Stephen J. Pyne

Selected Books and Essays

Buzz Off
Sketch of Buzz Aldrin from watching his performance at MIT+150 on the future of exploration.

A remembrance

A Beautiful Mind. William H. Goetzmann (1930-2010)
I knew Bill Goetzmann in his prime in his preferred habitats. He taught us how to turn our experiences into ideas.

Newest arrival

Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery
A narrative of the Voyager mission within the larger context of geographic exploration by Western civilization.

Writing manual

Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction
Art and craft of writing nonfiction books, especially history.

Centennial fire

Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910
Historical survey of the Great Fires, their context and consequences.

Geographic exploration

Great Ages of Discovery
A group of books organized around the concept of three great ages of discovery

Fire on Earth

Cycle of Fire - and more
Includes fire histories for Earth, America, Canada, Australia, and Europe including Russia. Other books on fire management.

Grand Canyon Suite

Books that center on the Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon provides a setting, at least in part, for several books.

Quick Links

Arizona State University

The author's university web page

Authors Guild

Advocates for published authors since 1912

Grand Canyon suite

A cultural history of the Canyon

The Canyon was found, lost, and then culturally rediscovered in ways that made it go from Big to Grand.

The long season - 1967-1981.

Life as a smokechaser on the North Rim at a time when fire policy was changing.

Biography of America's greatest geologist

G.K. Gilbert (1843-1918) - field geologist, explorer of the American West (Wheeler and Powell surveys), first chief geologist of USGS, experimentalist (flumes), inventor of two mountain-building processes (laccolith, basin-range), theorist of lunar origins, and commentator on scientific method.

Smokechaser Steve at Point Less, North Rim