"The City that Outgrew its Air": Weisburd and the Environment

As is foreshadowed in his early essay for Statement Magazine, "The City that Outgrew its Air," Weisburd's work often fused together the poetic and the scientific, with air pollution being a recurring theme. In the 1950s his day job as "smog inspector" provoked him to reflect on environmental concerns and to communicate about them in both poetry and prose. He is credited with writing the Air Pollution Control Field Operations Manual, the first comprehensive guide of its type. Written in 1962, it solidified Weisburd's standing as an authority on the problem of pollution in American cities, at a time in American history when pollution and smog were often viewed only as "aesthetic nuisances."

Weisburd's expertise in the field of air pollution control emerged as his primary preoccupation after the Coastlines days. A business prospectus in the collection offers much insight into this work, including many published writings. His decades of work in a very specialized field of scientific study generated confidence in this skill and encouraged him to try and garner investment in a company.