War of the Whales (Horowitz) - Author Bio

Author Bio
Joshua Horwitz is the Founder and Publisher of Living Planet Books, which specializes in works by thought leaders in science, medicine and psychology.

In addition to War of the Whales (2014), Horwitz is the co-author of two books of non-fiction: Wrestling with Angels (with Naomi Rosenblatt, 1995), and If I Get to Five (with Fred Epstein, MD, 2003), which won the Christopher Award for Adult Nonfiction in 2004. He has also written a young adult novel and several children’s books.b

In 1990 Horwitz co-founded Living Planet Press, an environmental press that published books with leading environmental, conservation and humane organizations, including the National Resources Defence Council (NRDC), Wilderness Society, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, the Wilderness Society, American Forests, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASCPA).

In 1995, he launched Living Planet Books, a front-list non-fiction packaging firm specializing in books by thought leaders in science, medicine, and psychology such as the bestselling Raising Cain: the Emotional Lives of Boys (1998) and The Promise of Sleep (1998).
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In 2000, Horwitz co-founded AuthorsOnline, a website featuring the homepages of award-winning and best-selling authors. In 2003, he founded Waterford Life Sciences, which publishes health and medical books for physicians and patients.

Whales
Horowitz knew virtually nothing about whales or submarines seven years ago, when the newspaper headline: "Navy v. Whales" first caught his attention. The article recounted an environmental attorney’s long-running lawsuit to limit navy sonar exercises that caused whales to mass strand. It wasn’t until he dug deeper into the background of the story that Josh discovered the 50-year relationship between the Navy and whales that stretched from the beginning of the Cold War to the present. The Navy v. Whales courtroom drama, which was heading for the Supreme Court, was the final divorce proceedings in long and complicated marriage.

After visiting environmental lawyer Joel Reynolds at a Baja, Mexico gray whale lagoon he’d help save from industrial development, Joshua then caught up with the book’s other protagonist, Ken Balcomb at a humpback whale sanctuary in Hawaii. He realized that this unlikely pair of activists, faced off against the world’s most powerful navy, had all the ingredients of a remarkable—and untold—tale of conscience and environmental justice, in the tradition of A Civil Action and Erin Brockovich. (From the publisher.)