Most Popular Books by Robert Sullivan

Robert Sullivan, who has driven cross-country more than two dozen times, recounts one of his family''s many journeys from Oregon to New York. His story of moving his family back and forth from the East Coast to the West Coast (along with various other migrations), is replete with all the minor disasters, humor, and wonderful coincidences that characterize life on the road, not to mention life. As he drives, Sullivan ponders his Lewis and Clark and other fellow nation-crossers, meets Beat poets who are devotees of cross-country icon Jack Kerouac, and plays golf on an abandoned coal mine. And, in his trademark celebration of the mundane, Sullivan investigates everything from the history of the gas pump to the origins of fast food and rest stops. Cross Country tells the tales that come from fifteen years of driving across the country (and all around it) with two kids and everything that two kids and two parents take when driving in a car from one coast to another, over and over, driving to see the way the road made America and America made the road.

Originally commissioned as the libretto for a work by composer John Psathas for the 50th birthday celebration of the Orpheus Choir, this book-length poem offers fresh perspectives on the familiar story of Cook''s Pacific explorations. Employing a broad bicultural approach to reinterpret the Orpheus myth for the South Pacific, Sullivan uses a wide range of styles—from 18th-century dialogue to 21st-century hip hop cadences—to create a revisionist Cook who must accept responsibility for the damage his expeditions have inflicted on the indigenous peoples of the Pacific.

From the creative team behind the bestselling "Flight of the Reindeer" comes a new amalgam of history, folklore, humor, and science. Combining fact, fiction, and everything in between, Sullivan skillfully renders a world in which the citizens of Atlantis live on among us. 100 color illustrations.

"This volume contains fourteen articles that represent the AMS Special Session on Special Functions and Orthogonal Polynomials, held in Tucson, Arizona in April of 2007. It gives an overview of the modern field of special functions with all major subfields represented, including: applications to algebraic geometry, asymptotic analysis, conformal mapping, differential equations, elliptic functions, fractional calculus, hypergeometric and q-hypergeometric series, nonlinear waves, number theory, symbolic and numerical evaluation of integrals, and theta functions. A few articles are expository, with extensive bibliographies, but all contain original research." "This book is intended for pure and applied mathematicians who are interested in recent developments in the theory of special functions. It covers a wide range of active areas of research and demonstrates the vitality of the field."--BOOK JACKET.

Tunui | Comet is the first collection in more than a decade by one of our most important living Maori poets. Rolling easily between korero Maori and the canonical traditions of English-language poetry, through karakia and powhiri, treaty training and decolonisation wikis, Robert Sullivan takes readers on a marvellous poetic hikoi. Guided by Maui and Tawhirimatea, Moana Jackson and Freddie Mercury, we walk from K''Rd council flats to Kaka Point, finding ourselves and our ancestors along the way.

A gloriously idiosyncratic fusion of travelogue, ecology, history, moral controversy, and high-seas adventure from the acclaimed author of The Meadowlands. In the fall of 1997, Robert Sullivan arrived in Neah Bay, a tiny town on the most northwestern tip of America, home to the Makah, a Native American tribe. For centuries the hunting of the whale was what defined the tribe, but when commercial whaling drove the gray whale to near extinction in the 1920s, the Makah voluntarily discontinued their tradition and hung up their harpoons. In 1994, after the gray whale was taken off the endangered species list, the Makah decided to hunt again. Faced with the problems endemic to other reservations, including poverty, unemployment, and alcoholism, many Makah believed that a traditional whale hunt would inject their community with a new sense of pride and purpose. The problem was that all the old whalers were dead -- no one knew how to go about hunting a whale. During a sojourn that lasts longer than anyone could have predicted, Robert Sullivan chronicles the two years he spends in Neah Bay as the Makah prepare for and stage the first hunt. With a damp, plywood fisherman''s shanty for lodging, Sullivan roams the spectacular surrounding wilderness, learns about ancient Northwest whaling traditions and the history of the Makah, follows the migratory path of the gray whale down the West Coast, and gets to know the crew and their beleaguered captain, Wayne Johnson. Combatting tribal infighting and inexperience, the crew must also face the passionate, furious animal rights activists and swarming reporters who besiege the once sleepy Neah Bay. Before the ragtag group of hunters even pursues a whale, there are clashes, disappointments, and defeats, small triumphs and unexpected heroes -- all made vivid by Sullivan''s keen eye for irony and his captivating, lyrical prose. Another legendary whale hunt becomes the fascinating and funny subtext to this tale as Sullivan notices eerie parallels -- and oppositions -- between the Makah''s quest and the whaling classic Moby-Dick. A book of many layers and revelations, A Whale Hunt is the story of the demise and attempted resurrection of a Native American nation, and of the individuals on the reservation whose lives are forever changed.