Coming into McPhee Country: John McPhee & The Art of Literary Nonfiction

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Overview

Some of the 14 essays of this volume were presented in earlier form at a session devoted to McPhee at the Western Literature Association meeting in Sacramento in October 1999. The career of McPhee, a staff writer for the New Yorker who is well known for his works on geology and the environment, is described in an introduction by Weltzien (English, Montana-Western, Dillon) and Maher (English, U. of Nebraska, Omaha). The essays consider his writing style, an interview with McPhee first published in 1994, his place ...
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More About This Book

Overview

Some of the 14 essays of this volume were presented in earlier form at a session devoted to McPhee at the Western Literature Association meeting in Sacramento in October 1999. The career of McPhee, a staff writer for the New Yorker who is well known for his works on geology and the environment, is described in an introduction by Weltzien (English, Montana-Western, Dillon) and Maher (English, U. of Nebraska, Omaha). The essays consider his writing style, an interview with McPhee first published in 1994, his place among environmentalists, and analyses of various works, including Coming into the Country. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780874807462
  • Publisher: University of Utah Press
  • Publication date: 4/15/2003
  • Pages: 320
  • Product dimensions: 5.70 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction 1
I The Evolving Writer
Introducing John McPhee 19
"The Size and Shape of the Canvas": An Interview with John McPhee 54
Pieces and the Frame: McPhee and Portraiture 79
"Essence of Writer": John McPhee's Early Training 105
II McPhee and the Natural World
John McPhee and the Question of Environmental Advocacy 123
In the American Grain: John McPhee's Coming into the Country 145
Giving Good Reasons: Environmental Appeals in the Nonfiction of John McPhee 162
"In a Lifetime of Descending Rivers": The Art and Argument of John McPhee's "River Essays" 185
A Plate Tectonics of Language: Geology as a Vernacular Science 209
John McPhee's Annals of the Former World: Geology, Culture, and a Fountain of Metaphor 226
III The Writerly Challenges of McPhee
Traveling in Social Spaces: John McPhee's Dichotomies in Levels of the Game and "In Search of Marvin Gardens" 245
John McPhee Balances the Act 262
"Academic Air": Teaching The Control of Nature 282
"Pentimento in the Hide": Cracking Code with John McPhee 301
Notes on Contributors 321
Index 325
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