NEWS

Tom Brown, Jr. Shares His Secrets for Nurturing and Saving Our Planet

This week’s Igloo Book Buzz selection is TOM BROWN’S GUIDE TO HEALING THE EARTH, published by Berkley on November 26. Tom Brown, Jr., acclaimed outdoorsman, tracker, teacher, and bestselling author, learned to respect nature as a child. When he was eight, Brown met Stalking Wolf, an Apache elder he called Grandfather, who taught the young man how to survive in the wild, and more importantly, how to value our place in the natural order. For more than three decades, Brown has shared these insights through teaching, writing, and film. In his new book, he has detailed actions that each of us can take to help heal our ailing planet.

Tom Brown, Jr. Photo by Jake Taylor

Brown reveals, “Two quotes from Grandfather kept coming to me, convincing me that now was the time to write this book. When I was twelve years old, on a hill we called Prophecy, around a late night fire, Grandfather told Rick (a childhood friend) and me, ‘We are a society of people who kill our grandchildren to feed our children.’ After a long pause, Grandfather added, ‘We have let our children down and sentenced them to a life of suffering and pain because of our greed.’ This book represents my belief that there is still hope humankind can join together to protect and preserve our Earth Mother, her blood, her breath, her bones and all her children.”

Berkley VP & Editorial Director Tom Colgan: “I’d worked with Tom on two previous books. I’m not the most natural editor for these works. As a Queens boy, the closest I got to nature growing up was cutting through Flushing Meadow Park to go to the Hall of Science. Still, Tom introduced me to the techniques of tracking and piqued my interest in the nature that surrounds even us urbanites.

“It had been a few years since the last book, but I was immediately intrigued when Tom shared his early plans for his GUIDE TO HEALING THE EARTH. After all, an ailing planet is a problem for all of us whether you live in the city or the country or anywhere in between. I was particularly attracted to his plan to emphasize simple steps each of us can take to heal our corner of the world. Obviously, Global Climate Change will need to be addressed on an international scale, but there’s a special kind of personal fulfillment that can be found in direct action.”