Local Author to Give Book Talk at ODU May 21

Joe Jackson, five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and the author of five nonfiction books and one novel, will discuss his most recent work, "The Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire," at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, in room 151 of the Perry Library.

The book tells how a 19th-century would-be explorer, Henry Wickham, absconded, literally, with the seeds of Brazil's most valuable natural product. Jackson writes, "Henry's theft was no different than that by scores of others before him - and yet, in a fundamental way, it was. … Thirty-four years after Henry's theft, the British rubber grown in the Far East from Henry's seeds would flood the world market, collapsing the Amazon economy."

Jackson, who lives in Virginia Beach, was an investigative reporter with The Virginian-Pilot for 12 years. He is a board member of the Friends of the Old Dominion University Libraries, the sponsor of his talk, which is free and open to the public. Free parking will be available in Parking Garage A (43rd Street) after 6:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Fern McDougal at 683-4146 or fmcdouga@odu.edu.