Queen Bee: Roxanne Quimby, Burt's Bees, and Her Quest for a New National Park Format: Hardcover

How did she navigate the world of venture capitalists and investment bankers to engineer the sale of her company and reap a personal fortune? And what does her subsequent odyssey to buy and donate a new national park in Maine's north woods—thus repaying what she regards as the “harmonic debt to the planet” she incurred by manufacturing beauty products—tell us about America and the American dream? Queen Bee is a fascinating biography of a fascinating woman, her game-changing skin-care company, and the quest to create a national park in the north woods. A richly textured portrait of the woman who built Burt's Bees from nothing and altered the global business of skin care. A tightly woven story of the paper-industry exodus, the giant clearance sale of the north woods, the downward spiral of paper-company towns, and the battle for a new national park. A tale of the American Dream in action— what it can do for the fortunate few who are in the right place at the right time with wits and determination, and what it can do to the unfortunate many who find themselves on the wrong side of “creative destruction.”

Journalist Phyllis Austin (Brunswick, Maine) has covered environmental and forestland issues in Maine for more than 30 years, including many years at the Maine Times. Her books include Queen Bee: Roxanne Quimby, Burt's Bees and her Quest for a New National Park, On Wilderness and Wilderness Partners.