Weyler, Rex 1947-

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Weyler, Rex 1947-

PERSONAL:

Surname is pronounced Wy-ler; born September 10, 1947, in Denver, CO; son of John R. and Joanne Elizabeth Weyler; married Glenn Jonathans, 1971 (divorced, 1984); married Lisa Gibbons, 1990; children: Jack, Jonah, Liam. Education: Attended Occidental College. Politics: "Ecological." Hobbies and other interests: Music (guitar, piano, percussion, voice, bamboo flute).

CAREER:

North Shore News, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, editor, 1972-75; Greenpeace, Vancouver, director and publisher, 1975-79; New Age Journal, Allston, MA, publisher, contributing editor, and author of column, 1980-82; Shared Vision, Vancouver, publisher and editor, 1998-2001, became editor-at-large. Concert and record album producer; special event organizer; media and business consultant; active in community ecological and peace movements.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Cream of the Crop, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2004, and Best Books of 2004, Publishers Weekly, both for Greenpeace: How a Group of Journalists, Ecologists, and Visionaries Changed the World.

WRITINGS:

I Took a Walk Today, illustrated with own photographs, Mothers for Peace, 1969.

Steveston Revisited, illustrated with own photographs, Government of British Columbia, 1973.

To Save a Whale, illustrated with own photographs, Scrimshaw Press (Oakland, CA), 1977.

Blood of the Land, Everest House, 1982.

(Coauthor) Chopping Wood and Carrying Water: A Guide to Spirituality in Everyday Life, J.P. Tarcher, 1983.

Song of the Whale, Anchor Press/Doubleday, (Garden City, NY), 1986.

(With Bill Gannon) The Story of Harmony, Justonic Tuning, 1995.

Greenpeace: How a Group of Journalists, Ecologists, and Visionaries Changed the World, Raincoast Books (Vancouver, BC, Canada), 2004, also published as Greenpeace: An Insider's Account, Rodale, 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

An American citizen who studied physics in college and traveled as a journalist, Rex Weyler moved to Canada in 1972 in protest of the Vietnam War. He became known as a photographer, essayist, and journalist while becoming involved with the emerging Greenpeace movement. Wyler served as the organization's director from 1974 to 1982, later chronicling his experiences in the 2004 book, Greenpeace: How a Group of Journalists, Ecologists, and Visionaries Changed the World.

Concentrating on the tempestuous early days of Greenpeace, which was founded by activists focused on environmental issues, Weyler creates "an engaging, brisk and at times emotional read," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Terry Glavin, writing in the Vancouver Review Online, said that this work "makes a lively contribution to the Greenpeace mythology; it is, how to put it, scripturally sound." However, Glavin adds: "When Weyler steps outside his role of diarist-to-the-founding-Greenpeace-celebrities, he tends to make claims that are, at best, a bit dodgy." Nevertheless, Booklist contributor Donna Seaman praised the book's chronicles of the unorthodox methods and deep passions of a new generation of activists, saying that "Weyler's capacious, affecting history is stirring testimony to the power of committed citizens."

Weyler's account ends at the beginning of the 1980s, by which time the Greepeace leadership and activities had evolved. "Yet as this highly readable book charts so powerfully," notes New Statesman critic Michael Meacher, "what is special about Greenpeace is that it has never become another [non-governmental office], hawking statistics and special interests. It has never allowed itself to stray too far into the politics of ecology, away from the wilderness itself."

"I am interested in the connection between human development, personal and social, and the natural world," Weyler once told CA. "Ecology teaches that nothing happens independently, all events are interdependent, co-creating each other."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2004, Donna Seaman, review of Greenpeace: How a Group of Journalists, Ecologists, and Visionaries Changed the World, p. 368.

Kirkus Reviews September 1, 2004, review of Greenpeace, p. 856.

New Statesman, November 1, 2004, Michael Meacher, review of Greenpeace, p. 54.

Publishers Weekly, September 6, 2004, review of Greenpeace, p. 55.