In the early 1990s, I was amazed to receive a letter from an editor at Stackpole Books (now Rowman and Littlefield) asking me if I wanted to write a book. This is a writer’s fantasy! I had not even thought about a book, but hurriedly put a proposal together about the cat named cougar (also mountain lion, puma, catamount, panther, painter, and more). It was accepted and published in 1995. The rest is a short and terminal history.
Southern Appalachian Celebration: In Praise of Ancient Mountains: Old-Growth Forests, and Wilderness
Published by University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
Southern Appalachian Celebration was created in collaboration with photographer James Valentine. The world’s most famous biologist, Dr. E.O. Wilson of Harvard University, says: “No book of my experience has ever caught the natural beauty and richness of southern Appalachia with greater exactitude.”
Available from Amazon.com
Reviews“Because this is a large, magnificent volume of lush photographs, it can be approached as simply an eye-catching book for […]
Published by Images from the Past and sponsored by The American Chestnut Foundation, Asheville, NC, 2007.
Mighty Giants: An American Chestnut Anthology tells in images and words the story of the once mightiest tree in the eastern forest. Ghost writing an essay for President Jimmy Carter in this book was a highlight of my career.
Winner of the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Award, Silver, for Best Regional Non-Fiction.
Available from Amazon.com
Reviews“Editor Bolgiano gathers photographs, essays, poems, and personal […]
The Eastern Cougar: Historic Accounts, Scientific Investigations, and New Evidence was published by Stackpole Books, 2005 on behalf of the nonprofit Cougar Rewilding Foundation, formerly the Eastern Cougar Foundation.
Co-edited by Chris Bolgiano and Jerry Roberts, this anthology brings together, for the first time ever, information on the confused history and controversial current status of the cougar in Eastern North America. Never before have scientifically reputable confirmations of field evidence — several dozen of them — been compiled in one […]
Living in the Appalachian Forest: True Tales of Sustainable Forestry, Stackpole Books, 2002.
From a tattooed ex-con logger to the Republican president of the Sierra Club, from industrial strength timbering to the delicate art of virtually wild forest herb gardening, this book examines the people and the practices that are defining what “sustainable” means in our postindustrial woodlands.
Winner of two literary awards in 2003:
The Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment from the […]
The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Roots and Renewal, published by Stackpole Books, 1998.
More than a biological overview, The Appalachian Forest is also an exploration of Appalachian life and its many contradictions, including the poverty of a region so rich in natural resources. From Cherokees to bear hunters, this book views the mountains from a continuum of perspectives.
Available from Amazon.com
Reviews“One of the three best natural history books published in 1998…a ‘must’ read’.—Asheville […]
Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People, published by Stackpole Books, 1995.
Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People examines the interactions between cougars and people across North America through the millennia.
Available from Amazon.com
Reviews“I consider Mountain Lion an absolute must for my library. As a book about America’s lion, this is an astonishing piece of research, well told. But it is more than that; it’s a book about us – about […]