In his inspirational new memoir, Breaking New Ground, Lester Brown traces life from a small farm to leadership as a global environmental analyst. Here is a selection of photos of some of our publishers and other interesting people Lester has met along the way.

1. SOME PUBLISHERS AND OTHER
INTERESTING PEOPLE
photos of Lester R. Brown
We wish we would have had photographs of the many people
who have published Lester’s books over the years so that we could
honor them here. They are unsung heroes. The same applies to the
many incredible people he has met throughout his travels. In lieu
of time travel to get these photographs, we have put together the
best sampling of folks who have graced Lester’s work.

2. Ted Turner, Laura Turner-Seydel, Lester, Rutherford Seydel, and Maureen at
Ted’s 70th birthday party, Atlanta 2008. photo by Turner Enterprises. Inc.

3. 2008
Inspired by Lester and his own career as a children’s troubadour, Raffi
Kavoukian founded the Centre for Child Honoring. Lester serves on the Board
of Advisors. They met for the first time in San Francisco.

4. Lester, Maureen, and Betty and Homero Aridjis, after dinner at the Cosmos Club in
2012. Aridjis is a Mexican writer and member of the Environmental Group of 100.

5. Lester, Vicki Sant, and Tom Lovejoy, 2006.
Vicki heads the Summit Foundation, which provided the
startup funds for Earth Policy Institute. Tom Lovejoy is
Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, George
Mason University.

6. Relaxing over the weekend with friends Marilyn Weiner, Joan Douglas Murray,
Hal Weiner, Maureen, and Lester, 2012. Marilyn and Hal are documentary
producers, including the PBS series Journey to Planet Earth, and Joan heads the
Wallace Genetic Foundation.

7. Junko Edahiro in the New
Otani Hotel garden, Tokyo,
2008. Junko, initially an
interpreter, has gone on to
found both an environmental
organization, Japan for
Sustainability, and a consulting
firm on the benefits of systemic
thinking.
In 2004, Junko was chosen as
Japan’s most successful career
woman by Nikkei Career Women
magazine.

8. Lester and Maureen with Carl Safina, author and founding president of Blue
Ocean Institute.

9. Doug and Deb Baker—supporters, reviewers of EPI’s book, and
friends—at the Environmental Inaugural Ball, 2009. Lester in the
corner.

10. Steve Kirsch, entrepreneur, promoting Plan B 2.0.

11. Dave Mowry and Lester. Dave arranged for Lester to speak in
Riverside, California, in 2008.

12. President (now former) of Romania, Ion Iliescu and Lester. In 1987, while
head of the publishing house Editura Tehnica, Iliescu began publishing State
of the World. He wrote the Foreword, which he continued to do for all of
Lester’s books—even after he became President.

13. Hamid Taravati and Lester in Lester’s apartment in DC, 2003. Hamid has been
publishing Lester’s books in Iran for over two decades. He is a medical doctor and
established an environmental organization.

14. Lester and Toshishige Kurosawa, head
of Ikari Corporation. Mr. Kurosawa
regularly distributed copies of the
Japanese editions of Lester’s books to
decisionmakers. He even established
an office for Lester to use when he
visited Tokyo.

15. Magnar Norderhaug was so taken with the State of the World series
that he established Worldwatch Norden in order to get the books
published in the Nordic languages. For one intense week every
January, Lester traveled to the four countries—
Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and The Netherlands—to launch the
editions. Some of the covers are shown here.

16. Eduardo Athayde with Lester in Brazil. Eduardo published State of the World 1999 in
Portuguese and later World Watch magazine (electronic). He is always ready to help set up
events and interviews for Lester in Brazil.

17. Gianfranco Bologna, Scientific Director of WWF Italy. In 1978, he
translated Twenty-Ninth Day in Italian and arranged for its
publication. For 35 years he has been a friend and has headed the
translation team in Italy and secured excellent publishing
houses, including Edizioni Ambiente, the current publisher.
Gianfranco has also helped arrange events in Italy to launch the
books.

18. Olav Randen, head of the Norwegian publishing
house, Boksmia. May 2010

19. L to r: Marc Zischka, Ecologik Business; Philippe Vieille, Souffle Court and Kalys; Pierre-Yves
Longaretti, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Grenoble; Lester; Antoine Darras, Averti
Editions; and Frederic Jouffroy. All contributed to translating and publishing the French
edition of World on Edge. Paris 2001. Pierre-Yves and Philippe also translated and

20. Yul Choi, head of the Korean
Green Foundation and KFEM, is
also a Goldman Environmental
Prize awardee. For over a
decade, he has arranged for
Lester’s books to be published in
South Korea.

