Featured Book
Quests
Quests is a volume of 24 personal adventures pursued over more than 50 years— at times obscure, long-gestating, sentimental, and ridiculous.
Quests don’t have to be cinematic or physical. A quest might be as seemingly low-key as getting a degree, eating escargots in Paris, learning a language, or mastering the art of making puff pastry.
I will never climb K2 or windsurf across the Atlantic. I don’t intend to attempt to “discover” an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon, locate the source of the Nile, or find the Holy Grail.
I’d like to know what quests you’ve chosen. Big or small? Distant or close to home? Did you achieve your goal? If not, does it matter?
Featured Photos
Featured Articles
Putting the Bounce in the Ball
Playing golf near the rainforest which revolutionized the game MANAUS, Brazil Normally when I play golf, I clutter my head with an excess of swing thoughts – turn, extend the arm, swing to two o’clock, and so on. But standing on the first tee of the Manaus Golf Club outside the Brazilian city of Manaus, […]
News & Events
10 November — Opening of COP 30 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Ah, yet another international gathering to discuss progress in addressing the problem of climate change. This year it will be held in Belém, Brazil, and the participants will also focus on nature conservation in the country, including the vast Amazon region. I’ve been following Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace for some 50 years, including a […]
Intro to a speculative biography of Ali
My speculative biography of Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace’s assistant, was honored as the Best Historical Book of 2024 by the United States Peace Corps Writers. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction. Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird Intro to a speculative biography of Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace’s assistant in the Malay Archipelago […]
Alfred Russel Wallace and Things That Go Bump in the Night
Alfred Russel Wallace is best known for his scientific achievements — collecting and documenting hundreds of new species of “natural productions,” major insights into biogeography, island endemism, and cultural anthropology, and notably, his development of a theory of evolution by natural selection independently of and prior to that of Charles Darwin. But Wallace was also […]