Peter's adventure
books come directly from his travel journals. In
order to write a book about a place - its history, geography,
people and culture - he likes to experience it for himself.
As a child, he loved collecting
rocks and wandering the countryside of Connecticut. When
his parents split up, he, his identical twin brother Jim,
and their younger sister Ann moved to Ontario, Canada. In the
fourth grade, deep into the Hardy Boys, Peter wanted to
be a bush pilot in Canada's Northwest Territories. He also
wanted to be an archaeologist, to travel the world to delve into ancient cultures.
When he graduated from college,
Peter studied early human bones with Margaret Leakey in
Kenya and observed Colobus monkeys in the Usambara Mountains
of Tanzania. He was all set to become an anthropologist
when suddenly, while surveying monkeys in the jungles
of Ecuador, Peter heard the mysterious story
of an Incan treasure.
In 1533, seven hundred and fifty tons
of gold were buried in a strange and haunting cloud forest
in the Andes Mountains. That gold, in fact, is still
hidden in a dangerous chain of misty mountains only seventy
miles from Quito, the capital of Ecuador.
It was this fantastic
story (audio) that made Peter drop his plans to earn
a Ph.D. in anthropology. And for the next five
years, he remained in Ecuador to research the story of
the Inca gold.
Finally he hired three guides (Segundo, Juan and Washington)
from the small village of El Triunfo in the cloud forest. He
climbed into the high jungle looking for the gold but
came back not with riches but with a desire to write an
article for Highlights Magazine ("Inca
Treausre in the Cloud Forest") and a book (Sweat
of the Sun, Tears of the Moon: A Chronicle of an Incan
Treasure).
So Peter began to
write adventure-travel books about many places, rivers,
and ancient cultures, both for children and for adults. His
journeys have now taken him to remote parts of the world,
including the jungles of Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Panama,
Peru, and Africa.
A few years ago he realized
a boyhood dream when he explored Tierra
del Fuego at the tip of South America, known also
as "El Fin del Mundo," or the End of the
World. This remote island is located at the southern
tip of Patagonia and was named "Land of Fire"
by Ferdinand Magellan in 1520. Only seven hundred
miles from Antarctica, it is a wild and desolate place,
filled with penguins, sea lions, and wild guanaco, a llama-like
creature that the natives there depended on for food and
clothing.
When he recently returned
from the jungles of southern Mexico where he was working
on a story about the ancient
Maya,
Peter admitted that although it is important to read
books in preparation for a journey, just as
crucial are his observations while traipsing
through jungles or following rivers.
"Hearing the roar of howlers and the whine
of cicadas in the long, hot jungle afternoons in Chiapas,
Mexico, is an important part of my research into the ancient
Maya civilization," he says. "The
mystery has to come alive!" he says. "Readers
should feel, hear and smell a place."
For
Peter, research is another word for exploration!
It is Peter's love of mystery
and of what he will discover that compels him toward
his next adventure. This past summer Peter was
on Lake Turkana, Kenya, to
write about Louise
Leakey, granddaughter
of Louis and Mary Leakey. He is also finishing
up two books: one about the Spanish conquistador Cabeza
de Vaca and the other about an Arctic
Whale Scientist on the North Slope
of Alaska. This year he starts research
on a book about Manatees in West Africa, the
Amazon, Mexico and Florida.
Peter holds a BA in classics
from New York University, an MA in English Literature from
the University of Maine, and an MFA in creative writing
from Columbia University. He has taught writing
at Columbia College, the University of Vermont, and
Middlebury College.
He
now makes his living traveling, writing and photographing, and visiting
schools to share his adventures with students and
teachers.
He
and his family live near Middlebury, Vermont.
Bio
as Word Doc
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on the photo below
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Peter
and Segundo, years after the expedition into
the
Treasure Mountains
***
I've
known rivers:
Ancient,
dusky rivers.
My
soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Langston
Hughes
 newest
book
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