PETERSEN, David 1946-

PERSONAL: Born May 18, 1946, in Oklahoma City, OK; son of Archie L. and Mary Frances (Harper) Petersen; married Gwendolyn Odom, February 14, 1965 (divorced, 1978); married Carolyn Sturges (a homemaker), October 30, 1981; children: (first marriage) Christine Anne. Education: Chapman College, B.S. (social sciences), 1976; Fort Lewis College, B.A. (creative writing), 1982. Politics: "Democrat by default." Religion: "Earthiest (neo-animist)." Hobbies and other interests: Hiking, hunting, camping, reading.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Carl D. Brandt, Brandt & Hochman, 1501 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

CAREER: Road Rider, Laguna Beach, CA, managing editor, 1976-80; freelance writer, 1980-83; Mother Earth News, Hendersonville, NC, western editor, 1983-90. Part-time writing instructor at Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO. Military service: U.S. Marine Corps, helicopter pilot; achieved rank of captain, 1968-74.

AWARDS, HONORS: Olaus and Adolph Murie fellowship, 2003, for research and writing on the Murie legacy of conservation activism.

WRITINGS:

nonfiction for children

Airports, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1981.

Airplanes, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1981.

Helicopters, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1982.

Newspapers, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1983.

Submarines, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1984.

Solar Energy at Work, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1985.

(With Mark Coburn) Meriwether Lewis and William Clark: Soldiers, Explorers, and Partners in History, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1988.

Apatosaurus, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1989.

Tyrannosaurus Rex, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1989.

Ishi: The Last of His People, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1991.

The Anasazi, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1991.

Sequoyah, Father of the Cherokee Alphabet, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1991.

Canyonlands National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1992.

Mesa Verde National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1992.

Yellowstone National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1992.

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1992.

Grand Teton National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1992.

Grand Canyon National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1992.

Zion National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1993.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1993.

Yosemite National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1993.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1993.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1994.

Moose, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1994.

Death Valley National Monument, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1994.

Dinosaur National Monument, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1995.

Mountain Lions, Children's Press (Chicago, IL), 1995.

Death Valley National Park, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Petrified Forest National Park, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Bryce Canyon National Park, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Denali National Park and Preserve, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Africa, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Europe, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Australia, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Asia, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

North America, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

South America, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Antarctica, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Saguaro National Park, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Arches National Park, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Chaco Culture National Historic Park, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

other

(Editor) Big Sky, Fair Land: The Environmental Essays of A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Northland Publishing (Flagstaff, AZ), 1988.

Among the Elk: Wilderness Images, photographs by Alan Carey, Northland Publishing (Flagstaff, AZ), 1988.

Wind, Water, and Sand: The Natural Bridges Story, Canyonlands Natural History Association (Moab, UT), 1990.

Among the Aspen: Life in an Aspen Grove, photographs by Branson Reynolds, Northland Publishing (Flagstaff, AZ), 1991.

Racks: The Natural History of Antlers and the Animals That Wear Them, Capra Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 1991.

(Editor) Earth Apples: The Poetry of Edward Abbey, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1994.

(Editor) Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994, revised edition, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 2003.

Ghost Grizzlies, Holt (New York, NY), 1995, published as Ghost Grizzlies: Does the Great Bear Still Haunt Colorado?, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 1998.

(Editor) A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport, Holt (New York, NY), 1996.

The Nearby Faraway: A Personal Journey through the Heart of the West, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 1997.

Elkheart: A Personal Tribute to Wapiti and Their World, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 1998.

Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America, Island Press (Washington, DC), 2000.

Writing Naturally: A Down to Earth Guide to Nature Writing, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 2001.

Cedar Mesa: A Place Where Spirits Dwell, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 2002.

Contributor to books, including American Nature Writing, 1998, edited by John A. Murray, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 1998; Made Not Born: The Troubling World of Biotechnology, Sierra Club Books/Wild Duck Review (San Francisco, CA), 2000; and The Good in Nature and Humanity, edited by Stephen R. Kellert, Island Press, 2002. Contributor of articles to periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: On the Edge: In Search of a Natural Life (working title), a memoir, for Holt.

