
Tabula Rasa
Volume 1
John Mcphee(Author)
Picador USA (Publisher)
Published on 19. August 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-250-33570-8 (ISBN)
Description
Over seven decades, John McPhee has set a standard for literary nonfiction. Assaying mountain ranges, bark canoes, experimental aircraft, the Swiss Army, geophysical hot spots, ocean shipping, shad fishing, dissident art in the Soviet Union, and an even wider variety of other subjects, he has consistently written narrative pieces of immaculate design.
In Tabula Rasa, McPhee looks back at his career from the vantage point of his desk drawer, reflecting wryly upon projects he once planned to do but never got around to - people to profile, regions he meant to portray. There are so many examples that he plans to go on writing these vignettes, an ideal project for an old man, he says, and a "reminiscent montage" from a writing life. This volume includes, among other things, glimpses of a frosty encounter with Thornton Wilder, interrogative dinners with Henry Luce, the allure of western Spain, criteria in writing about science, fireworks over the East River as seen from Malcolm Forbes's yacht, the evolving inclinations of the Tower of Pisa, the islands among the river deltas of central California, teaching in a pandemic, and persuading The New Yorker to publish an entire book on oranges. The result is a fresh survey of McPhee's singular planet.
In Tabula Rasa, McPhee looks back at his career from the vantage point of his desk drawer, reflecting wryly upon projects he once planned to do but never got around to - people to profile, regions he meant to portray. There are so many examples that he plans to go on writing these vignettes, an ideal project for an old man, he says, and a "reminiscent montage" from a writing life. This volume includes, among other things, glimpses of a frosty encounter with Thornton Wilder, interrogative dinners with Henry Luce, the allure of western Spain, criteria in writing about science, fireworks over the East River as seen from Malcolm Forbes's yacht, the evolving inclinations of the Tower of Pisa, the islands among the river deltas of central California, teaching in a pandemic, and persuading The New Yorker to publish an entire book on oranges. The result is a fresh survey of McPhee's singular planet.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
St Martin's Press
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
268 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-250-33570-8 (9781250335708)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
John McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. After seven years at Time, he moved to The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. A Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, in 1999 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Annals of the Former World. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.