John McPhee (1) (1931–)
Author of Annals of the Former World
For other authors named John McPhee, see the disambiguation page.
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
The Princeton Anthology of Writing: Favorite Pieces by the Ferris/McGraw Writers at Princeton University. (2001) 14 copies
The Princeton Reader: Contemporary Essays by Writers and Journalists at Princeton University (2010) 4 copies
Personal history: Checkpoints, fact-checkers do it a tick at a time (New Yorker, 9 & 16/02/2009) 1 copy
Miinihydro [article] 1 copy
Ice Pond [article] 1 copy
Open Man {article} 1 copy
Under the Snow {article} 1 copy
THE FAIR OF SAN GENNARO. 1 copy
Associated Works
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present (2007) — Contributor — 183 copies
Fire Fighters: Stories of Survival from the Front Lines of Firefighting (2002) — Contributor — 12 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- McPhee, John
- Legal name
- McPhee, John Angus
- Birthdate
- 1931-03-08
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Places of residence
- Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Education
- Princeton University (BA|1953)
University of Cambridge - Occupations
- journalist
essayist
professor - Relationships
- McPhee, Jenny (daughter)
McPhee, Martha (daughter)
McPhee, Sarah (daughter)
McPhee, Laura (daughter) - Organizations
- The New Yorker (staff writer)
Time
Princeton University - Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature, 1977)
Pulitzer Prize (1999)
George Polk Career Award (2008)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993)
Wallace Stegner Award (2011)
National Book Critics Circle Award (2017) (show all 8)
Fellow, Geological Society of America
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1988)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Favourite Books (1)
Five star books (1)
Hidden Classics (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 60
- Also by
- 19
- Members
- 18,776
- Popularity
- #1,162
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 310
- ISBNs
- 287
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 130
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.… (more)