SIDELIGHTS: David Petersen's passion for the natural world is expressed in his simple lifestyle and his numerous books. Petersen lives in a hand-built cabin in a remote mountain area, where he hunts to provide food for himself and his family. In his books, he has defended hunting as an important part of the human makeup. He has also derided modern hunting methods, animal-rights activists, developers, and others who do not, in his opinion, properly respect the land and its creatures. Describing Petersen in a profile for Bloomsbury Review, John Nichols wrote: "His compassion for wild territory is close to unique, and in this chaotic age of global development that compassion is priceless. The fact that he can write so intimately and convincingly about wild country makes him one of our more interesting literary figures as well as a valuable environmentalist. His observations are scientific, lyrical, from the heart. His clear, direct, and often humorous prose is imbued with much knowledge, many marvels, and sometimes outrage. The writing is also rich with mystery and soul."

Ghost Grizzlies is one of Petersen's best-known books. It provides a history of the grizzly bear in the state of Colorado. When Lewis and Clark made their famous expedition through the West in the early 1800s, their party killed at least forty-three grizzlies. War against the giant bears continued through the twentieth century, when the Predator and Rodent Control branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employed professional hunters to wipe the wilderness clean of certain animals, including the grizzly. This goal was declared accomplished in 1952, but years later, reports of grizzly sightings began to occur again, leading to speculation of an isolated population that might have survived the government hunters. The San Juan Grizzly Project was instituted in an effort to determine if grizzlies really lived in Colorado. Petersen's book discusses the Grizzly Project and his own search for definitive proof of the grizzly's presence. Mike May, a writer for American Scientist, remarked that the author "describes his search in an appealing style—something like [naturalist writer] Edward Abbey meets Sherlock Holmes." May added that "Ghost Grizzlies teaches not only about bears, but also about the remaining wilderness in the continental United States and how it is being handled, or mishandled."

Petersen's opinions and knowledge are on display in The Nearby Faraway: A Personal Journey through the Heart of the West, a collection of essays that had been previously published in a variety of periodicals. Grizzly bears and Edward Abbey are both reflected upon in these pages, along with numerous other topics. "Petersen is an excellent observer and an engaging writer, who paints vivid landscape descriptions yet does not shy away from controversial subjects," stated Fred Egloff in Booklist. The author reveals a good deal about himself in these essays, which together form "a powerful expression of living intimately with the land," mused Ken Wright in Sierra. Petersen is shown in all his "observant, adventurous, reflective, funny, joyous, angry, and sometimes downright curmudgeonly glory."

With Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America, Petersen devoted an entire book to his views on hunting. Christopher Camuto, a reviewer for Audubon, called this "the one book on hunting that nonhunters should read." It is a "highly personal, passionate and deeply persuasive argument for responsible hunting," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer, in which the author describes his respect and awe for his environment and his prey. Petersen questions whether it is more immoral to kill an animal oneself or to purchase its parts, already packaged, in the grocery store. He is also offended, however, by those who hunt only for meat or sport, without showing proper regard for the animals they hunt. The Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that while at times Petersen "goes overboard in strumming the mystical chord and seems at times too fond of inflated language," his analysis of the hunting controversy is "impressively well reasoned."

Petersen's many books for children reflect his interests in the wild places of America, and in natural history and environmentalism. In books such as Yellowstone National Park and Grand Canyon National Park he focuses on the geological marvels that make each of these federally protected areas unique. North America features satellite photographs of the continent's topography in addition to pictures, maps, and art reproductions that introduce young readers to what Booklist contributor Ellen Mandel listed as the varied "land formations, climates, indigenous plants and animals, and native peoples" of North America. Other books in the series include Australia, Europe, and South America.

Petersen also engages young readers with a series of books focusing on dinosaurs. In Apatosaurus young readers learn the meaning of such terms as gastrolith and ichnology, and the book "makes excellent use of comparison," as School Library Journal contributor Denia Lewis Hester remarked upon learning that a single leaf-eating apatosaurus might weigh as much as twenty cars would today. In Booklist Denise Wilms praised Apatosaurus for clarifying "the dinosaur species that was commonly called brontosaurus." In Tyrannosaurus Rex the granddaddy of all dinosaurs is discussed, and Petersen introduces readers to a new theory about the way the giant lizard walked, sparking budding scientists to realize that lives of the dinosaurs are still shrouded in the unknown.

After the dinosaurs died out, but before the arrival of Europeans explorers and settlers, North America was populated by many diverse tribes of people who are now referred to collectively as Native Americans. Such a classification does little to distinguish the wealth of differences that existed between tribes, and in such books as Sequoyah: Father of the Cherokee Alphabet and Ishi: The Last of His People, Petersen attempts to address such differences. Ishi was the sole survivor of California's Yahi tribe and was discovered, half-starved, in 1911. While Petersen provides readers with an understanding of Ishi's last years, his "straight for-ward" approach is unable to "convey the tragedy … of being the last of an entire nation to survive," according to School Library Journal contributor Lisa Mitten. Sequoyah, published in 1991, was deemed more successful by some reviewers. Eunice Weech noted in School Library Journal, for example, that Petersen's biography is "filled with anecdotal stories that make [this scholarly son of a white father and a Cherokee mother] come to life." Other books detailing the lives of pre-colonial Americans include Meriwether Lewis and William Clark: Soldiers, Explorers, and Partners in History, which includes in-depth coverage of the explorers' guide and interpreter, Sacagawea, and "plausible theories about [the young mother's] life after the expedition," according to Booklist contributor Beth Herbert.

Petersen's books provide philosophy, scientific observation, and personal reflections in a unique style, remarked Nichols. The author's prose is "as lyrical as anything written by Ed Abbey, Jim Harrison, or Thomas McGuane, and is often better informed. What distinguishes his writing is a lack of pretense and a refreshing dearth of intellectual egotism. Petersen the writer speaks clearly, to the point, with tolerance and an abiding love not only for the natural world but for the written word. This graceful, down-to-earth author has become an eminent spokesperson for the environment as well as an exceptional literary practitioner."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

American Scientist, July-August, 1996, Mike May, review of Ghost Grizzlies: Does the Great Bear Still Haunt Colorado?, p. 401.

American West, February, 1989, review of Big Sky, Fair Land: The Environmental Essays of A. B. Guthrie, Jr., p. 47.

Audubon, November, 2000, Christopher Camuto, review of Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America, p. 131.

Bloomsbury Review, May-June, 2001, John Nichols, "A Memory in Nature: Writing the Wild Country: A Profile of David Petersen," pp. 3, 6.

Booklist, March 1, 1989, p. 1132; September 1, 1989,p. 70; September 15, 1996, Wes Lukowsky, review of A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport, p. 203; December 15, 1997, Fred Egloff, review of The Nearby Faraway: A Personal Journey through the Heart of the West, p. 680; January 1, 1999.

Library Journal, September 1, 1991, Emily Moser, review of Racks: The Natural History of Antlers and the Animals That Wear Them, p. 226; September 1, 1994, Tim Markus, review of Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey, 1951-1989, p. 181; July, 1995, Bruce Neville, review of Ghost Grizzlies, p. 116; September 1, 1996, Roland C. Person, review of A Hunter's Heart, p. 184; May 15, 2001, Maureen J. Delaney-Lehman, review of Writing Naturally: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Nature Writing, p. 136.

Los Angeles Times, August 25, 1996, John Balzar, review of A Hunter's Heart, p. 5.

Magpies, March, 1991, p. 33.

Nature Canada, summer, 1997, John Davie, review of A Hunter's Heart, p. 52.

New York Times Book Review, November 12, 1995, Carol Peace Robins, review of Ghost Grizzlies, p. 56.

Nieman Reports, summer, 1989, Dale Maharidge, review of Big Sky, Fair Land, p. 48.

Outdoor Life, September, 1996, Anthony Brandt, review of A Hunter's Heart, p. 14.

Publishers Weekly, September 12, 1994, review of Confessions of a Barbarian, p. 75; June 5, 1995, review of Ghost Grizzlies, p. 44; June 24, 1996, review of A Hunter's Heart, p. 37; August 7, 2000, review of Heartsblood, p. 82.

Rocky Mountain News, October 8, 2000, C. W. Buchholtz, Colorado Authors, p. 7E. School Library Journal, December, 1989, pp. 114-115; January, 1992, p. 106; March 19, 1992, p. 232. August, 1995, p. 137; May, 1997, p. 123.

Sierra, January-February, 1996, Mark Mardon, review of Ghost Grizzlies, p. 124; March-April, 1998, Ken Wright, review of The Nearby Faraway, p. 94.

Washington Post, September 3, 2000, David Guy, "Basic Instinct," p. X4.

Wilderness, fall, 1995, Charles E. Little, review of Ghost Grizzlies, p. 34.