Doug Peacock, a nationally known author and a disabled Vietnam veteran, who speaks widely about wilderness and veterans’ issues, will present a reading and a lecture at Linfield College on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 23 and 24.
Peacock will read from two of his books Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Austin Reading Room of Nicholson Library. “Walking It Off: A Veteran’s Chronicle of War and Wilderness” was published in 2005 and “Dangerous Travels in a Melting World: A Renegade Naturalist Considers Global Warming, the First Americans and the Terrible Beasts of the Pleistocene” is due out next spring.
He will speak on “War for the World: Out of Vietnam and into the Wild” Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Ice Auditorium in Melrose Hall.
Peacock is the author of “Grizzly Years,” “Baja” and “Walking it Off: A Veteran’s Chronicle of War and Wilderness.” His latest book, “The Essential Grizzly: The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears,” was co-written with his wife, Andrea Peacock.
A disabled Vietnam veteran and Green Beret medic, Peacock was the real-life model for Edward Abbey’s George Washington Hayduke. He has published widely on wilderness issues ranging from Grizzly bears to buffalo, from the Sonoran desert to the fjords of British Columbia, from the tigers of Siberia to the blue sheep of Nepal. He was named a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow and a Lannan Fellow for his work on a new memoir about archaeology, climate change and the people of North America.
Peacock was the subject of the feature film, “Peacock’s War,” about grizzlies and Vietnam which premiered on PBS’s Nature and the Discovery Channel. The film won grand prizes at the Telluride Mountain and the Snowbird film festivals. He has been featured on numerous television shows including the Today Show, Good Morning America, American Sportsman and many others.
For his service in Vietnam, Peacock was awarded the Soldier’s Medal, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and the Bronze Star. He co-founded the Wildlife Damage Review, Vital Ground and Round River Conservation Studies. He serves on the board for Round River Conservation Studies and the Raincoast Conversation Society. Raincoast works primarily on the British Columbia coast, forging an alliance with First Nations to change logging practices and end salmon farming and trophy brown bear hunts. Round River works with indigenous people and governments in Africa and North, South and Central America to develop region-wide conservation strategies protecting and enhancing intact ecosystems. They simultaneously train college students who perform much of the field work.
This event will be co-sponsored by the Program for Liberal Arts and Civic Engagement (PLACE). The theme for this year is “The Legacies of War.”
For more information on the reading, call Susan Barnes Whyte, 503-883-2517, swhyte@linfield.edu. For information on the lecture, call David Sumner, 503-883-2389, dsumner@linfield.edu.
