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Peter Matthiessen




Matthiessen's work is known for its meticulous approach to research. He frequently focuses on American Indian issues and history, as in his detailed study of the Leonard Peltier case, ''In the Spirit of Crazy Horse''.

Along with George Plimpton , Harold Humes, Thomas Guinzburg and Donald Hall , he founded the literary magazine The Paris Review in 1953 .

In 1979, his book ''The Snow Leopard'' won the Contemporary Thought category of the National Book Award . His novel '' At Play In The Fields Of The Lord '' (1965), about an American missionary coming to a South American tribe, was made into a major Hollywood movie in 1991. His work on oceanographic research, "Blue Meridian" became the film "Blue Water, White Death," which is widely considered to have inspired Peter Benchley to write "Jaws" in 1974. Matthiessen has been the official State Author of New York, 1995-1997.

More recently, Matthiessen's fiction trilogy ''Killing Mr. Watson'', ''Lost Man's River'' and ''Bone by Bone'' was based on accounts of Florida planter Edgar J. Watson's death shortly after the Southwest Florida Hurricane Of 1910 .

Matthiessen became a Zen practitioner and later a Buddhist priest. He lives in Sagaponack, New York .


BIBLIOGRAPHY


Fiction

  • ''Race Rock'' (1954)

  • ''Partisans'' (1955)

  • ''Raditzer'' (1961)

  • ''At Play in the Fields of the Lord'' (1965)

  • ''Far Tortuga'' (1975)

  • ''On the River Styx and Other Stories'' (1989)

  • ''Killing Mister Watson'' (1990)

  • ''Lost Man's River'' (1997)

  • ''Bone by Bone'' (1999)



Nonfiction

  • ''Wildlife in America'' (1959)

  • ''The Cloud Forest: A Chronicle of the South American Wilderness'' (1961)

  • ''Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in the Stone Age'' (1962)

  • "The Atlantic Coast", a chapter in ''The American Heritage Book of Natural Wonders'' (1963)

  • ''The Shorebirds of North America'' (1967)

  • '' Oomingmak'' (1967)

  • ''Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution'' (1969)

  • ''Blue Meridian. The Search for the Great White Shark'' (1971).

  • ''The Tree Where Man Was Born'' (1972)

  • ''The Snow Leopard'' (1978)

  • ''Sand Rivers'' (1981)

  • ''In the Spirit of Crazy Horse'' (1983) ISBN 0140144560

  • ''Indian Country'' (1984)

  • ''Nine-headed Dragon River: Zen Journals 1969-1982'' (1986)

  • ''Men's Lives: The Surfmen and Bayen of the South Fork'' (1986)

  • ''African Silences''(1991)

  • ''Baikal: Sacred Sea of Siberia'' (1992)

  • ''East of Lo Monthang: In the Land of the Mustang'' (1995)

  • ''The Peter Matthiessen Reader: Nonfiction, 1959-1961'' (2000)

  • ''Tigers in the Snow'' (2000)

  • ''The Birds of Heaven: Travels With Cranes'' (2001)