention to something small. In The Forest Unseen it is a tiny patch of old-growth Tennessee forest, followed through a whole year. From that small point he moves out to the biology that explains what he sees.
Sound runs through his later work. Sounds Wild and Broken explores the story of sound on Earth, from the origins of animal song through Earth history to human music and language, and its Pulitzer citation voices concern that human noise may return us to silence.
His link to ideas of unity is scientific rather than spiritual: the books keep returning to connection, the subtitle of The Songs of Trees calls trees “nature’s great connectors”, and his own site describes that book as a study of the many ways trees and humans are connected. For a forester’s view of the same woods, see Peter Wohlleben; for a botanist writing about reciprocity with plants, see Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Listen
David George Haskell on How Flowers Made Our World
Ira Flatow interviews David George Haskell about his book How Flowers Made Our World on Science Friday, in a segment from March 2026. From the archive of Science Friday.
Frequently asked questions about David George Haskell’s books
How many books has David George Haskell written?
Five: The Forest Unseen (2012), The Songs of Trees (2017), Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree (2021), Sounds Wild and Broken (2022) and How Flowers Made Our World (2026).
What are David George Haskell’s books in order?
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature (2012), The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors (2017), Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree (2021), Sounds Wild and Broken (2022) and How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries (2026).
Where should I start with David George Haskell?
With The Forest Unseen, his first book. It shows his method most clearly: a year of following a tiny patch of forest. If sound interests you more, start with Sounds Wild and Broken.
What is David George Haskell’s most famous book?
The Forest Unseen (2012), a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, translated into twelve languages.
Has David George Haskell won a Pulitzer Prize?
No, but two of his books were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: The Forest Unseen in 2013 and Sounds Wild and Broken in 2023. He served on the 2026 Pulitzer jury for General Nonfiction.
Where is the forest in The Forest Unseen?
In Tennessee. The book closely follows a tiny patch of old-growth Tennessee forest over the course of a year. Haskell taught biology at the University of the South in Sewanee from 1995 to 2025.
What prizes has The Songs of Trees won?
The John Burroughs Medal (2018) and the Iris Book Award. It was also named one of the best science books of 2017 by Science Friday.
Why is Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree hard to find?
It was published by Hachette in 2021 in the United Kingdom only, so there is no US edition from his usual American publisher, Viking.
Is David George Haskell a scientist?
Yes. He has a BA in zoology from Oxford and a PhD in evolutionary biology from Cornell, taught biology at the University of the South for thirty years and is now an adjunct professor of environmental sciences at Emory University. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
Footnotes
- David G. Haskell — Wikipedia
- About — dghaskell.com
- David George Haskell — Penguin Random House
- 2013 Pulitzer finalist: The Forest Unseen — The Pulitzer Prizes
- 2023 Pulitzer finalist: Sounds Wild and Broken — The Pulitzer Prizes
- How Flowers Made Our World — BookBrowse
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“A new genre of nature writing, located between science and poetry.”
— E. O. Wilson on The Forest Unseen
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