About this item
In this first comprehensive authorized biography of David Brower, a dynamic leader in the environmental movement over the last half of the twentieth century, Tom Turner explores Brower's impact on the movement from its beginnings until his death in 2000. Frequently compared to John Muir, David Brower was the first executive director of the Sierra Club, founded Friends of the Earth, and helped secure passage of the Wilderness Act, among other key achievements. Tapping his passion for wilderness and for the mountains he scaled in his youth, he was a central figure in the creation of the Point Reyes National Seashore and of the North Cascades and Redwood national parks. In addition, Brower worked tirelessly in successful efforts to keep dams from being built in Dinosaur National Monument and the Grand Canyon.
About the Author
Tom Turner's love of stories began in the theaters, libraries, streets, and parks of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 1980s. Whether mounting skits in his basement, creating haunted houses in a friend's garage, exploring "secret" trails in the woods by the railroad tracks, or catching the newest Steven Spielberg film at the local movie theater, Turner became enamored with imagination, adventure, and stories. As a twelve-year-old, Turner even rented an early-model video camera from a local video store and took over neighborhood yards and streets, so he and his friends could make their debut masterpiece, Ninja 4: Warriors of the Night.
During an 8th grade recruitment trip to Cardinal Dougherty High School, Turner and his classmates were given a preview performance of the school's fall musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Turner was immediately hooked. He spent his years at Cardinal Dougherty and then later at Temple University holed up in theatres across Philadelphia and beyond, working as a lighting designer, painting pictures and telling stories with light.
But as much as Turner loved lighting design, his love of movies proved stronger. So after graduating from Temple, Turner applied to every prestigious film program he could find but was promptly rejected by all of them; so he (along with some friends) cobbled together the resources to direct his second short film, Playground. He then packed up and headed west to Los Angeles with the hope of using Playground as a springboard to a successful movie-directing career.
While working as a producer's assistant on the Richard Gere movie, Red Corner, Turner began writing his first screenplay, Sweet Jane, which ultimately won Best Screenplay in the Greater Philadelphia Film Office's annual screenwriting competition, as well as garnered the attention of We Were Soldiers producers Stephen Zapotoczny and Danielle Lemmon, who passed it along to writer/director, Randall Wallace (Braveheart, Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers) . Wallace was impressed by what he read and offered Turner the opportunity to work with his company, developing future story ideas. As a result, Turner pitched Zapotoczny, Lemmon, and Wallace the idea that would eventually become his debut novel, Sign of the Sandman. Ten years and mountains of drafts later, Sign of the Sandman is garnering praise from readers. Turner's hope is that his story will spark the imagination of readers the world over and instill in children the same love of adventure and great storytelling that he experienced in his youth.
