Read Next
Discover
Peter Matthiessen
American author
Quick Facts
- Died:
- April 5, 2014, Sagaponack
- Awards And Honors:
- National Book Award
- Notable Works:
- “At Play in the Fields of the Lord”
- “Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great White Shark”
- “Bone by Bone”
- “Far Tortuga”
- “In Paradise”
- “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse”
- “Race Rock”
- “Shadow Country”
- “The Cloud Forest: A Chronicle of the South American Wilderness”
- “The Snow Leopard”
- “Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in the Stone Age”
- “Wildlife in America”
Peter Matthiessen (born May 22, 1927, New York, New York, U.S.—died April 5, 2014, Sagaponack) was an American novelist, naturalist, and wilderness writer whose work dealt with the destructive effects of encroaching technology on preindustrial cultures and the natural environment. Both his fiction and nonfiction works combined remote settings, lyrical description, and passionate advocacy for the preservation of the natural world. After serving in the U.S. Navy (1945–47), Matthiessen attended the Sorbonne and Yale University (B.A., 1950). He moved to Paris, where he associated with other expatriate American writers such as William Styron, James Baldwin, and Irwin Shaw. While there ...(100 of 557 words)