On Thursday October 7th, SEW will welcome Daniel Barbarisi, veteran journalist and author with over 15 years in newspaper journalism at The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Wall Street Journal, and now The Athletic, where he is currently a senior editor. Barbarisi has covered crime, politics, news, and sports. He joined the staff of the Wall Street Journal in 2010, where he spent five years as the beat writer covering the New York Yankees. He left the WSJ at the end of 2015 to pursue his first book project, Dueling with Kings, and joined The Athletic in 2018.
Barbarisi will be sharing from his new book, Chasing the Thrill, which was released in May of 2021. Chasing the Thrill is a full-throttle, first-person account of the treasure hunt created by eccentric millionaire art dealer –and, some would say, robber baron– Forrest Fenn, that became the stuff of contemporary legend.
When Forrest Fenn was given a fatal cancer diagnosis, he came up with a bold plan: He would hide a chest full of jewels and gold in the wilderness, and publish a poem that would serve as a map leading to the treasure’s secret location. But he didn’t die, and after hiding the treasure in 2010, Fenn instead presided over a decade-long gold rush that saw many thousands of treasure hunters scrambling across the Rocky Mountains in pursuit of his fortune.
Barbarisi first learned of Fenn’s hunt in 2017, when a friend became consumed with decoding the poem and convinced Barbarisi to document his search. What began as an attempt to capture the inner workings of Fenn’s hunt quickly turned into a personal quest that led Barbarisi down a reckless and potentially dangerous path, one that found him embroiled in searcher conspiracies and matching wits with Fenn himself. Over the course of four chaotic years, several searchers would die, endless controversies would erupt, and one hunter would ultimately find the chest. But the mystery didn’t end there. Full of intrigue, danger, and break-neck action, Chasing the Thrill is a riveting tale of desire, obsession, and unbridled adventure.
Barbarisi is a native of Rye Brook, NY. He holds a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Tufts University and a Master of Public Affairs from Brown University. He and his wife, Amalie Benjamin, live in Boston.
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“Barbarisi tells the story so well that you should resist any form of peeking ahead and leave the matter in his capable hands.”
—Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post
“Barbarisi’s exploration of the who and how and why of those who hunted for the hidden treasure left by Forrest Fenn confronts fascinating questions about the sometimes indistinct realms of adventure and obsession.”
—The Boston Globe, Summer Reading 2021
“An engaging adventure story . . . A well-reported insider’s study on the engrossing and alarming fervor a search can inspire.”
—Kirkus