About the Author
Photo credit: Sam Abell
Robert M. Poole is an editor and writer whose assignments for Smithsonian and National Geographic have taken him around the world. A native of North Carolina and a veteran journalist, his stories have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Smithsonian. In 2001 he retired as executive editor of National Geographic after a 21 year career. He is the author of Explorers House: National Geographic and the World It Made, published by the Penguin Press. He is a contributing editor at Smithsonian and lives in Virginia.