Linda Lear

Whenever my parents drove over the Allegheny River into downtown Pittsburgh from the rural community where I was born, I begged my father not to go over the bridge that crossed the river above the stock yards. There were animal parts visible in the yard, and debris strewn along the river's edge. The smell of dead animals mixed with the stench of sulfur from the smelting operations further down river. We talked about why the city was dirty, the river polluted, and what we could do about it. For generations my family had been involved in the natural world and from them I learned to appreciate and nurture the earth.

My grandfather who loved books and loved to read to me when I was little. Our favorites were fairy tales, Grimms and Andersons, Lewis Carroll, and any sort of animal fable. We loved Aesop, B're Rabbit, Uncle Wiggly, and of course, Peter Rabbit. He introduced me to the nonsense rhymes of Edward Lear, and to illustrators,like Beswick,Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott. From my grandparents and from my mother, I absorbed the pleasures of gardening, learning the names of plants, and later of making a garden of my own. I always loved woodland flowers and animals, and became adept at rescuing stray kittens and baby rabbits.

I was educated at women’s schools until my graduate work at Columbia University. Before finishing my doctorate, I taught American history and fortunately ended up teaching in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960s-just in time to become an activist. I have had a long career in college and university teaching and have written a variety of books and articles. I began to specialize in environmental history just as the field was being defined. Fellowships at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Library and at the Smithsonian Institution allowed me to redefine my self as writer.

With the publication of my biography of Rachel Carson, "Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature," in 1997, my writing and lecturing career began in earnest. Writing Carson's life took me a decade. It gave me a chance to give voice to someone whose work reflects what a single individual can do to bring about change, to understand the origins of the contemporary environmental movement, and to be immersed in the prose of one of the best nature writers of the 20th century. My biography of Carson was awarded the prize for the best book on women in science by the History of Science Society for 1998. A new edition will be published in 2009.

"Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature," the biography of the famous children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)began quite by happenstance while I was on book tour in the UK in 1999. There I discovered her botanical illustrations, her collateral interest in mycological science and learned that there was much more to this Victorian children's writer than I had ever imagined. This life took eight years to prepare and was published in the UK by AllenLane/Penguin in January 2007, and by St. Martin's Press in the US by St. Martin's Press. It won the Lakeland Book of the Year prize in 2007, the most prestigious of England's regional literary prizes, the first time ever given to an American writer. The biography appeared in paper in both countries in 2008.

As a wealthy Victorian woman,Beatrix endured enormous obstacles as someone who wanted to find something useful to do with her life. Ultimately she gave the world not only imaginative tales of memorable animals, like Peter Rabbit and Jeremy Fisher, which have shaped our childhood vision of nature, but also many exquisite paintings of the natural world. She was fortunate to have a real third act to her life and made the most of it. She became a country woman and prize-winning sheep farmer who used her talent and wealth to preserve the landscape that inspired her art. Her stewardship is still evident in the a large tracts of land that she donated to the National Trust in what is now the English Lake District.

I currently serve on the Board of Trustees of my alma mater, Connecticut College. I was honored with the Goodwin-Niering Center Alumni Environmental Achievement Award in 1999, and have donated my manuscript materials to establish The Lear/Carson Collection there, and "The Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives" will open in the fall of 2008 to allow greater access to the college's manuscript and rare book collections. My collection of Potter material will also be placed there to encourage further research. In 2007, Chatham College (now Chatham University) awarded me an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

I have traveled extensively in Great Britain to appreciate and describe the places that influenced Beatrix Potter and I too, have fallen in love with the English Lake District that she worked so hard to preserve.

I spend my time in Bethesda, Maryland and Charleston, South Carolina with my husband, John Nickum, and our four little Norfolk terriers. We cherish occasional visits from our son, Ian Cole who is the head man of the rock band, VAEDA, and his wife Lindsay. And in both places we cultivate a garden.