The first major biography of Peter Matthiessen, celebrated author of The Snow Leopard, founder of the Paris Review, towering figure of 20th-century American literature
'Magnificent' ROBERT MACFARLANE
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 literary culture. He was also, briefly, an undercover agent for the fledgling CIA; an environmental activist; an advocate for Native American rights and California farmworkers; friends with the likes of Truman Capote and William Styron; and a daring explorer who visited every continent on Earth, scaling the Himalayas and floating through the Amazon on a balsawood raft.
Across these many lives, Matthiessen was always searching for what he called his ‘true nature’ – an enlightened state of being, without ego – and this spiritual quest ultimately led him, even as he inflicted great pain on three wives and multiple children, to the highest ranks of Zen.
Readers and critics have struggled to reconcile Matthiessen’s extraordinarily varied achievements and literary output, which included everything from experimental novels to advocacy journalism. 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, author of Wintering
'Irresistible' KATHERINE BUCKNELL, author of Christopher Isherwood Inside Out
‘Perceptive and consistently readable’ CAL FLYN, author of Islands of Abandonment
About the Author
Lance Richardson has written for numerous publications, including the Guardian, the New Yorker (online), and several international iterations of GQ. Originally from Sydney, Australia, he now lives in New York City.
Industry Reviews
A fascinating biography of a writer whose story aches to be told
— Katherine May, author of Wintering
I can't imagine that a fairer, better researched, more elegant biography will come out this year
— Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sontag
There is adventure, beauty, compassion, and deep insight on nearly every page. Compellingly crafted, doggedly researched, and elegantly written, True Nature is a true masterpiece of literary biography
— Heather Clark, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
Naturalist, novelist, Yeti-hunter, CIA agent—Peter Matthiessen led an exceptional life, and Lance Richardson does a wonderful job capturing it in all its complexity. True Nature is generous and sensitive, but at the same time clear-eyed about its outsized subject
— Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction
Comprehensive, deeply researched and lucidly written, this is the definitive biography of a complicated, fascinating and sometimes exasperating man
— Adam Sisman, author of The Secret Life of John Le Carre
An irresistible portrait... Some of Matthiessen’s books read like an elegy to the planet, and this biography reads like an elegy to the last of the cool WASP men. It’s quite a story
— Katherine Bucknell, author of Christopher Isherwood Inside Out
