Stephen J. Pyne

The summer promises to be busy. I have three research trips planned - one to the New Jersey pine barrens, one to Siberia, and one to the White Mountains and the place Aldo Leopold learned to think like a mountain. Essays should come from all those encounters. Meanwhile, check out some recent efforts on Voyager and the narrative of environmental restoration (see roster on left).

Several years ago I overbooked. But The Last Lost World, written with my older daughter, Lydia V. Pyne, is coming out in paperback by Penguin. Reaktion Books has released Fire: Nature and Culture. And Wiley Blackwell is advancing Fire on Earth: An Introduction into page proofs, with publication planned in time for the AGU meeting in December. I began that project as senior editor but will end as one contributor among five. It's a marvelous text. Remind me why I thought doing all these books at once was a good idea.

What is really consuming my writing attention, however, is a survey of the American fire scene since 1960. Briefly, the project envisions two complementary products. Between Two Fires will craft a grand narrative of America's great cultural revolution on fire, while To the Last Smoke will provide color commentary through suites of essays on various themes and regional reconnaissances. After years of studying fire around the world, I'm having to relearn the details of my own country. For particulars, see the project website. Regional suites to date include Florida, California, the Northern Rockies, and the Great Plains, with a special section on Texas. A Southwest suite is underway. I expect to complete a full draft manuscript of Between Two Fires by August. I'll begin the rewriting while I teach in the fall.

A lot to have taken on - too much, really. But sometimes opportunities come like ketchup out of a bottle. You shake and shake and nothing happens. Then it all comes out with a splat. I've been happy to see it on my plate, and will be happy to see it gone while I reach for another bottle. Some things I never learn.