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Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne, was born in 1533, the son and heir of Pierre, Seigneur de Montaigne (two previous children dying soon after birth). He was brought up to speak Latin as his mother tongue and always retained a Latin turn of mind; though he knew Greek, he preferred to use translations. After studying law he eventually became counselor to the Parlement of Bordeaux. He married in 1565. In 1569 he published his French version of the Natural Theology of Raymond Sebond; his Apology is only partly a defense of Sebond and sets skeptical limits to human reasoning about God, man and nature. He retired in 1571 to his lands at Montaigne, devoting himself to reading and reflection and to composing his Essays (first version, 1580). He loathed the fanaticism and cruelties of the religious wars of the period, but sided with Catholic orthodoxy and legitimate monarchy. He was twice elected Mayor of Bordeaux (1581 and 1583), a post he held for four years. He died at Montaigne (1592) while preparing the final, and richest, edition of his Essays.
ForeWord This Week by Whitney Hallberg, Managing Editor Hurricanes by Jack Williams and Stephen Leatherman (978-0-7603-2992-4) explores Earth's fiercest storms with fifty color photos and descriptions of hurricane behavior. Winds must reach 74 miles per hour in order for a storm to be considered a hurricane, but they regularly reach speeds greater than 100 miles per hour and create 50-foot waves. The book looks at U.S Air Force Reserve pilots who fly into hurricanes to provide wind data to forecasters. On a typical nine- or ten-hour flight, an airplane will make maybe a half dozen trips all of the way across a storm, following a different path each time, the authors write. Each trip goes through the turbulent eye-wall and the calm eye. Williams and Leatherman explain that a hurricane's winds could affect more than 200 miles of coastline, and that the names of the storms come from a National Hurricane Center-approved list of men's and women's names in French, English, and Spanish that is created each year. The photographs are especially fascinating, including one taken from the eye of Katrina before she hit, and several taken from space. A satellite image of Fran, which hit North Carolina, shows the winds that affected the weather in New England and the Midwest, even causing flooding in Ohio.
