My complete works and more*

PREFACE As we approach our last quarter of a century, some of us who might by some extension of the word be called writers may be swept away by a desire to summarize. This is my shot at writing a summary. By what standard am I a writer? When I was a little boy in the East Bronx, people would point with great respect to rather ragged men, often with flapping overcoats and scarred shoes and usually with cracked plastic briefcases, and say Ehr ist epes a schreiber! (He is really a writer!) [I don't quite meet the physical picture. My shoes and briefcase are real leather.] I decided a half-century later that one book did not a schreiber make – everyone has one book in them. Two books is getting closer. Three books defined writer status. Four books or one bestseller was the mark of a hack or a sellout ! I have written three books, two of which are in print. The one that is out of print contributed to my academic advancement nicely. None were bestsellers. This paper consists of reports of events, people, and conversations that I feel taught me important things. I will not attempt to organize them into a formal autobiography. Autobiographies by persons whose works and thoughts are famous can be fascinating, but usually are not. Run-of-the-mill septagenarians have lived through exciting decades without doing or learning much of general interest. Knowledge does not necessarily provide wisdom, nor does it enforce correct beliefs. Wisdom gained from experience depends as strongly on the person as on the experience itself. * My title is borrowed from Sir Max Beerbohm, an Edwardian dandy born in 1872. He published the Complete Works of Max Beerbohm at the age of 24 followed two years later by the Complete Works of Max Beerbohm and More. He is perhaps the world's greatest minor author and is one of my heroes. Consult the copyright statement on the inside front cover for non-commercial copying policies. Most of my writing has been about ecology – the science that starts with natural history and ends with large-scale atmospheric problems and sometimes extremely sophisticated mathematics and biochemistry.