While he has written at least twice as much nonfiction, fiction writing has consumed more energy and time. Typically, Matthiessen can polish the journal of one of his journeys into book form in less than a year. The novels are another story.
Far Tortuga took eight years to complete, its writing interrupted by trips to California, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australia, and Nepal; and the Watson trilogy has been more than fifteen years in the making.
During a lifetime filled with activity, Matthiessen has helped to found The Paris Review, fished commercially and operated a charter boat, hunted for fossils in the jungles of South America, visited and studied a Stone Age tribe in New Guinea, trekked the mountain paths of Nepal and the plains of Africa, gone diving off the southern coast of Australia to observe the great white shark, and sailed on an old turtling ship out of Grand Cayman Island. He has espoused the causes of Native Americans, commercial fishermen, and migrant workers and has become a master of Zen. Matthiessen's extensive travels and his intensive involvements show him to be a man deeply engaged with the world.
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