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John McPhee (1) (1931–)

Author of Annals of the Former World

For other authors named John McPhee, see the disambiguation page.

60+ Works 18,776 Members 310 Reviews 130 Favorited

About the Author

McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with the New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. That same year he published his first book, A Sense of show more Where You Are, with FSG, and soon followed with The Headmaster (1966), Oranges (1967), The Pine Barrens (1968), A Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles (collection, 1969), The Crofter and the Laird (1969), Levels of the Game (1970), Encounters with the Archdruid (1972), The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed (1973), The Curve of Binding Energy (1974), Pieces of the Frame (collection, 1975), and The Survival of the Bark Canoe (1975). Both Encounters with the Archdruid and The Curve of Binding Energy were nominated for National Book Awards in the category of science Since 1977, the year in which McPhee received the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and The John McPhee Reader and the bestselling Coming into the Country appeared in print, Farrar, Straus and Giroux has published Giving Good Weight (collection, 1979), Basin and Range (1981), In Suspect Terrain (1983), La Place de la Concorde Suisse (1984), Table of Contents (collection, 1985), Rising from the Plains (1986), Heirs of General Practice (in a paperback edition, 1986), The Control of Nature (1989), Looking for a Ship (1990), Assembling California (1993), The Ransom of Russian Art (1994), The Second John McPhee Reader (1996), and Irons in the Fire (1997). Annals of the Former World was published in 1998 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. McPhee has taught at Princeton as Ferris Professor since 1975. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: John Angus McPhee (photo courtesy of Princeton University)

Series

Works by John McPhee

Annals of the Former World (1998) 1,610 copies
Coming into the Country (1977) 1,523 copies
The control of nature (1989) 1,373 copies
Encounters with the Archdruid (1977) 1,058 copies
Basin and Range (1981) 886 copies
The Pine Barrens (1968) 820 copies
Oranges (1966) 779 copies
Uncommon Carriers (2006) 743 copies
Assembling California (1993) 714 copies
Looking for a Ship (1990) 685 copies
Rising from the Plains (1986) 638 copies
The John McPhee Reader (1976) 495 copies
The Founding Fish (2002) 482 copies
In Suspect Terrain (1983) 480 copies
The Crofter and the Laird (1970) 452 copies
The Curve of Binding Energy (1974) 447 copies
Giving Good Weight (1979) 415 copies
Table of Contents (1985) 402 copies
Irons in the Fire (1997) — Author — 366 copies
A Sense of Where You Are (1965) 353 copies
Levels of the Game (1969) 348 copies
The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed (1973) 274 copies
Silk Parachute (2010) 274 copies
The Ransom of Russian Art (1994) 264 copies
Pieces of the Frame (1975) 260 copies
The Patch (2018) 152 copies
Heirs of General Practice (1984) 143 copies
Tabula Rasa: Volume 1 (2023) 83 copies
Outcroppings (1988) 21 copies
Crossing the Craton (2000) — Author — 13 copies
Wimbledon: A Celebration (1972) — Author — 11 copies
Creative Nonfiction (1997) 6 copies
Buscando barco (1993) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Best American Essays of the Century (2000) — Contributor — 774 copies
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink (2007) — Contributor — 535 copies
American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (2008) — Contributor — 414 copies
Life Stories: Profiles from the New Yorker (2000) — Contributor — 298 copies
The Best American Travel Writing 2005 (2005) — Contributor — 211 copies
The Best American Sports Writing of the Century (1999) — Contributor — 191 copies
The Best American Essays 1998 (1998) — Contributor — 191 copies
The Best American Travel Writing 2004 (2004) — Contributor — 182 copies
Forces of Change: A New View of Nature (2000) — some editions — 98 copies
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (1964) — Introduction, some editions — 86 copies
Rough Water: Stories of Survival from the Sea (1998) — Contributor — 86 copies
Camp (2005) — Foreword — 74 copies
National Geographic Magazine 1974 v145 #1 January (1974) — Contributor — 20 copies
Alaska Reader: Voices from the North (2005) — Contributor — 6 copies

Tagged

Alaska (229) American (84) American literature (68) anthology (268) art (63) biography (269) California (108) creative nonfiction (64) ecology (129) engineering (60) environment (224) essay (127) essays (1,261) fiction (89) first edition (146) food (126) geography (191) geology (1,059) history (456) John McPhee (137) journalism (254) literature (116) McPhee (253) memoir (94) natural history (349) nature (530) New Jersey (98) New Yorker (150) non-fiction (2,046) paperback (60) read (174) science (550) Scotland (87) sports (126) to-read (797) transportation (108) travel (363) unread (116) USA (95) writing (144)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

An unusual book, a delightful read, but does it work for its technical aspect?

