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Dale Peterson (born November 20, 1944) is an American author who writes about scientific and natural history subjects.


Early life and education

Dale Alfred Peterson was born and raised in
Corning, New York Corning is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the Chemung River. The population was 10,551 at the 2020 census. It is named for Erastus Corning, an Albany financier and railroad executive who was an investor in the company t ...
, a small town known for glass manufacturing in western New York State. He obtained his BA from the
University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of ...
in 1967, then began his graduate studies at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
, first in the writing program under
Wallace Stegner Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Boo ...
, later in the English Department. Stanford awarded him a Ph.D. in English and American Literature in 1977.


Writing

The
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
caused a break in Peterson's graduate studies. As a
conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objec ...
, Peterson was assigned to alternative service in 1971 at a large U.S. Veterans Administration hospital, working as an attendant on a lock-up ward for severely disturbed or mentally ill patients, many of them diagnosed with
schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...
. He wrote a novel loosely based on his experiences, which was never published, and began work on a non-fiction treatment of the social and psychological experiences of the mentally ill. That study became an insider's history of
mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
based on autobiographical accounts of madness written during the nearly five and a half centuries between 1436 and 1976: published at last as ''A Mad People's History of Madness'' (1982). After receiving his doctorate, Peterson turned to carpentry, becoming a high-end finish carpenter engaged in remodeling houses in
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...
, incidentally developing some friendships and connections with various people in the computer industry. A young
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...
, for example, gave him one of the early
Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
computers. Using the Apple II as a word processor, Peterson turned away from carpentry and settled down to writing, first with four books about computers (personal computers, computers in the arts and education, and programming). In partnership with John O'Neill, a
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
artist who had emigrated to
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
in order to design artistic games, he also helped create a computer game on the theme of interspecies communication, ''The Dolphins' Pearl'', which was released in 1984. ''The Dolphins' Pearl'' marked a shift in Peterson's interests from intelligent machines and to intelligent animals. Making the decision to write about
primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter includin ...
s, Peterson began to research the topic at libraries but soon took a more direct approach in a series of arduous trips into tropical forests around the world: starting in the coastal forests of southeastern
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, then floating for two thousand miles down the
Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...
from central to the eastern Amazon; exploring critical areas in West, Central, and
East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historica ...
; and proceeding from there to
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...
, southern
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
,
Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and e ...
,
Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
, and the
Mentawai Islands Mentawai may refer to: * Mentawai Islands * Mentawai Strait * Mentawai people * Mentawai language The Mentawai language is an Austronesian language, spoken by the Mentawai people of the Mentawai Islands, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Dialects Ac ...
. His proximate goal was to find the twelve most endangered primates (
monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
s, apes, and
prosimian Prosimians are a group of primates that includes all living and extinct strepsirrhines ( lemurs, lorisoids, and adapiforms), as well as the haplorhine tarsiers and their extinct relatives, the omomyiforms, i.e. all primates excluding the si ...
s) in the world. His ultimate goal was to write a book about those animals and their fate. Published in 1989, ''The Deluge and the Ark: A Journey into Primate Worlds'' was short-listed for the Sir Peter Kent Conservation Prize in
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
. It also attracted the attention of Dr.
Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best kn ...
, the pioneering primatologist, who went on to join Peterson in writing a book about the ethical issues of using
chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative t ...
s in captivity and the conservation problems threatening chimpanzees in the wild. Translated into Chinese, German, and Polish, ''Visions of
Caliban Caliban ( ), son of the witch Sycorax, is an important character in William Shakespeare's play '' The Tempest''. His character is one of the few Shakespearean figures to take on a life of its own "outside" Shakespeare's own work: as Russell H ...
: On Chimpanzees and People'' (1993) was distinguished as a ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' Notable Book of the Year and a ''
Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional pract ...
'' Best of the Year. With
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
biological anthropologist Professor
Richard Wrangham Richard Walter Wrangham (born 1948) is an English anthropologist and primatologist; he is Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. His research and writing have involved ape behavior, human evolution, violence, and cooking. ...
, Peterson co-authored the classic evolutionary study of human violence ''Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence'' (1996), which has been translated into nine foreign languages and honored by ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
'' as Best of the Year. In 1995 he published a light-hearted book about his travels into obscure parts of Africa looking for chimpanzees (''Chimpanzee Travels''), and in 1999 he released a second travel book, describing a 20,000-mile road trip taken with his two children in the United States (''Storyville USA''). Peterson also turned to biography. Through collecting and editing hundreds of her personal letters, he produced a highly personal, two-volume "epistolary autobiography" of ''Jane Goodall: Africa in My Blood'' (2000) and ''Beyond Innocence'' (2001). He next wrote Goodall's only full (according to ''Nature'' magazine, the "definitive") biography, ''Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man'' (2006). ''The New York Times'' honored it as a Notable Book of the Year, while ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' called it Best of the Year. During this general period, moreover, he joined forces with photographer
Karl Ammann Karl Ammann is a Swiss conservationist, wildlife photographer, author and documentary film producer. He initiated a campaign focusing on the African bush meat trade, which gained worldwide attention. As a conservation activist, he has specialized ...
to tour
Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Co ...
and produce a shocking exposé of the trade in ape meat, ''Eating Apes'' (2003), which was pronounced Best of the Year by the ''
Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 1 ...
'', ''
Discover Discover may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Discover'' (album), a Cactus Jack album * ''Discover'' (magazine), an American science magazine Businesses and brands * DISCover, the ''Digital Interactive Systems Corporation'' * D ...
'', ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'', and ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
''. Subsequent African and Asian travels with photographer Ammann resulted in ''Elephant Reflections'' (2009) and ''Giraffe Reflections'' (2012). Peterson's retrospective narrative of those rough travels in the company of Karl Ammann--''Where Have All the Animals Gone?'' was published late in 2015. Additional recent works include ''The Moral Lives of Animals'' (2011) and a play for children entitled ''Jane of the Apes'', which was co-authored with Randel Wright. For 2013 and 2014, Peterson was named a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. He also, in late 2014, co-organized the Harvard University symposium on Animal Consciousness: Evidence and Implications, a two-day public conversation among prominent American neuroscientists, animal behaviorists, and humanists on issues of animal cognition and consciousness. In 2015, he was a Scholar in Residence at the Erikson Institute for Education and Research, Austen Riggs Center. During this general period (from 2013 forward), Peterson co-edited (with biologist Marc Bekoff) a collection of essays on the influence of Jane Goodall (published in 2015 as ''The Jane Effect''); and completed a nonfiction narrative based on events that happened at Jane Goodall's research station in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, during the late 1960s. Published by the University of California Press (2018), ''The Ghosts of Gombe: A True Story of Love and Death in an African Wilderness'' focuses on the story of a young American volunteer at Gombe who on July 12, 1969, walked out of camp to follow a chimpanzee into the forest. Six days later, her body was found floating in a pool at the base of a high waterfall. In sweeping detail, ''The Ghosts of Gombe'' reveals for the first time the full story of day-to-day life at Goodall's wilderness camp—the people and the animals, the stresses and excitements, the social conflicts and cultural alignments, and the astonishing friendships that developed between three of the researchers and three of the chimpanzees—during the months preceding that tragic event. At the same time, it gathers together the story of the young woman's death, examines how it might have happened, and explores some of the painful sequelae that haunted two of the survivors for the rest of their lives. In 2010, Peterson founded the
Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and h ...
Prize for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing, an annual literary award designed to honor America's best nature writers. Originally conceived as a program supported and administered by PEN New England, the Thoreau Prize is currently supported and administered by The Thoreau Society, Inc. Since 1984, Peterson has also taught writing part-time in the English Department of
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
. He has been an adjunct faculty member of the English Department at
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
for more than thirty years and, for the last two, has organized and team-taught an undergraduate course on elephants and elephant conservation through the Tufts University Experimental College. His latest book, ''33 Ways of Looking at an Elephant,'' is an edited collection of thirty three essential writings about elephants from across history, from Aristotle to the present, with geographical perspectives from Africa and Southeast Asia to Europe and the United States.


