Skip to main content

Writing

The Bog

Letters on place, species, and whatever turned up in the field. The full archive with anchors still lives on the newsletter page.

  1. Latest Among the Stricken October 30, 2026 Once upon an earlier time I visited two different groups of former headhunters, the Shuar in Ecuador and the Iban in Sarawak. “Former” tends to be…
  2. A Most Valuable Utensil October 19, 2026 Wherever I happen to go, I always take a pencil with me. Write down that damn story immediately, the pencil I have in my hand will declare, and I feel obliged…
  3. Kuujjuaq Project Report October 12, 2026 To the best of my knowledge, no one had ever given serious attention to the fungi (i.e., mushrooms) of the Kuujjuaq region before my August 12-18, 2007 visit…
  4. The Monster October 4, 2026 Once upon an earlier time I was a prisoner war at an academic institution. Behind metaphoric bars, I was obliged to teach remarkably ambiguous works of…
  5. A Luddite Lexicon – Available July 15 May 28, 2026 A Luddite Lexicon is a dictionary of words and phrases that speak out against the technological matrix currently enveloping our planet. Inside that matrix, a…
  6. Meeting an Ancient Creature December 6, 2025 So there I was, swatting mosquitoes on Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic. I didn’t come to this relatively remote island because I wanted to engage…
  7. Outsider: My Boyhood with Thoreau May 17, 2024 I am excited to share my latest book, available at better bookstores everywhere. “Thoreau, I think. would have wanted you to carry Outsider in your hip…
  8. Bad Doggy! December 7, 2022 Hardly anything, not even an infant asleep in a stroller, raises the oxytocin of certain people to such Everest-like heights as the sight of a wide-eyed…
  9. Why I Dropped Out of the Explorers Club December 8, 2018 Once upon a time the Explorers Club was one of the most prestigious organizations on the planet. Its past members included such eminences as Richard Peary…
  10. Paradise Found October 14, 2018 Thanks to the unabashed tourist meccas of Nassau and Freeport, the word “Bahamas” calls up images of mega-gambling casinos, no less mega-cruise…
  11. A Walk on the Wild Side June 8, 2018 So there you are, walking along the Atlantic City Boardwalk. The crowds are oppressive, Nature seems to have disappeared, and there’s nary a spouting…
  12. Sir John Franklin’s Lost Diary November 2, 2015 On September 9, 2014, Parks Canada discovered the remains of the HMS Erebus, explorer Sir John Franklin’s remarkably newsworthy flagship. Among the…