I think this was a series of New Yorker pieces, which would certainly explain some of the style. As a book, it lacks a coherent narrative thread. In particular, the geomorphology of basin and range (a new concept to me, as a reasonably geologically literate but non-US reader) is explained briefly, but could have used a warning, "Pay attention, this next concept is going to be referred to endlessly hereafter without any more explanation". Also who's the local Nevada mayor in the last chapter? Deffeyes? Some other character whose name we slip? A good editor, unafraid of McPhee's deserved stature, could have made this work rather better as a book. Even a map would help us foreigners.

The beginning of the book has the feel of a travelogue. A Theroux, maybe even HST piece (HST meets the last sun-crazed silver miners?), of gentle companionship and wandering through backwoods America. Midway it moves more towards a geology textbook. This is when it really starts to take off, although I'm unsure of the audience. A handful of foreign geologists? Sophomore students? But the urbane New Yorker reader with clean shoes, do they know the geological background or care enough about the arcane added knowledge? The chapters on 18th century Edinburgh, Hutton, and the invention of geology; on silver-mining and recovering old mine wastes; or best of all, the impact of plate tectonics on geology in the 1960s. I knew (fortunately) all of these things before picking up the book: but I realise now I'd never really understood plate tectonics, or appreciated just how young ocean floors were until reading this.

I was reminded in the end of Sebald's 'Rings of Saturn' (no bad comparison); it's 'a walk outdoors with one of your smartest friends'. A little directionless, but all of it fascinating.
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Andy_Dingley | 15 other reviews | Mar 13, 2024 |
Geology is one of those parts of my life I've always had curiosity about, but never took the time to explore. I'm both an animist and love backpacking off trail in wilderness areas. These two arenas have had me at least meditating on geology, if not formally studying the subject.

For awhile now I've been looking for a geological history of New England. Last year a friend recommend a book—the only Pulitzer-Prize-winning book on geology—this text.

It is long! It took me about a year to get through. It is a compilation of five parts, written across twenty years of research, and published together in 1998. The book is mostly about the continental United States. Here's the basic outline:

Book 1: Basin and Range—Nevada and Utah, with geologist Clarence King

Book 2: In Suspect Terrain—Appalachians, with geologist Anita Harris

Book 3: Rising from the Plains—Wyoming, with geologist David Love

Book 4: Assembling California—California, with geologist Eldridge Moores

Book 5: Crossing the Craton—Midwest (essay-length)

To help the narrative along, in each book McPhee accompanies an accomplished geologist, both telling their life story, and getting into detail about the landscapes the love.

One unfortunate artifact in the book is that McPhee began writing when plate tectonics was a relatively new and somewhat controversial theory (when nowadays it is taken for granted). This creates a few unnecessary diversions.

At times, the book becomes quite technical. I can't say that I understood everything that McPhee shared about geology. That said, the reading was still enjoyable the whole way through, and I'd rather have a book that is over my head and enjoyable than one that is dumbed down. If anything, it inspires me to dig in more deeply to geology!

If you're looking for a thorough introduction to the geology of the United States, you've found it!
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willszal | 24 other reviews | Mar 12, 2024 |
Ah, I'm a total sucker for McPhee. Another all-around winner.

I didn't have the patience for the longest one in the book at first (about gravel), but it turned out to be one of the most fascinating, in the end. I want to be a forensic geologist now....
 
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caedocyon | 4 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |
This book is AMAZING so far and I am about on page 50. I am so glad he has written another several feet of books that I can start next....
 
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caedocyon | 18 other reviews | Mar 6, 2024 |

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Works
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Popularity
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Rating
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Favorited
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