Crewdson, Michael

views updated

Crewdson, Michael

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Villard Books, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Writer and naturalist.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With Margaret Mittelbach) Wild New York: A Guide to the Wildlife, Wild Places & Natural Phenomena of New York City, Crown (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Margaret Mittelbach) Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger, illustrations by Alexis Rockman, Villard Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor of articles to publications, including the New York Times and Newsday.

SIDELIGHTS: Michael Crewdson and Margaret Mittelbach have written about various aspects of the natural world for major newspapers. They have also produced two book-length works. Their 1997 work Wild New York: A Guide to the Wildlife, Wild Places & Natural Phenomena of New York City is a field guide to an urban space. In 2005, the pair released the book Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger, a "spirited narrative of the authors' hunt for the presumed-extinct thylacine," according to a reviewer for Science News. The authors were inspired to search for the purportedly extinct Tasmanian tiger after seeing a stuffed version of the animal in New York's Museum of Natural History. The two traveled to Tasmania and braved the backcountry in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the animal; along the way they recorded their experiences with a variety of other animals. A Science News contributor praised the resulting book as both a "detailed nature guide and a humorous and engaging adventure story." Edell M. Schaefer, a reviewer for Library Journal, noted that Carnivorous Nights is "an irresistible work of armchair travel, not to be missed." Similarly, a reviewer for Publishers Weekly felt that "the authors' lively writing will keep readers' spirits high." A critic for Kirkus Reviews concluded the book "neatly and wonderfully sews together natural science and travel yarn."