Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee
An annotated guide to the work of the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, teacher, and pioneer of creative nonfiction

John McPhee has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1965 and has written more than thirty acclaimed books that began on the magazine’s pages. But few readers know or fully appreciate the true breadth of his writing. Looking for a Story is a complete reader’s guide to McPhee’s vast published work, documenting much rarely seen or connected with McPhee, including remarkable early writing for Time magazine published without his name.

In chronicling McPhee’s career where he broke ground applying devices long associated with fiction to the literature of fact, Noel Rubinton gives insights into McPhee’s techniques, choice of subjects, and research methods, shedding light on how McPhee turns complicated subjects like geology into compelling stories. Beyond detailing more than seventy years of McPhee’s writing, Rubinton recounts McPhee’s half century as a Princeton University writing professor, a little known part of his legacy. McPhee inspired generations of students who wrote hundreds of books of their own, also catalogued here.

With an incisive foreword by New Yorker staff writer and former McPhee student Peter Hessler, Looking for a Story also includes extensive annotated listings of articles about McPhee, reviews of his books, and interviews, readings, and speeches. Whether you are already an admirer of McPhee or new to his writings, this book provides an invaluable road map to his rich body of work.

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Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee
An annotated guide to the work of the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, teacher, and pioneer of creative nonfiction

John McPhee has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1965 and has written more than thirty acclaimed books that began on the magazine’s pages. But few readers know or fully appreciate the true breadth of his writing. Looking for a Story is a complete reader’s guide to McPhee’s vast published work, documenting much rarely seen or connected with McPhee, including remarkable early writing for Time magazine published without his name.

In chronicling McPhee’s career where he broke ground applying devices long associated with fiction to the literature of fact, Noel Rubinton gives insights into McPhee’s techniques, choice of subjects, and research methods, shedding light on how McPhee turns complicated subjects like geology into compelling stories. Beyond detailing more than seventy years of McPhee’s writing, Rubinton recounts McPhee’s half century as a Princeton University writing professor, a little known part of his legacy. McPhee inspired generations of students who wrote hundreds of books of their own, also catalogued here.

With an incisive foreword by New Yorker staff writer and former McPhee student Peter Hessler, Looking for a Story also includes extensive annotated listings of articles about McPhee, reviews of his books, and interviews, readings, and speeches. Whether you are already an admirer of McPhee or new to his writings, this book provides an invaluable road map to his rich body of work.

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Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee

Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee

by Noel Rubinton
Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee

Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee

by Noel Rubinton

Hardcover

$29.95 
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Overview

An annotated guide to the work of the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, teacher, and pioneer of creative nonfiction

John McPhee has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1965 and has written more than thirty acclaimed books that began on the magazine’s pages. But few readers know or fully appreciate the true breadth of his writing. Looking for a Story is a complete reader’s guide to McPhee’s vast published work, documenting much rarely seen or connected with McPhee, including remarkable early writing for Time magazine published without his name.

In chronicling McPhee’s career where he broke ground applying devices long associated with fiction to the literature of fact, Noel Rubinton gives insights into McPhee’s techniques, choice of subjects, and research methods, shedding light on how McPhee turns complicated subjects like geology into compelling stories. Beyond detailing more than seventy years of McPhee’s writing, Rubinton recounts McPhee’s half century as a Princeton University writing professor, a little known part of his legacy. McPhee inspired generations of students who wrote hundreds of books of their own, also catalogued here.

With an incisive foreword by New Yorker staff writer and former McPhee student Peter Hessler, Looking for a Story also includes extensive annotated listings of articles about McPhee, reviews of his books, and interviews, readings, and speeches. Whether you are already an admirer of McPhee or new to his writings, this book provides an invaluable road map to his rich body of work.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691244921
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 05/13/2025
Pages: 264
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Noel Rubinton is a journalist and strategic communications consultant whose writing has appeared in leading publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He was a reporter and editor for Newsday for many years. Peter Hessler is a staff writer at The New Yorker and his books include Other Rivers: A Chinese Education.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“John McPhee is a master and his readers deserve to know where to find every last nugget of his work. With his exacting bibliography, Noel Rubinton draws the map with the care and precision of his subject. Any reader of John McPhee will be grateful to own and refer to Looking for a Story. He leads you, again and again, to where the gold is.”—David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker

“Noel Rubinton has dug hard, collected John McPhee’s hidden gems, and fashioned a volume that documents the dazzling array of work by the most influential nonfiction writer of our time. Looking for a Story is aptly rigorous, like McPhee’s reporting, demonstrating a passion for the details that add up to a portrait of the man and his craft.”—Marc Fisher, associate editor and columnist, Washington Post

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