Tim Cahill

Tim Cahill was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin, in 1943 and was one of the founding editors of Outside magazine, which since 1977 has been the primary venue for American adventure and travel writing. He spent three decades contributing to the magazine while publishing collections of his journalism.

Jaguars Ripped My Flesh (1987), his first collection, established the template: long pieces about specific adventures — diving with sharks, crossing Africa overland, rafting the Amazon — written with a combination of physical precision and dry American humour. The title refers to an encounter with a jaguar in the Pantanal; the story is characteristic Cahill — genuinely dangerous but recounted with a deflating wit.

A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg (1989) continued the series. He has written 11 books in total, all variations on the same form: the magazine-length adventure piece, carefully reported, genuinely dangerous, and told with an emphasis on the comedy that danger generates when you have survived it.

He also wrote the text for several Imax films including Mountain Gorillas (1992) and Dolphins (1994), which brought the adventure writing sensibility to a mainstream American audience.

His influence on American travel journalism is difficult to overstate — Outside magazine's voice is substantially his voice, and several generations of adventure writers learned their trade from him.