About the author
`PETER BRITTON has been a long-time freelance journalist. His beat: Energy production and use. For him, the Exxon Valdez changed everything. Even as you read this, a coal train leaves West Virginia and heads for the coal terminal at Norfolk and a collier bound for Europe. When that 150,000 tons burns the Earth dies a little.
Mr. Britton took his laptop and cameras to West Virginia's coal fields and Boone County and Bob White and Maria Gunnoe. His purpose was to write a story about the source of coal. But this story would not be for Popular Science or Exxon's The Lamp or even Smithsonian magazine. There was too much passion and music and violence and dishonesty. Only this hybrid book, and the musical within trying to escape, would fill this bill.
A graduate of Williams College, Mr. Britton lives in the New York City and travels a lot.