River Valley Companion : A Nature Guide

A nice balance between nature, science and fun. This easy-to-use, richly illustrated four-season guide to the Missouri River valley and surrounding countryside identifies commonly seen trees, flowers, birds, animals, insects, rocks, fossils, clouds, reptiles, footprints and more. Features the valley's most outstanding sites and nature daytrips.

Brian Beatte is a native of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and a graduate of Westminster College in Fulton. As a student of life and nature, Brian has completed a thorough course of travel in the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia and South America-always journeying along the paths less traveled. Following his return from National Outdoor Leadership School in Patagonia, Chile, Brian worked out his thoughts exploring the relationship of nature and literature in his senior English thesis entitled "Emerson and Thoreau: Creation of the Wilderness Ethic."

In addition to his love of literature, Brian is presently preparing to attend medical school. He recently finished an extensive program of life sciences coursework and is presently working at Pebble Publishing as an author, editor and researcher. Brian now lives in Rocheport, Missouri, with his girlfriend, Hope and his canine friend, Beckley.

Brett Dufur is the author of The Complete Katy Trail Guidebook, Best of Missouri Hands and Exploring Missouri Wine Country. He is also co-author of Forgotten Missourians Who Made History. He is currently working on a book entitled The River Revisited, documenting the 1996 Lewis and Clark reenactment comparing the Missouri River of 1804 to the present.

In addition to books, he is the founder, editor and publisher of Pebble Publishing, a publishing house of regional interest books based in Rocheport, Missouri. He has worked at Costa Rica Guide magazine, Missouri Magazine, River Valley Review and at several newspapers in Arkansas and Missouri, as well as Constructor de Caminos, a Latin American trade magazine.

Brett was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He received both his journalism degree and a degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He spends his off-hours getting tangled up in words, traveling and exploring with his girlfriend, Tawnee, and his dog, Daisy.