Bibliography


Non-fiction

* *''Big Things From Little Computers'' (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982). *''Genesis II: Creation and Recreation with Computers'' (Reston, VA: Reston, 1983). *''Intelligent Schoolhouse: On Computers and Learning'' (Reston, VA: Reston, 1984). Edited. *''CoCo Logo'' (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1985). *''The Dolphins' Pearl'' (Reston, VA: Admacadium / Reston Computer / Prentice-Hall, 1985). Co-designed with John O'Neill. *''The Deluge and the Ark: A Journey into Primate Worlds'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989). *''Visions of Caliban'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993). Co-authored with Jane Goodall. *''Chimpanzee Travels'' (Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1995). *''Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996). Co-authored with Richard Wrangham. *''Storyville USA'' (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999). *''Africa in My Blood'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000). Edited. *''Beyond Innocence'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001). Edited. *''Eating Apes'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). *''Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006) . *''Elephant Reflections'' (Berkeley:
University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...
, 2009). *''The Moral Lives of Animals'' (New York:
Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest ...
, 2011) . *''Giraffe Reflections'' (U of California Press) 2013. *''Where Have All The Animals Gone?'' (Bauhan Publishing) 2015. *''The Jane Effect'' (Trinity University Press, 2015) 2015. . *''The Ghosts of Gombe: A True Story of Love and Death in an African Wilderness'' (University of California Press, 2015) 2015. . *''Thirty-Three Ways of Looking at an Elephant'' Trinity University Press (October 20, 2020) 2020. .


Critical studies and reviews of Peterson's work

* Review of ''Giraffe reflections''.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Dale 1944 births American animal welfare scholars American science writers Living people People from Corning, New York Radcliffe fellows Stanford University alumni Tufts University faculty University of Rochester alumni