True Nature
The Lives of Peter Matthiessen
Seiten
2025
Chatto & Windus (Verlag)
9781784743024 (ISBN)
Chatto & Windus (Verlag)
9781784743024 (ISBN)
'Magnificent' ROBERT MACFARLANE
'Fascinating' KATHERINE MAY
'Irresistible' KATHERINE BUCKNELL
‘Perceptive and consistently readable’ CAL FLYN
Discover the many lives of Peter Matthiessen – writer, naturalist, activist, CIA agent, Zen master – in this kaleidoscopic biography of an American literary giant.
Author of The Snow Leopard, co-founder of the Paris Review and the only writer to have ever won the National Book Award for both fiction and nonfiction, Peter Matthiessen was a towering figure of twentieth-century American literature. He was also an undercover agent for the fledgling CIA; an environmental activist; an advocate for Native American rights; friends with the likes of Truman Capote and William Styron; and a daring explorer who visited every continent on Earth.
Across these many lives, Matthiessen was always searching for what he called his ‘true nature’, and this spiritual quest ultimately led him to the highest ranks of Zen.
Readers and critics have struggled to reconcile Matthiessen’s extraordinarily varied achievements and literary output. Now, for the first time, drawing on rich primary sources and hundreds of interviews, acclaimed biographer Lance Richardson pulls together the seemingly disparate threads of Matthiessen’s story. With page-turning immediacy, Richardson illuminates how the writer’s uncanny gifts enabled him to sense connections between ecological decline, racism and labour exploitation – to express, eloquently and presciently, that ‘in a damaged human habitat, all problems merge’.
'Fascinating' KATHERINE MAY
'Irresistible' KATHERINE BUCKNELL
‘Perceptive and consistently readable’ CAL FLYN
Discover the many lives of Peter Matthiessen – writer, naturalist, activist, CIA agent, Zen master – in this kaleidoscopic biography of an American literary giant.
Author of The Snow Leopard, co-founder of the Paris Review and the only writer to have ever won the National Book Award for both fiction and nonfiction, Peter Matthiessen was a towering figure of twentieth-century American literature. He was also an undercover agent for the fledgling CIA; an environmental activist; an advocate for Native American rights; friends with the likes of Truman Capote and William Styron; and a daring explorer who visited every continent on Earth.
Across these many lives, Matthiessen was always searching for what he called his ‘true nature’, and this spiritual quest ultimately led him to the highest ranks of Zen.
Readers and critics have struggled to reconcile Matthiessen’s extraordinarily varied achievements and literary output. Now, for the first time, drawing on rich primary sources and hundreds of interviews, acclaimed biographer Lance Richardson pulls together the seemingly disparate threads of Matthiessen’s story. With page-turning immediacy, Richardson illuminates how the writer’s uncanny gifts enabled him to sense connections between ecological decline, racism and labour exploitation – to express, eloquently and presciently, that ‘in a damaged human habitat, all problems merge’.
Lance Richardson’s first book, House of Nutter: The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named one of the notable books of 2018 by the Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Esquire and the American Library Association. He has been awarded several fellowships, including a year-long residency at the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He teaches on the MFA in Writing programme at Bennington College, Vermont.
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 16.10.2025 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | London |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 153 x 233 mm |
| Gewicht | 854 g |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte |
| Reisen ► Reiseberichte | |
| Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918) | |
| ISBN-13 | 9781784743024 / 9781784743024 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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