HULER, Scott

PERSONAL: Married June Spence (a writer); children: Louis.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Crown Publishers, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, journalist, radio producer, and radio commentator. Nashville Public Radio, producer and reporter. Has worked as a staff writer for Raleigh News and Observer and Philadelphia Daily News.

AWARDS, HONORS: Knight-Wallace fellowship, University of Michigan, 2002–03; Public Radio News Directors Incorporated Award, 2002, 2003.

WRITINGS:

(With Gordon Bethune) From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental's Remarkable Comeback, Wiley (New York, NY), 1998.

A Little Bit Sideways: One Week inside a NASCAR Winston Cup Race Team, MBI Publishing Company (Osceola, WI), 1999.

On Being Brown: What It Means to Be a Cleveland Browns Fan, Gray Publishers (Cleveland, OH), 1999.

Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a Nineteenth-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry, Crown Publishers (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, and Los Angeles Times. Also contributor to radio shows, including National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Marketplace and Day to Day; and WMAL's Voice of America News Now.

SIDELIGHTS: Author and journalist Scott Huler is a prolific contributor to prominent newspapers such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post. While working as a copy editor for a small publisher in 1983, Huler experienced a moment of epiphany when he encountered a nondescript set of 110 words written in the nineteenth century. These words constitute the Beaufort Wind Scale, a simple descriptive table of wind speeds and descriptions attributed to English sea captain and hydrographer Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort. To Huler, however, the scale is more than a meteorological tool; to him, the succinct, even sublime descriptions rises to the stature of poetry, becoming what he dubbed "the apex of descriptive nonfiction in English."

In Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a Nineteenth-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry Huler describes his search to find out about the man who established the scale and whose descriptions stand as "the ultimate expression of concise, clear, and absolutely powerful writing, 110 words in six-point type." Arranged on a scale of zero to twelve, the Beaufort Scale contains descriptions of various wind effects. On the Beaufort Wind Scale, at zero, the wind is "calm; smoke rises vertically" at five, with breezes of nineteen to twenty-four miles per hour, "small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters." at nine, in a strong gale with winds of forty-seven to fifty-four miles per hour, "slight structural damage occurs; chimney pots and slates removed." At the highest level of twelve, in a hurricane with winds topping seventy-three miles per hour, "devastation occurs."

Beaufort himself was a hydrographer to the British Admiralty. His career spanned sixty-eight years in service to the crown. "Beaufort began his adventures at sea at age fourteen, captained a Royal Navy ship by age twenty-two, and for more than twenty years seldom seemed to step onto dry land," noted Laurence A. Marschall in Natural History. A shattered hip, the result of a sniper's bullet received during a fracas with Turkish natives, ended his seagoing career in 1817, but he remained in service to the admiralty for years afterward. He knew the notorious Captain William Bligh, of the H.M.S. Bounty, and was the person who encouraged the captain of the H.M.S. Beagle to sign on a young and inexperienced naturalist named Charles Darwin. Beaufort's reputation, however, was not without blemish: he had an incestuous affair with his sister after becoming a widower in his sixties.

"What makes Huler's book exceptional … is his absorbing account of how he tried to empathize with Beaufort, to find out what kind of person would devise and use such as scale," Marschall noted. Huler delved deeply into historical records and archival materials to assemble his portrait of Beaufort. To experience the world as Beaufort must have, Huler sailed the seas the admiral himself had once plied. He sought personal reflections from historians, meteorologists, poets, and musicians who felt inspiration from the scale. Ironically, Huler also discovered that the 110 words of refined poetic description were probably not written by Beaufort, but by later contributors to the scale.

"Readers will be absorbed by this story of the nature of scientific inquiry and the power and value of concise, poetic observation" commented Barbara A. Genco in School Library Journal. Huler's book forms a "consummate example of how a writer with enough determination can mine a deep vein of curiosity and use it to produce a compelling, powerful, and, yes, interesting book," stated Boston Globe reviewer Anthony Doerr. Bruce Barcott, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called Defining the Wind a "sometimes arcane but ultimately enchanting stroll through maritime and science history." A Publishers Weekly reviewer dubbed it a "gem of a book," while Library Journal critic Margaret Rioux described Huler's volume as "a beautifully written portrait" of Beaufort.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Huler, Scott, Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a Nineteenth-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry, Crown Publishers (New York, NY), 2004.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2004, Gilbert Taylor, review of Defining the Wind, p. 1807.

Boston Globe, September 19, 2004, Anthony Doerr, "Of Bees and Wolves, and a Fickle Wind; Tales of Rediscovery," review of Defining the Wind, p. D6.

Entertainment Weekly, August 13, 2004, Wook Kim, review of Defining the Wind, p. 91.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2004, review of Defining the Wind, p. 568.

Library Journal, July, 2004, Margaret Rioux, review of Defining the Wind, p. 114.

Natural History, November, 2004, Laurence A. Marschall, review of Defining the Wind, p. 51.

New York Times Book Review, October 10, 2004, Bruce Barcott, "Blowing Hot and Cold," review of Defining the Wind, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly,June 7, 2004, Ron Hogan, "The Beauty of the Beaufort Scale" (interview), p. 42; June 7, 2004, review of Defining the Wind, p. 43.

School Library Journal, December, 2004, Barbara A. Genco, review of Defining the Wind, p. 54.

Weatherwise, November-December, 2004, Randy Cerveny, review of Defining the Wind, p. 67.