Thomas Urquhart

Thomas Urquhart was born in London, England, brought up in New York City, and received his secondary education in London. He has an M.A. in Geography from Oxford University. As well as his trans-Atlantic background, his career has been similarly split between the arts and wildlife conservation. After nine years working for performing arts organizations (two symphony orchestras and a theater company), he worked at the Massachusetts Audubon Society and Birdlife International in Cambridge, England. In 1988, he became the executive director of the Maine Audubon Society, and he has lived in Maine ever since.

Mr. Urquhart’s first book, For the Beauty of the Earth, published in 2004 by Shoemaker & Hoard, was a collection of personal essays on nature and culture. Its subtitle—Birds, Opera and Other Journeys—reflects his lifelong fascination with the impact of human and natural history upon each other. For the Beauty of the Earth was named a Best Book of 2004 by the Los Angeles Times.

His most recent book, Up For Grabs, was published by Downeast Books in 2021. Subtitled Timber Pirates, Lumber Barons, and the Battles over Maine’s Public Lands, the book relates the long and twisted history of how, beginning under colonial and then Massachusetts rule, Maine sold or gave away its 20 million-acre public domain; and how it succeeded in clawing back 600,000 acres, which today make up the state’s much-loved Public Reserve Lands.

Throughout his career, Mr. Urquhart has written for numerous publications in Europe and America on environmental, wildlife and cultural topics. He is a frequent reviewer of books for the Maine Sunday Telegram. He has also consulted internationally, for the World Wildlife Fund (Geneva) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Paris).

He has traveled extensively including most of the European countries; Mali, Botswana and Nigeria in Africa; Peru and French Guyana in South America; and various islands. A father of three, he and his wife, children’s author Amy MacDonald, divide their time between Vinalhaven and Portland.