The History of the Corporation by Bruce Brown

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Charles Martin Smith as Farley Mowat in Carroll Ballard's film of "Never Cry Wolf."

Filming 'Never Cry Wolf'

Derided as "Never Cry Wrap" by critics inside Walt Disney during its seeemingly interminable gestation, Carroll Ballard and John Houston's film of Farley Mowat's autobiographical classic, Never Cry Wolf, turned into a classic of its own sort. This story by Bruce Brown about how the film was made originally appeared in the October 16, 1983 issue of the New York Times Magazine.

"The heart of Abbey Country is somewhere in a canyon along the Colorado River or a tributary like the Green or Paria rivers, although for literary purposes he lists his address as Oracle, Arizona."

Desert Dispatches

Bruce Brown praises Edward Abbey's Beyond the Wall and gets hate mail from the irrasible Abbey in return! This review originally appeared in the April 1, 1984 Washington Post Book World.

Fidel Castro, left, pitches for Los Barbudos in Havana on July 24, 1959.

Baseball in Cuba

Baseballs ricochet off everything in sight in "Baseball in Cuba" by Bruce Brown. Originally published in the July 1984 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, it remains the best history of Cuban baseball available in English.

Rain and tide sweep Murray Morgan's writing retreat on Puget Sound.

Writing in the Rain

A literary snapshot of Washington in 1984 when Raymond Carver, Frank Herbert and Tom Robbins were in their prime, this piece by Bruce Brown originally appeared in the May 16, 1984 Washington Post Book World.

"Within the last year, the single greatest spur to West Coast sturgeon fishing has undoubtedly been the 9-foot-long, 468-pound white sturgeon caught by 21-year-old Joe Pallotta in the Sacramento River July 12."

Heart Stopping Sturgeon

This true fish story by Bruce Brown originally appeared in the June 1984 issue of Field & Stream.

"It's 11 o'clock at night. Do you know where your wombat is?"

Wildlife Tracking By Transmitter

Bruce Brown encounters David Beaty, the father of wildlife radio telemetry, in Seattle in 1984. This piece originally appeared in National Wildlife, and then was published again in the form you see here in the May 9, 1984 Seattle Weekly.

The auroral "ring of fire" over North America, as seen from space...

Shedding Light on the Aurora

Bruce Brown explores the literature and science of the aurora in a piece that appeared (in somewhat different forms) in the New York Times Magazine and the March 1985 issue of National Wildlife. Remember: when the big one hits, you heard it here first.

"as the afternoon shadows began to lengthen, we entered a deep dell..."

Lost in the Woods

Bruce Brown and his ex-wife, Lane Morgan, lose their way on the dangerously metaphoric terrain of Kloochman Rock in the Olympic Peninsula rain forest. Originally published in the New York Times Magazine in August 1985, this story was later anthologized in Island of Rivers.

"a reclusive figure, but good company if you could smoke him out..."

Vernon Louis Parrington --
America's Greatest Literary Historian (& Founder of Oklahoma Sooner Football)

The man who put American literature on the academic map -- and founded the Oklahoma Sooner football program -- takes a bow. Bruce Brown's 1985 profile was rejected by American Heritage magazine because it wasn't hostile enough to the liberal Parrington.

Meryl Streep in her Oscar-nominated portrayal of Karen Silkwood.

Silkwood Finale: The Fuel Rods Are OK

The Karen Silkwood nuclear fuel safety controvery takes an unexpected turn at the end, which you won't find in the movie. This investigative piece by Bruce Brown originally appeared in the December 7, 1985 New York Times.

"a seventeen-year-old mountain girl, hair down her back, has opened the eyes of the Eugene teaching profession and left it gasping for breath..."

Resdiscovering Opal Whiteley's
The Journal of an Understanding Heart

An intriguing -- and nearly forgotten -- American classic is reconsidered by Bruce Brown. These two reviews of Opal Whiteley's The Journal of an Understanding Heart appeared in the Washington Post Book World in 1985 and 1986.

"Pacific salmon characteristically put on a prolonged dance of prowess that illustrates their mastery over moving water..."

Gone Fish Watching
(There's a Sign upon the Door)

Bruce Brown chronicles the birth of a new sport -- fish watching. This story originally appeared in the September 1986 issue of Audubon magazine.

"The Gary Little story runs like a radioactive tracer through the Seattle power structure, exposing the old-boy network that connects many of the best law firms, local government, the old media families, and local barons of industry and retailing."

The Gary Little Story

How a very clever and well-connected man was able to continue raping children who came into his charge for decades -- both as a teacher and as a judge -- is examined by Bruce Brown, who as a high school student was co-editor of the Lakeside Tatler when Gary Little taught at Seattle's prestigeous Lakeside School.

"Here time runs on the tides, the seasons and the salmon. A friend is someone who will bail your boat when you are stuck in town, and a funny stanza on 'The Parable of the Three Sages Tasting Vinegar' is worth more than a Volvo."

North Fork Skagit River Reverie

Bruce Brown tours legendary Northwest literary ground -- or water -- via kayak in this visit to LaConner and Fishtown, the bohemian writers' community at the mouth of the North Fork Skagit River. This story originally appeared in the July 1988 issue of State magazine.