Monday, January 24, 2011

H. Bruce Franklin

H. Bruce Franklin is the author or editor of nineteen books and more than 300 articles on culture and history published in more than a hundred major magazines and newspapers, academic journals, and reference works. He has given over five hundred addresses on college campuses, on radio and TV shows, and at academic conferences, museums, and libraries, and he has participated in making four films. He has taught at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins, Wesleyan, and Yale and currently is the John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University in Newark.

Some time back I asked him what he was reading. His reply:
The future history of our species will be profoundly affected by what we do or do not do to our planet's seas. Two great and most timely books that can offer us guidance are Paul Greenberg's Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food and Sylvia Earle's The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and The Ocean's Are One.

For some very different insights into the intricate relations between our species and some fish that might seem most alien, read James Prosek's Eels: An Exploration ... of the World's Most Amazing and Mysterious Fish.
Visit H. Bruce Franklin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue