One of the discipline's most creative and diverse thinkers, Peter R. Gould wrote about a wide variety of topics in geography, ranging from transportation to AIDS to television to critiques of Marxism. During his career, he authored 20 books and monographs and 170 journal articles. Fluent in French, he also published in that language.

Born and raised in England, he was evacuated to the United States during World War II. Returning to England afterward, he attended the Nautical College, graduating in 1951. Immediately thereafter, he served with the British military against communist guerrillas in Malaysia. In 1956, he graduated from Colgate University, and he went on to do graduate work at Northwestern University, completing his PhD in 1960. Initially an Africanist, he journeyed widely and conducted ...