Winchester is the acclaimed author of the international bestsellers The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology. He has recently completed a book on the devastating 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, an Indonesian volcano. Originally a geologist, Winchester was a travel correspondent and freelance writer for such periodicals as Harper's, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Smithsonian. His talk, "Pleasures of a Writing Life," describes his adventures, while researching stories, which include a stint in a Patagonian jail and a trip down the Yangtze River.]]> Winchester, Simon ]]>