21. In June 2007, Yul Choi and a few
of his colleagues visited Lester in
Washington, D.C. Here they are
in Lester’s apartment. Behind
them in the photo on the right
are two bookshelves filled with
translation editions of Lester’s
books.

22. Soki Oda with Lester in Tokyo in 2003. Soki has been tireless in
getting Lester’s books published in Japan, eventually starting his
own publishing house, World Watch Japan. Soki edited some of
the books into versions for young adults. He has also organized
hundreds of media interviews, public addresses, and meetings
with political leaders over the last 26 years.

23. Edoardo Rivetti, publisher, and Ricardo Voltolini, head of the translation
team, for the Portuguese edition of Plan B 4.0.

24. Lin Zixin, formerly of the Institute of Science and Technological Information of
China, where he began publishing Lester’s books in Chinese (29 editions and
counting!). Now retired, he heads the translation team. He also sets up meetings
when Lester is in Beijing. Lester refers to Lin as his Chinese brother.

25. Gilberto Rincon, CEID, Spanish publisher since Plan B 2.0. Here they are in Bogota,
where he arranged to have Lester speak.

26. Doris and Lars Almstrom
have been translating and
publishing Lester’s books in
Swedish since Plan B 2.0.
Both teachers, they
eventually took early
retirement to spend more
time translating and also to
get Sweden to adopt Plan B.

27. In 1994, Worldwatch Institute organized a surprise party for Lester’s
sixtieth birthday. It was held at the Cosmos Club. The following
photographs are from that event.
Reah Janise Kauffman,
who spearheaded the
event, with Lester. The
album Lester is holding
contains letters and cards
from people who could
not attend.
All photos shown in this sectionwere taken by
Rita Malone.

28. Prince Albert of Lichtenstein

29. Bill Dietel, who arranged for the
startup grant for Worldwatch
Institute when he was with the
Rockfeller Brothers Fund.

30. Bruce Babbitt. At the time he was
Secretary of the Interior.

31. Iva Ashner from W.W. Norton & Co., publisher of Lester’s
books since 1975 beginning with In the Human Interest.

32. Orville Freeman, former Secretary of Agriculture and former Governor of
Minnesota. He was Chairman of the Board for Worldwatch Institute and a
mentor to Lester.

33. Kathleen Flom, John Young (colleague at Worldwatch), Bill Dietel, and Scott
McVay. Scott was head of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and was enlisted to
get Lester to the Cosmos Club in such a way that he wouldn’t suspect anything was
up. Scott now sits on the Board of the Earth Policy Institute.

34. Joe Robertson and his wife. Robertson was Assistant Secretary for
Administration at the USDA when Lester worked there and
nominated him for several awards.

35. Edgar Lin, Taiwanese legislator Lester met when launching
World Watch magazine inTaiwan, which Lin helped to get
published.

36. Gene Taylor, classmate at Rutgers and longtime friend

37. Tom and Joanne
Trail, long time
friends of Lester. Tom
was a fellow IFYE in
1956 and was also
Lester’s roommate at
the University of
Maryland in 1959.
This photo was taken
at Lester’s 60th
birthday party, 1994.
For many years, Tom
was a member of the
Idaho legislature.

38. Jim Davis (center) and Tom Trail
(left). Jim and Lester lived in
“The Towers” when they
attended Rutgers. Jim played
football player for Rutgers.

39. Jan Denton and John Andrews were next-door neighbors. John is a
respected Shakespeare scholar and heads The Shakespeare Guild.

40. Herman Daly, the University
of Maryland. One of the first
ecological economists.

41. Judy Gradwohl (center in blue) and Georgie Anne Geyer (columnist).

42. Saturday football team members: Lou Heon and Pete Stathes, who quarter-
backed for George Washington University in the 1930s. Gil Sward has his back to
the camera.

43. Harriett Crosby, a longtime friend who also helps to support Earth Policy Institute.

44. Bill Chandler a former colleague at Worldwatch.

45. Eddie Albert, actor best known for the sitcom Green Acres

46. Ed Ayres (editor of World Watch magazine) and his wife Sharon. Kathleen
Courrier, former colleague at Worldwatch, is on Lester’s right.

47. Kathleen Flom managed the International Farm Youth Exchange
program, which sent Lester to India in 1956.

48. Available at
www.earthpolicy.org/books/bng
Or call 202-496-9290
Order from Earth Policy Institute, the
independent environmental research
organization headed by Lester Brown.
ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY