Richard Hacken

Author/Poet

Helvetic Heights: A Human History of the Swiss Alps may be the most comprehensive history on the topic now available in English. Its author—Richard Hacken, a Swiss-American with dual roots in Canton Bern and California—has a Ph.D. in the realm of Germanic Studies and over 40 years as a research librarian under his belt. His long practice as a poet softens and supplements his strict grounding in academic sources. His poetic voice, augmented by relevant images, carries this weighty volume into the realm of what he calls “Academic Lite.”