Roger Tory Peterson—the Renaissance man who taught Americans the joy of watching birds—also invented the modern field guide. His 1934 landmark Field Guide to the Birds was the first book designed to go outdoors and help people identify the elements of nature. This self-proclaimed “student of nature” combined spectacular writing with detailed illustrations to ultimately publish many other books, winning every possible award and medal for natural science, ornithology, and conservation.
Birdwatcher is a comprehensive, illustrated biography of Roger Tory Peterson--a hero in the conservation world--including interviews with friends, family, and protégés. 
Elizabeth J. Rosenthal's current book is Birdwatcher: the Life of Roger Tory Peterson (Lyons Press). Out in time for the Centenary of Peterson's birth in 2008, Birdwatcher is now available in paperback. For Birdwatcher, the author interviewed 116 people from around the world who knew Peterson at different stages of his life. Through these interviews and extensive archival research, Rosenthal presents in Birdwatcher a thorough portrait of Peterson, one of the greatest conservationists of the Twentieth Century - as well as an accomplished artist, photographer, writer, teacher, and adventurer, and the man who made modern birding possible. Roger Tory Peterson's influence has spanned generations, not to mention the world. Among others, he mentored or inspired Pete Dunne, Kenn Kaufman, Victor Emanuel, Tom Lovejoy, even Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist and author E. O. Wilson, plus many other great names in birding, conservation, and natural history. You will read about their fascinating experiences with Peterson in Birdwatcher.
The author's first book, His Song: the Musical Journey of Elton John, was published in fall 2001 by Billboard Books, an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications. As the most well-researched, exhaustive musical biography of musician Elton John ever written, His Song remains the only John biography to have been sold in the Elton John Store at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, during his hugely successful Red Piano run of shows. His Song is also the first John biography to be translated into the Russian language and sold in Russia.
But let's back up a minute to author Elizabeth J. Rosenthal's early years.
After graduating magna cum laude with a journalism degree from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1982, Rosenthal attended Rutgers-Camden School of Law, from which she graduated With Honors in 1985. Subsequently, she was admitted to the bars of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1986, she married Stanley Shur, another Rutgers-Camden graduate. For the past 20-plus years, Rosenthal has been a civil servant, writing regulations for New Jersey state government, testifying before the state legislature about pending legislation affecting the civil service system, and serving as liaison to the State Attorney General's Office.
In 2002, Rosenthal inexplicably became bewitched by birds, since then reading everything about them that she could get her hands on and going birding - with New Jersey Audubon and other groups - whenever possible. Like many of her birding compatriots, while driving she pays more attention to starlings flitting overhead than to traffic signs and usually extracts more joy from a simple encounter with an immature grackle than from a more prolonged encounter with immature or mature humans. The New Jersey home she shares with her husband is surrounded by birdfeeders frequented by loyal patrons. Rosenthal's life list may be modest, but her admiration of even the most common of birds is unassailable.
