My latest book: A RIVER’S PLEASURE: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN

CRONIN. This is a collection of essays that celebrates the life and work of my

friend John Cronin. He has had a wide-ranging, imaginative career and is one of

the most dynamic thinkers about our environmental situation. In some ways, reading this book is a history, through his life and the Hudson River, of our environmental movement.

The first time

John and I had dinner, four years ago now, we talked about the Hudson River,

Thomas Merton, John Steinbeck and teaching. I knew that here was a person I’d

never get tired of. However, you would think that after pulling together

essays, editing them, and proofreading

them I’d really be sick of him. I’m not. This is partly because my co-editor

Michelle Land did the lion’s share of the work. But also because the essays

here are wonderful—insightful, smart, well written. There are contributions

from Alex Wilkinson, who writes marvelous profiles often for the New Yorker,

and a personal account of the early Riverkeeper days from Robert F. Kennedy,

Jr. I got to interview Pete Seeger for the collection, which was a treat: he

sang to me over the phone.