The Divers Collection

Though born, as Ben Dunlap confesses, with one foot on the accelerator while fumbling about for the brakes, he deftly steers his way through this exuberant, self-effacing, and often wildly comical account of the first half of his collision-prone career. One of his constant themes is how mistaken it always is to count anybody out, with striking examples drawn from his own experience, including little-known heroes as well as one or two who may have saved his life.

It'll be a rare reader who's not charmed and amused by the variety and depth of these reminiscences or by the portraits they contain, not least of the author himself who, as an only slightly savvier 20th-century Candide, has often been described as "a walking contradiction"-though with all due apologies to Kris Kristofferson, who makes several appearances in the book, nothing that Dunlap recounts is "partly fiction." All of it is true.

In addition to youthful stints as a poulterer, taxidermist, bus driver, biker, beatnik, and part of a saber drill team whose Fifth Avenue debacle was witnessed coast-to-coast, Dunlap has also been a successful author, teacher, actor, dancer, and college president as well as a Rhodes Scholar, a Harvard professor, an Emmy-nominated writer-producer-presenter for PBS, a longtime Aspen Institute Senior Moderator, and the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees. He currently lives more or less sedately in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Western North Carolina.