Biography: Bob Poole

For almost 40 years I have made my living with a pencil, as newspaper writer, as Washington correspondent, as executive editor of National Geographic, as a contributing editor at Smithsonian, and as a writer of books.

I retired as executive editor of National Geographic in 2001 after 21 years. During that time, I hired and edited a number of writers, including Diane Ackerman, Jennifer Ackerman, Caroline Alexander, Joel Achenbach, Peter Benchley, Bill Bryson, Andrew Cockburn, Richard Conniff, Ted Gup, Peter Hessler, Jon Krakauer, David Lamb, Nick Lyons, Fen Montaigne, Virginia Morell, Angus Phillips, David Quammen, Peter Ross Range, T.R. Reid, Ken Ringle, Kathy Sawyer, Tad Szulc, Ross Terrill, Paul Theroux, Geoffrey C. Ward, T.H. Watkins, Donovan Webster, John Noble Wilford, and Simon Winchester.

During my tenure, National Geographic began to win recognition for its writing-from the National Magazine Awards, the Overseas Press Club, Sigma Delta Chi, and others. In addition to editing, I traveled extensively for writing assignments at National Geographic, doing pieces on Labrador, Winslow Homer, Japan's Imperial Palace, the Serengeti, and Hunting. Other assignments took me to China, where I wrote about the nomads of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Yangtze River, and the Grand Canal.

I left National Geographic to write Explorers' House, which tells the story of the magazine through its founding family, now in its fifth generation. Edited by Ann Godoff and published by the Penguin Press, my book was chosen for the Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" series. It also got great reviews, from The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The News & Observer, Library Journal, Booklist, Publishers Weekly and others. The Economist summed up nicely: "He shows how five generations of a public spirited family converted a boring academic journal into an internationally loved magazine, one with millions of loyal subscribers." The historian Geoffrey C. Ward called the book "a vivid, elegantly written chronicle." Caroline Alexander described it as "A great journey."

As a contributing editor at Smithsonian since 2005, I have recruited new writers for the magazine and contributed articles on the world's greatest art theft, on the widely acclaimed work of the Defense Department's forensic recovery teams, on President Jimmy Carter's anti-malaria campaign in Ethiopia, and on the rebound of native trout species in North America. I have published other articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fly Fisherman, and Preservation.

Before joining National Geographic in 1980, I was a Washington correspondent for Media General News Service (1978-80); The Boston Herald-American (1977-78); Congressional Quarterly (1976-77); and The Winston-Salem Journal (1974-76). I came from my native North Carolina to be a fellow at the Washington Journalism Center (1974). Before that I was a reporter for the Twin City Sentinel (1971-74) and other papers. I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1971) and was one of ten fellows chosen for the Washington Journalism Center in 1974.

I have appeared regularly on NPR and have lectured widely-at National Geographic, the Explorers Club, the New York Anglers' Club, the Union League Club of Chicago, the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, and the Metropolitan Club of Washington.