Gifts of Unknown Things: A Natural History of Indonesia was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1976, following the success of Supernature. The book combines travel narrative (Watson’s time on a small Indonesian island, unnamed to protect its inhabitants) with natural history (the biology of the coral reef, the ecology of the tropical forest) and accounts of phenomena that exceed scientific explanation.
Watson narrates his arrival on the island, his integration into the community, and his gradual exposure to events that his training as a biologist cannot accommodate: a young woman who dances in the rain without getting wet (he watches the drops separate around her body); children who communicate over distances without any visible medium; a healer whose methods produce results Watson can verify but not explain; and a teacher who seems to demonstrate that consciousness is not confined to individual brains.
The book’s method is observation rather than theory: Watson describes what he sees with a naturalist’s precision, resisting the temptation to explain too quickly. He is not credulous (he brings his scientific skepticism to each observation) but he is honest (he refuses to deny what he has witnessed simply because it doesn’t fit his existing framework).
The result is one of the most unusual books in twentieth-century nature writing: a work that takes the natural world seriously enough to acknowledge that it contains phenomena that current science cannot explain — without abandoning the scientific commitment to observation, precision, and honesty about what we do and do not know.
Collecting Gifts of Unknown Things
First edition (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1976): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First UK edition in dust jacket: $15–$40
- US first (Simon & Schuster, 1976): $10–$25
- Signed copies: $30–$80