A Personal Note: Over the years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to enjoy a meaningful and rewarding career in public relations, as well as to pursue a number of strong personal interests. This page is meant as a way to share these: it will take you on to articles, hotlists, and other resources in several of these areas. Browse below, if you wish, or use the buttons above to go directly to areas that interest you. And thanks for visiting.
-- Peter Salwen
Public Relations
I established Salwen Business Communications in 1989, after eight years as senior associate with the predecessor firm of Warren Weil Communications Counselors, managing the public relations programs of major industrial and professional client organizations.Previously, I headed the marketing services department at the international architecture-engineering firm of Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton (TAMS) in New York.
In the years since, SBC has become recognized as a trusted, professional resource for the consultant and technical-services community, providing communications counseling and strategic planning services to client companies in three principal sectors:
I am an affiliate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the Society of American Military Engineers, the Public Relations Society of America (and a former chair of its Technology Committee, Metropolitan Section); the Construction Writers' Association; the Society for Marketing Professional Services; and the Publicity Club of New York.
- engineering, transportation, architecture, and construction;
- manufacturing and technology development; and
- business and financial consulting.
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Nature and Ecology
A lifelong fascination with natural history and the life sciences has led me into a number of other activities, most notably a second book, Galápagos: The Lost Paradise (Mallard Press, 1990), which has sold more than 120,000 copies in four languages.Before entering public relations, I also spent many years in publishing, serving variously as a technical editor for several United Nations agencies and as a project editor and writer. My favorite projects included The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals and Ecology of Inland Waters and Estuaries, as well as numerous textbooks and articles in the life sciences.
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New York History
As a founding member and president-elect of the Society for New York City History, I am an avid student of and (when time allows) an enthusiastic writer about the history, architecture, infrastructure, and culture of New York City -- a place that, with all its sins, I still regard as the spiritual center of the human race.My "home town" is Manhattan's Upper West Side, where I live with my wife Peggy Sue and our two wonderful boys, James (11) and Will (7) -- all of whom are sure to have Web pages of their own before long. If you're interested in our neighborhood, I modestly recommend getting a copy of my 1989 book, Upper West Side Story: A History and Guide, (Abbeville Press, 381 pp.), which The New York Times called "an engaging romp through time and space, filled with charming period photographs, spicy folklore, outrageous personalities and even a walking tour." It's due out again this spring in its third paperback printing.
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Mark Twain
As a lifelong admirer of the American humorist Mark Twain, I served on the governing board of the late, lamented Mark Twain Association of New York, which expired shortly after celebrating its seventy-third birthday last year, and I am the founder of a successor group, the Mark Twain Circle of New York, of which I hope to be able to bring you more news shortly. One of my special interests is exploring the many links between Mark Twain and New York -- those paired marvels of the Gilded Age -- and I have turned up a lot of obscure and (I think) fascinating information, which I share through articles, lectures, and walking tours.I also sponsor a suite of Mark Twain pages on the World Wide Web. It includes links to information about the above, some articles of my own, and links to the best Twain resources I have found on the Internet.
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Rants and Reflections
Finally, a question. What do you do when the news of the day is just too much? When it seems like one more syllable of self-righteous hypocrisy or bone-headed stupidity from a pundit or politician will be enough to send you round the bend? My response, all too often, is to let fly with an Op Ed piece or a letter to the editor, and occasionally, to my amazement, some of these actually get into the papers.The public commentators who are my heroes, people like Twain, Russell Baker, and Calvin Trillin, have the miraculous (to me) ability to tackle a subject that outrages them and to do it with grace and wit. I envy their light touch. Where they wield the rapier, I brandish a bludgeon. Even so, I've ventured to post some of my more opinionated pieces here, and you're invited to browse among them.
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