Ed Ricciuti: A Well-Written Life
When you’ve lived a life like Ed Ricciuti has, it’s not too difficult to draw on your experiences and interests to write books and articles—lots of them.
The Killingworth resident has written around 80 books geared toward readers of all ages, as well as countless articles for magazines and newspapers including Audubon, Field & Stream, Outside, Wildlife Conservation, Science Digest, USA Today, and Fly Rod & Reel.
He currently writes for Coastal Connecticut magazine, which named him a contributing editor for nature, science, and the outdoors.
A few of Ed’s books include The Natural History of North America, Rocks and Minerals, The Yakama, How to Box, The War in Yugoslavia, The Snake Almanac, Amphibians, Killer Animals, Killers of the Seas, Science 101: Forensics, and Federal Bureau of Investigation. His most recent published work is Bears in the Backyard, which was published by W.W. Norton & Company in New York City. It just came out in paperback.
“It’s about time I begin to develop new book ideas,” Ed says. “I’ve got some that I have to talk over with my agent, but magazine stuff keeps me going.”
As listed on his website, Ed has also been a newspaper crime reporter, magazine editor, curator at the New York Zoological Society, public relations advisor, zoo and aquarium exhibits developer, ambulance driver, firearms safety instructor, writing teacher for at-risk kids and graduate students, and producer and editor of a bi-monthly magazine for the Connecticut Audubon Society.
He is also a certified master gardener and has a stand selling home-grown produce. His “zillion” hobbies include shooting, hunting and fishing, birding, gardening, small-scale farming, raising gamebirds, and keeping tropical fish and sundry other creatures.
Ed and his wife, Mercedes, met on a blind date and have been married for 53 years. They moved to Killingworth in February 1972 from Fairfield and have three grown children.
“There were, I think, less than 2,000 people when I moved here,” he says.
Mercedes helps run Helping Hands and is the town municipal agent for the elderly, Ed says.
Along with John Himmelman, Ed runs Green Hill Martial Arts, Inc., in Killingworth, teaching combat hapkido and studying Jun Fan gung fu jeet kune do, or JKD. He also studies black dragon kung fu under Stephen Watson of Someday Farm in Killingworth, and jung ki hapkido under Chris Cava in Milford. Ed earned his first-degree black belt in combat hapkido in 2009, at age 70.
Born in the Bronx, Ed launched his writing career at his high school newspaper and started college at the University of Notre Dame as a geology major, but “I never took it because I decided I’m interested in a lot of science, not just one, so I went into communication arts, which is, in effect, journalism, but I always wanted to keep an interest in science.”
He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in communication arts. His skill in writing and his interest in science led to an appointment by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism as a Sloan-Rockefeller Advanced Science Writing Fellow.
Then Ed’s adventures really started.
He says, “A job came up at the New York Zoological Society based at the Bronx Zoo. They’re now called Wildlife Conservation Society. I was born within walking distance of the zoo, and my grandfather would bring me there when I was three years old. That got my interest in animals going, so I became curator of publications for the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, and a number of scientific organizations. I left to go start writing as a full-time freelancer in 1971, although for many years the zoological society sponsored my trips overseas to do research and writing. They were really great. I actually had more fun after I left them than when I was working there. I was on my own and they sent me many, many places.”
Ed says one experience in particular stands out more than most because “it’s still so surreal.” He mentions the Terry and the Pirates comic strip, which was set in China.
“There was a woman in the comic called the Dragon Lady, and that’s where [that term] came from. She wore a high-neck, tight black dress with a big slit up the side and had long black hair. Well, I write a lot about the illegal trade in wildlife; I was writing about it years ago in the ’70s before a lot of people did. Now it’s a major story. I would often go overseas to get stories and pose as a buyer of illegal wildlife. I was writing this story for Audubon magazine, and I had a British contact in Bangkok. I wanted to get inside the compound of a big smuggler I’d heard of named Mr. Sufin, and this British guy supposedly knew someone there. So we went to the compound on the outskirts of Bangkok. It had big fences with concertina wire. The servant lady let us in, and the place is filled with all kinds of rare animals that they shouldn’t have, like orangutans and birds.
“We walked into this room, and it turns out there was no Mr. Sufin, there was a Madam Sufin. When we walked in the room I had two thoughts. One is that if they find out what we’re doing here, we’re never going to get out alive. Secondly, nobody’s ever going to believe this. There, sitting in this throne-like chair, was the Dragon Lady. She had the exact same kind of dress on, with long black hair. She was this absolutely beautiful, gorgeous Asian woman. Next to her on a cushion, there was a python all curled up and she was petting it on the head. Walking around was Great Dane with a spiked collar, and on the other side of her chair on a chain was a leopard. It was like something out of a movie! I thought, ‘Nobody is going to believe this. Absolutely nobody.’ But it was true, and I wrote it, and nobody questioned it. I still think it was unreal. It was almost like they staged it.”
To learn more about Ed, visit his website at www.edwardricciuti.com.
To nominate someone for Person of the Week, email Melissa at m.babcock@shorepublishing.com.