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Retired professor publishes book that was 40 years in the making

Submitted photo Retired Davis & Elkins College Professor Jim Van Gundy has published ‘The Nature and Scenery of the West Virginia Highlands: A Motorist’s Guide.’

Submitted photo
Retired Davis & Elkins College Professor Jim Van Gundy has published ‘The Nature and Scenery of the West Virginia Highlands: A Motorist’s Guide.’

ELKINS — For more than 40 years, Jim Van Gundy dreamed about writing a book on the two subjects he knew best — biology and geology.

While working as a professor at Davis & Elkins College and teaching classes in both of those fields for decades, however, Van Gundy could never find the time to sit down and finish what he yearned to complete.

“I first thought about writing this kind of book around 40 years ago,” Van Gundy told The Inter-Mountain Monday. “I actually started on it way back then, but my responsibilities at D&E and with a young family became such that I couldn’t put any time into it.”

Then a window of opportunity opened in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. With travel being restricted all over the world and people being urged to stay at home, the perfect opportunity fell into the biologist’s lap.

“Along came COVID and I thought well, nobody else has written a book that I thought needed to be written in that 40 years, so I sat down and wrote it,” Van Gundy said. “It’s really my COVID book. My wife and I like to travel, but COVID kind of put an end to that. I kind of needed something to do with my time so I decided to tackle the book.”

In January, Van Gundy’s dream became a reality when his book, “The Nature and Scenery of the West Virginia Highlands: A Motorist’s Guide” was released.

“The book is really two books in one in a sense,” Van Gundy said. “The first part of the book, there’s 10 chapters that just talk about the geology and ecology, and actually there’s a short chapter on the regional history. Most of it is about the natural history of the region. The second part of the book is narrative descriptions of the 32 different road segments in the West Virginia Highlands.”

In his book, Van Gundy defines the Highlands in detail.

“I define the Highlands as everything south of the Pennsylvania line and to the east of Interstate 79, all the way to Sutton,” he said. “And then everything east of US 19 all the way to Beckley. And then everything to the east of 77, all the way to the Virginia line.

“These 32 narrative descriptions of the road tell what you are likely to see for the most part in terms of nature. And I also point out things of historic interest here and there, too.”

Van Gundy said the back of the book features a checklist for all of West Virginia’s mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

“Visitors who are interested in the nature of the area can see what sort of animals, and to some extent plants, they can expect to encounter,” he noted.

Van Gundy said he feels the book has been successful to date as half of the copies that were printed have sold in the first six months. The book is available for purchase on Amazon books, and locally at Main Line Books at the Delmonte Hotel, and at the Rail Trail Store at the Elkins Train Depot.

“It seems to be pretty well-received and I’m happy with the way it turned out,” he said. “I put two years of hard work into it during COVID, and you always wonder if it is going to be well-received, and it has been by people that I respect, so that’s satisfying to me.”

The book, which was printed by McClain Printing Company in Parsons, is 400 pages in length.

“I was very happy with the job McClain did on printing it. They were good people to work with and I really appreciated the job that they did,” Van Gundy said. “It’s a book that I feel I can be proud of.”

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