Too Near for Dreams: The Story of Cleveland Abbe,
America’s First Weather Forecaster

Library Journal named Too Near for Dreams among its Academic Best Sellers, as identified by GOBI Library Solutions from EBSCO.

 

In the fall of 1869, a thirty-year-old astronomer from New York named Cleveland Abbe, who had recently taken over as director of the fledgling Cincinnati Observatory, became the first person in America to successfully provide regular, practical weather forecasts for the public, based on reports from a network of observers. Less than two years later, he would lead the forecasting efforts at the nation’s newly established weather service and set the standard for scientific research in a career that would last nearly half a century. Throughout his life, this “man of gentle and generous ways,” guided by his abiding faith, overcame personal and professional hardships in pursuit of science to become the most famous—and celebrated—meteorologist in America, if not the world.

Set against the backdrop of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century international events and scientific advancements, this first-of-its-kind biography of Abbe explores both his personal life and his scientific career. It details his time spent in Russia in the mid-1860s—as the Civil War raged and a president was assassinated back home—in part through letters with his parents. Decades of diaries and correspondence from the Cleveland Abbe Papers at the Library of Congress, as well as first-person accounts, illuminate this intimate portrait of a mild-mannered family man whose thirst for knowledge drove him to become a giant in an emerging scientific field.

What People Are Saying

“The book is thorough, well-written, and engaging. The level of detail that the author put into the story-telling really makes this a book worth owning. Too Near for Dreams is one of the best biographies that I’ve read in the past 20 years. I highly recommend it.”

— David M. Schultz, Chief Editor of Monthly Weather Review and author of Eloquent Science: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Better Writer, Speaker, and Atmospheric Scientist

“Sean Potter is to be commended for his readable, comprehensive, and authoritative biography of a key figure in meteorology and weather forecasting. Cleveland Abbe was a dedicated public servant, a prolific author and editor, a prominent advocate for advanced study and training, and, for almost five decades, the main conduit of theoretical weather knowledge from Europe to America.”

— James Rodger Fleming, author of Meteorology in America, 1800-1870 and Inventing Atmospheric Science