Quests

About the Book

Autobiography of David Burns, 1928-1949. Book-obsessed childhood in the Depression in a small town in Kentucky; running away from home on his 15th birthday; three years in Washington in Capitol Page School, dropping out many times, never completing first semester of tenth grade; copy boy and photographer's apprentice at The Evening Star newspaper; three years in the Air Force. Managing somehow to be admitted to Princeton. The autobiography is interspersed with four vivid chapters of imaginary ancestors: Long Hunters in 18th century Kentucky; pioneers on The Wilderness Road from Cumberland Gap; building gristmills and sawmills; and the legacy of coal mining… which has left much of Appalachia, land AND people, 'HOLLOWED OUT'.

About the Author

David Burns studied in France on a Fulbright grant, then joined the U.S. Foreign Service, serving in Damascus, Beirut, Isfahan, Salisbury Rhodesia, Tunis, Bamako Mali, Tangier Morocco, and Algiers. He then joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science as Director of the project on greenhouse climate change. He is also a bandleader and has recorded four LPs and four CDs.