The tree where man was born

Winner of the National Book Award and the American Book Award, Peter Matthiessen is the author of over fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction, including "The Snow Leopard " (1978), "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" (1965), "Far Tortuga" (1975), "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" (1992), and "Bone by Bone" (1999). Ilan Stavans teaches at Amherst College. He is the author of "The Hispanic Condition" (1995), "Art and Anger" (1996), and "The Riddle of Cantinflas" (1998), and editor of "The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays" (1997).