Timothy Egan, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
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Read an excerpt from The Big Burn and listen to Terry Gross interview Timothy Egan on NPR's Fresh Air NPR Books
Interview with Timothy Egan on C-Span Book TV
"A compelling look at the biggest forest fire in American history. . . . "The Big Burn" serves a big helping of Great Man history, with some familiar, larger-than-life characters acting out a morality tale that delivers a satisfying kick. The Los Angeles Times
"Essential for any green bookshelf." Kirkus Reviews
"Egan is a gorgeous writer. His chapters on the 'blowup,' should become a classic account of an American Pompeii." BookPage
"Egan reconstructs the fire in horrific, exhausting detail. . . The fire scenes occupy the bulk of the narrative, but the backstory is more interesting, centered on the curious friendship between Roosevelt and Pinchot that helped give birth to the modern conservation movement." The Washington Post
"[Egan] has already proved himself to be a masterly collector of memorable stories. His new book, The Big Burn, continues in the same tradition . . . What makes The Big Burn particularly impressive is Egan’s skill as an equal-opportunity storyteller. By this I mean that he recounts the stories of men and women completely unknown to most of us with the same fervor he uses to report the stories of historic figures . . . " Christian Science Monitor