The volume is a collection of previously published (in Audubon, Playboy, Smithsonian and Sports Illustrated magazines) and unpublished essays.

Gilbert, the winner of many journalistic and literacy awards, is widely recognized as one of our finest prose stylists. Of his work the Smithsonian magazine has commented:

"Bil Gilbert has been writing about nature so well, so sensibly and so long that he's become a kind of natural resource to be cherished for his own sake, like the rivers, hawks, grizzlies and other wonders he evokes with low-key eloquence."

The author has also been described (by the Washington Post) as "our best full-time environmental journalist." However Gilbert's observations and comments have never been restricted to conventional environmental matters. In "Natural Coincidence," he writes as often about the behaviors and quirks of people as he does about those of other species. The subjects include the Great Depression, ring-tailed cats, rodeo riders, Mothman, Eskimo artists, snapping turtles and, naturally, crows. In this book, Gilbert's tenth, is "Hello the Crow," one of the most moving accounts of the bonds which can form between people and corvids.

Though often identified only by his Corvi number, Gilbert's commentaries in the Corvi Chronicle range from the wry and comic to the thought-provoking and passionate, and deal with such topics as ecology, evolution, current politics and pop culture.

In "Natural Coincidence," happenings occur and beings are met in such various locales as Manhattan and the Sonoran Desert, the high arctic and the island of Tasmania.

Offering an explanation for the title of the book, Gilbert writes: "More than 50 years ago, without a clear notion of where I was going, I set off on a trip from Kalamazoo, Michigan." [Where he grew up.} "I am still traveling toward an unknown destination. But along the way, much more for reasons of good luck than thoughtful planning, I have come in contact with many wonderful beings and happenings. The essays appearing in "Natural Coincidence" represent an attempt to describe some of these wonders. I like to think, or at least pretend that the inspiration for and theme of this book is gratitude."

"Natural Coincidence" is now available in bookstores or may be obtained through them. It can be ordered directly through Amazon.com and also from the University of Michigan Press [tel: 1-800-621-2736] or www.press.umich.edu

In August, the University of Michigan will also publish "From Here to There & Back Again," by Sue Hubbell, Gilbert's sister. A member of ASCAR and also a highly regarded essayist, Hubbell is the author of seven previous books and has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, Smithsonian and many other periodicals.

Her essays - like those of her brother - are concerned with both natural and social history. Both brother and sister commenced their writing careers as teenage reporters for the Kalamazoo Gazette.