Peter Matthiessen - 1927
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Read another essay on Peter Matthiessen written by Maryland student K. Perks.
I. Personal Biography
Peter Matthiessen was born on May 22, 1927 in a small New York City hospital. He was educated in New York City as well up until high school, when his family moved
farther up the Hudson River. He later served in World War II. After the war, he enrolled at Yale as an English major, and spent his junior year studying abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris.
In 1951, he became a co-founder of the Paris Review with George Plimpton. His father was a highly skilled architect, who left the field to design machine gunnery for the Navy. After
he left the Navy, he became the spokesperson for conversation groups such as the National Audubon Society. His father's love of nature and Peter Matthiessen's love of
biology helped mold his writing style and his subjects of nature and its creatures. II. Regional Influences Peter Matthiessen writes each novel in a new place. He travels extensively and the place
where he writes his novels is usually set in the place he is presently visiting. Since leaving Paris, he has gone to Alaska, the Canadian North West Territories, Asia, Australia,
Oceania, and the wilderness areas of South America, Africa, and New Guinea. III. List of Works Race Rock 1954 IV. Interview In an interview with Kay Bonetti, the Director of the America Audio Prose Library in May
of 1987, Matthiessen spoke of varied topics. It has a brief portion concerning his earlier life including his drive behind creating the Paris Review. He also speaks of his exotic travels
and how they have affected his writing, and his plans of the future. For this interview go to:
Partisans 1955
Wildlife in America 1959
Cloud Forrest 1961
Under the Mountain Wall 1962
Raditzer 1961
At Play in the Fields of the Lord 1965
Far Tortuga 1974
The Snow Leopard 1978
In Sands River 1981
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse 1983
Indian Country 1984
Nine-Headed Dragon River, Zen Journals 1986
On the River Styx 1989
Killing Mister Watson 1990
Baikal: Sacred Sea of Siberia 1992
Shadows of Africa 1992
East of Lo Monthang 1995
The Tree Where Man Was Born
V. Further Information
For further information of Peter Matthiessen you can go to the web page mentioned earlier that has his interview or at:
Or you can go to the Free Tibet web page, as he is a staunch supporter of this cause. VI. Bibliography Peter Matthiessen to Receive 1999 John Hay Award
Peter Matthiessen State Author
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/matsnsa.html
An Interview with Peter Matthiessen
http://www.missourireview.org/interviews/matthiessen.html
This essay was submitted by a student of Marylin Dykens, a teacher at Rome Free Academy in Rome, New York.