Dear ECOLOG-L:
The University of California Press is pleased to announce the publication of: American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree Susan Freinkel is a freelance science journalist whose feature writing has appeared in _Discover, Health, Smithsonian,_ and the _Reader's Digest,_ among many national magazines. http://go.ucpress.edu/Freinkel "In prose as strong and quietly beautiful as the American chestnut itself, Susan Freinkel profiles the silent catastrophe of a near-extinction and the impassioned struggle to bring a species back from the brink. Freinkel is a rare hybrid: equally fluid and in command as a science writer and a chronicler of historical events, and graced with the poise and skill to seamlessly graft these talents together. A perfect book."-Mary Roach, author of _Stiff_ and _Spook_ The American chestnut was one of America's most common, valued, and beloved trees-a "perfect tree" that ruled the forests from Georgia to Maine. But in the early twentieth century, an exotic plague swept through the chestnut forests with the force of a wildfire. Within forty years, the blight had killed close to four billion trees and left the species teetering on the brink of extinction. It was one of the worst ecological blows to North America since the Ice Age-and one most experts considered beyond repair. In _American Chestnut, _Susan Freinkel tells the dramatic story of the stubborn optimists who refused to let this cultural icon go. In a compelling weave of history, science, and personal observation, she relates their quest to save the tree through methods that ranged from classical plant breeding to cutting-edge gene technology. But the heart of her story is the cast of unconventional characters who have fought for the tree for a century, undeterred by setbacks or skeptics, and fueled by their dreams of restored forests and their powerful affinity for a fellow species. Full information about the book, including the table of contents, is available online: http://go.ucpress.edu/Freinkel
