PETER BRIDGES

Peter Bridges received degrees from Dartmouth College and Columbia University, and after two years as an Army private spent three decades as an officer of the United States Foreign Service in Washington and at American embassies in Panama, Moscow, Prague, Rome, and Mogadishu. Later he worked for a small foundation in Washington, a major oil company in Houston, and an international bank in Prague. His first book, Safirka: An American Envoy (Kent State University Press, 2000), describes his experiences as American ambassador to Somalia in 1984-86. His second book, Pen of Fire: John Moncure Daniel (Kent State, 2002), is the first biography of a Virginian who served as an American diplomat and then became the most influential editor in the Confederacy. Five essays by Peter Bridges have appeared in VQR, and four dozen of his other articles, essays and reviews in the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notes & Records of the Royal Society of London, and other publications.