ROSS, Mark C.

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Hyperion, 77 West 66th St., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10023.

CAREER: Safari guide in Kenya, 1986—. Also worked summers as a forest firefighter in Montana, Wyoming, and Washington.

WRITINGS:

Dangerous Beauty: Life and Death in Africa; True Stories from a Safari Guide, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Mark Ross is an American safari guide in Africa. On March 1, 1999, he and four clients were camped in Uganda, where they were hoping to find endangered mountain gorillas. Instead, they found danger in the form of Rwandan rebels, who were sneaking across the border from the Congo. The rebels killed two of Ross's clients, as well as six other tourists.

Ross explores both his love of Africa and his firsthand experience of the continent in the book, which includes stories of his experiences in Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. He explains how he finds animals, how he moves through the bush, and how he teaches his clients some of these skills. He describes dangerous elephant charges, meetings with lions, and encounters with cheetahs and Cape buffalo, as well as spectacular, massive migrations of wildebeest and zebras. In addition, he tells the story of the horrific events in March, 1999, and their consequences. In an article in Canoe, Jane van der Voort wrote, "He is obviously in the right line of work as he guides, babysits, scolds and shares with safari tourists the wonders of cheetah cubs and the thrill of a predator's kill."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2001, Nancy Bent, review of Dangerous Beauty, p. 1962.

New York Times Book Review, September 30, 2001, Naomi Max, review of Dangerous Beauty, p. 20.

Publishers Weekly, June 18, 2001, review of Dangerous Beauty, p. 70.

OTHER

Dangerous Beauty Web site,http://www.fsbassociates.com/ (December 2, 2001).

Canoe,http://www.canoe.ca/ (December 2, 2001), Jane van der Voort, review of Dangerous Beauty.

Soul to Spirit,http://www.soultospirit.com/ (December 2, 2001).*