Peter Matthiessen is among a handful of American authors to be nominated for the National Book Award in both fiction and nonfiction--for the novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965) and the travel books The Tree Where Man Was Born (1972) and The...

Peter Matthiessen was born on May 22, 1927, in New York City to Elizabeth Carey and Erard Matthiessen. "I am a New Yorker by birth, not inclination; I have never remained there very long. "My formative years left me unformed; despite kind family,...

While Peter Matthiessen's publications include several well-received novels, his reputation as a writer rests largely on his nonfiction nature books, which passionately yet scientifically document the often uneasy balance between human existence and...

Peter Matthiessen is widely considered one of the most important wilderness writers of the twentieth century. In fiction and nonfiction alike, he explores endangered natural environments and human cultures threatened by encroaching technology. As...

Peter Matthiessen's increasingly substantial reputation as a novelist rests firmly on two remarkable books. Although he wrote three promising early novels, his two best-known works of fiction are surely At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965), a rich...