Heather Hansen: Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bison and Bears

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Cover: Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bison and Bears: 100 Years of the National Park Service by Heather Hansen

PROPHETS AND MOGULS,
RANGERS AND ROGUES,
BISON AND BEARS:
100 YEARS OF
THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Heather Hansen
Mountaineers Books, November 15, 2015, $24.95
ISBN: 9781594858888

Hansen reports:

When the idea for this book first started knocking around in my skull, I was writing a lot but felt I was telling the same story time and again: our air, water or land is threatened in some way, this is why, and this is who’s protesting it. I was looking for personalities, even dead ones, who might boost me from that rut. When I started talking to people about the National Park Service (NPS), I found them.

Telling the 100-year history of the NPS meant stretching further back, to how Americans came up with the idea of national parks, and how the conservation ethic seized scores of unlikely characters, from millionaires to the military. I was also able to resurrect some people who had slid off the radar of history, namely women and people of color. All had something in common that we could use more of nowadays: foresight.

Heather Hansen

Within several weeks of pulling together a proposal, I’d found the publisher of my dreams (though I didn’t know it yet): Mountaineers Books. In my NPS research I’d come across references to the Mountaineers, the organization that’s been synonymous with outdoors exploration, conservation, and education since 1906. Their history was intertwined with the evolution of the NPS, and the fit was seamless.

One part desire, and the other necessity, led me to rent out my condo in Boulder, and hit the road. In a year of reporting, I drove over 20,000 miles in a hybrid from North Cascades National Park to the Everglades, and from Pinnacles National Park to Acadia. Getting back to daily, shoe leather reporting was something I hadn’t known I needed. I slept in my tent a lot, wore down many friends’ couches, and, though vegetarian, often found myself at McDonald’s (flush toilets!).

Somewhere along the way, I realized I’ve been researching this book for over 30 years. I was a “national park kid,” and from the time I became a Junior Ranger at age seven at Cape Cod National Seashore, I’ve been to more than 150 national park units. It turns out that to move forward, personally and professionally, I also had to go back to my beginning, to recall that pure love of place.

Contact info:

Heather Hansen: 303- 818-3930, heather.j.hansen@gmail.com.
Publicist: Emily White, 206 223-6303 x138, emilyw@mountaineersbooks.org.
Book websites: www.traveltoparks.com; http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/Prophets-Moguls-Rangers-Rogues-Bison-Bears-P1634.aspx.

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines for information on submitting your report.

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