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Monday, October 28, 2002

By Bob Hoover, Post-Gazette Book Editor

By the time Devra Davis' parents left Donora for Squirrel Hill in the late 1950s, the mills and coke ovens that had turned the Monongahela Valley town into one of the most polluted spots in America were closed.

	Writer and authority on environmental dangers Devra Davis speaks at an Earth Day Rally. The Donora native will speak at the Book & Author Dinner next month.

Over the years, Donora's air grew cleaner and its river banks green with trees, but its place in the annals of industrial pollution was secured.

During the course of four days in late October 1948, more than 20 of its residents died from inhaling the deadly fumes trapped in the Mon Valley. Others died in the weeks following, so the final tally will never be certain.

Davis, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, is today a leading authority on environmental dangers.

Her new book, "When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution" (Basic Books, $24.95), begins on that week in Donora, but its scope is international. Its message is so powerful it was nominated this month for the National Book Award in nonfiction. The winner will be announced Nov. 20.

Davis will be joining four other authors to speak at the Junior League's Book & Author Dinner, co-sponsored by the Post-Gazette, scheduled for Nov. 12 at the Westin Convention Center, Downtown.

She is currently a visiting professor in Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School of Public Policy and Management and has been an adviser on health and environmental issues for two federal agencies.

Also speaking at the dinner will be Francine Prose, author of "The Lives of the Muses"; Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of "Romancing the Ordinary"; Jere Longman, author of "Among the Heroes"; and Thomas Steinbeck, author of "Down to a Southern Sea."

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. with an authors reception followed by dinner at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are $75 for the reception and dinner; $50 for the dinner only. Proceeds benefit the Junior League's literacy program. For tickets, order by phone at 412-394-3353 or online at http://www.proartstickets.org.