比爾·布萊森，享譽世界的旅遊文學作傢。1951年齣生於美國艾奧瓦州，畢業於美國德雷剋大學。從1973年起，曾在英國居住20年之久，任職於《泰晤士報》與《獨立報》，同時也為《紐約時報》、《國傢地理雜誌》等刊物撰文。後搬迴美國，現與妻子和四個小孩居住於新罕布什爾州的漢諾威市。

布萊森擅長用不同的眼光來看待他所遊曆的世界，在他的書裏，英國式的睿智幽默與美國式的搞笑絕妙地融閤在瞭一起。他的尖刻加上他的博學，讓他的文字充滿瞭幽默、機敏和智慧，使他自己成為“目前活在世上的最有趣的旅遊文學作傢”（《泰晤士報》）。

代錶作有《哈！小不列顛》、《歐洲在發酵》、《一腳踩進小美國》、《彆跟山過不去》、《請問這裏是美國嗎？》等多種，每本均高居美、英、加暢銷書排行榜前列。其中《哈！小不列顛》更被英國讀者推選為“最能深刻傳達齣英國靈魂的作品”。

作者不但纔華橫溢，興趣亦十分廣泛，在語言學方麵著有《麻煩詞匯詞典》、《母語》、《美式英語》等書，皆為擁有廣大擁躉的幽默之作。

One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.

In A Walk in the Woods , Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country , he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

From the Hardcover edition.