text: acquainted with the night ( book ) acquainted with the night : excursions through the world after dark ( or acquainted with the night : a celebration of the dark hours ) is a non - fiction book by christopher dewdney about various aspects of night . it was first published in 2004 by harpercollins . it uses the same title as the robert frost poem " acquainted with the night " . the book consists of 14 chapters , with one chapter dedicated to each hour of the night , from 6 pm to 5 am . mini - essays populate each chapter which each follow a theme , like nocturnal creatures , dreams , astronomy , and mythology . other subjects and topics touched upon include science , art , culture , natural history , superstitions , and psychology . the book was a finalist for the 2004 governor general 's awards and for the 2005 charles taylor prize . it tied with dark matter : reading the bones for the world fantasy award in anthologies . background at the time of acquainted with the night 's writing , author and poet christopher dewdney was 52 years old and living in toronto with his wife , barbara gowdy . he had previously written 14 books , the last being the 2002 book of poetry , the natural history . his previous non - fiction books were last flesh : life in the era ( 1998 ) on the impacts of technological advances on humanism , the secular grail : paradigms of perception ( 1993 ) regarding the human psyche , and the immaculate perception ( 1986 ) on his views of consciousness , language and dreams . dewdney 's past books were described as being " more admired than read " . on the topic of ' the night ' , he had a lifelong fascination with nightlife and eventually decided to write a book about it . he quickly became overwhelmed by the amount of information relating to the subject . for research , he consulted a variety of genres and formats , including books , journals , magazines , music , and movies , and collected information within the broad topics of art , science , social sciences and history . the perspective dewdney took was that of " explaining night to beings from another planet that had two opposed suns and no night at all " . content the content is divided into 14 chapters . the first chapter serves as an introduction and considers the mythological and geological origin of night . the next 12 chapters are each titled after an hour starting with chapter 2 's 6 pm and ending with chapter 13 's 5 am . chapter 2 discusses the transition into night , including sunsets , the green flash , the stages of twilight , as well as olbers ' paradox , and a definition of the size and speed of night . the 7 pm chapter deals with nature at night , how animals see and hear differently at night with a focus on bats , nighthawks , and nocturnal insects . the 8 pm chapter analyzes children 's literature and bedtime stories . the 9 pm chapter discusses aspects of the city at night , including the evolution of nightclubs , street lights , and the impacts of light pollution . the 10 pm chapter discusses night festivals around the world and throughout history . the 11 pm chapter explains the circadian rhythm and the physiology of sleep and dreams . the 12 am chapter traces the history behind dream interpretation from gilgamesh to sigmund freud , carl jung , and calvin hall . here , dewdney considers nightmares and takes sudden unexplained death syndrome , whose sufferers are almost always asian males , between 20 and 49 years old , as an extreme example of nightmares that cause the dreamer to die from a " ventricular fibrillation ... brought about by extreme terror " . the 1 am chapter compares literary and mythological personifications of , or beings associated with , the night . the 2 am chapter tells the stories of the legends behind the moon and the constellations . the 3 am chapter is all about insomnia . the 4 am chapter provides a geographical aspect , touring the places with long nights , like las vegas , caves , the poles , and deep within the oceans . the 5 am chapter discusses artistic representations of night , especially in music , on film and through paintings . the final chapter is a conclusion in which dewdney reflects on memorable sunrises he has experienced and contrasts sunrises with sunsets . style the title shares its name with the robert frost poem acquainted with the night , which is quoted on the first page . the book 's structure uses twelve chapters , equating to twelve hours of night , from 6 pm to 5 am . two additional chapters , " first night " and " night 's last stand " , bookend the twelve chapters as an introduction and conclusion . this hour - by - hour structure was used to move the narrative along logically while jumping between diverse topics . the topics range from such disparate subjects as culture , superstitions , natural history , physiology , and psychology so that reviewers variously called the book " a compendium " , " a browser 's book " and full of " encyclopedic mini - essays " . autobiographical passages are also included . one reviewer noted the format uses personal observations that lead to discussions of broad subjects with " side trips into relevant supporting materials " . the reviewer for the quill & quire cited the book as an example of a subgenre which an article in the atlantic monthly dubbed " mundane studies " referring to the ubiquity of the subject , like mark kurlansky 's salt : a world history and witold rybczynski 's one good turn : a natural history of the screwdriver and the screw . dewdney 's writing in acquainted with the night combines a poet 's point of view with an interest for the sciences . the tone was described as " boyish enthusiasm " and " highly condensed yet personable voice " . gisèle baxter , in the journal canadian literature , wrote that the its tone was set at the beginning of the book by " an anecdote of a small boy creeping into the moonlit , partly wooded backyard of his family home " . publication and reception acquainted with the night : excursions through the world after dark was published as a hardback in canada by harpercollins in may 2004 . in the united states , bloomsbury published the hardback version in july 2004 as acquainted with the night : a celebration of the dark hours . the trade paperback version was published by harpercollins in march 2005 . an excerpt was published in the canadian literary magazine geist . the book was nominated for the 2005 charles taylor prize , awarded to the best canadian work of literary non - fiction , and dewdney was a finalist in the english - language non - fiction category of the governor general 's awards . the library journal noted the book would be " most useful for larger public libraries " . regarding dewdney 's writing , the reviewer for publishers weekly wrote that dewdney writes carefully and " confidently " . another reviewer called the book " engaging and recreational " . gisèle baxter , in canadian literature , found his use of language " provok [ es ] consideration through its elegant turns of phrase and image " and laura wright , in discover called the imagery " arresting " . in the globe and mail , poet and novelist margaret atwood wrote , " the prose moves from the strictly informative to the lyrical to the charming to the amusing to the odd to the strangely moving without batting an eye . " another reviewer noted dewdney " combined a deft lyric touch with a deep interest in science " . the reviewer for canadian geographic wrote that " the strength of the book is in its artful mix of science and poetry " . literary critic sven birkerts found dewdney to be " an engaging enough narrator and solid , enthusiastic stylist " . the book 's structure received mixed reviews , some reviewers found dewdney was able to effectively transition between various topics while other reviewers did not . birkerts wrote the book has " a fun - facts - fished - from - the - data - ocean ... [ and ] end - of - term crammer " sense to it . the quill & quire and the economist reviewers found the topics were too cursory , like " an encyclopedia entry " . birkerts concluded " that any one of dewdney 's excursions could earn its keep as a column in a popular science magazine " but assembled into one book the topics seemed random .