Autographed Books

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Winner of a Pulitzer Prize

The Sixth Extinction is a 2014 nonfiction book written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by Henry Holt & Company. The book demonstrates that the Earth is in the midst of a modern, man-made, sixth extinction. In the book, Kolbert chronicles previous mass extinction events, and compares them to the accelerated, widespread extinctions during our present time. She also describes specific species extinguished by humans, as well as the ecologies surrounding prehistoric and near-present extinction events. The author received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for the book in 2015.

The target audience is the general reader, and scientific descriptions are rendered in understandable prose. The clear writing blends explanations of her treks to remote areas with interviews of scientists, researchers, and guides, without advocating a position, and maintaining objectivity. Hence, the sixth mass extinction theme is applied to flora and fauna existing in diverse habitats, such as the Panamanian rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef, the Andes, Bikini Atoll, city zoos, and the author's own backyard. The book also applies this theme to a number of other habitats and organisms throughout the world. After researching the current mainstream view of the relevant peer reviewed science, Kolbert estimates flora and fauna loss by the end of the 21st century to be between 20% to 50% "of all living species on earth".

Elizabeth Kolbert, a science writer, is a staff member at The New Yorker magazine. She is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, as well as several other books. Her writing focuses on the effects of humans and civilization on our planet’s ecosystem. Much of her writing involves her experiences of various locations, as noted above. Previously, she was a reporter for the New York Times. Kolbert resides in Williamstown, Massachusetts with her husband and children, and she writes in her home office across from Mount Greylock in Massachusetts.

Kolbert's decision to write this book was influenced by a 2008 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper, titled, "Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians." Subsequently, Kolbert wrote an article for The New Yorker, titled (similarly to her eventual novel), "The Sixth Extinction?" Researching this article involved amphibian-hunting in Panama. She then realized, "I hadn't scratched the surface, that there was a book there."

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Autographed Copy!