TRUE NATURE

A sprawling biography of the renowned nature writer and novelist.

Peter Matthiessen is perhaps best known for his 1978 book The Snow Leopard, an account of an arduous journey into the Himalayas in search of the big cat that blended science with mysticism. Though widely considered a classic today, it never sold as well as Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; Matthiessen scorned author and text as “a hateful child-­destroying egomaniac and an intelligent yet dull book.” A Zen practitioner and roshi himself, Matthiessen, as biographer Richardson notes, harbored jealousies and rivalries, and while he lived several lifetimes (an excuse, in its way, for this very long but readable narrative), he was never quite satisfied with himself. And what lifetimes they were: Matthiessen was a world traveler, a onetime CIA agent, co-founder of The Paris Review, a champion of Cesar Chavez and Leonard Peltier, a writer of extraordinary grace, an “LSD pioneer,” and—perhaps least known of his aspects—a firm believer in the existence of the giant creatures called Yeti and Sasquatch. James Salter, his Hamptons neighbor and friend, noted that people often asked him to introduce them to Matthiessen, adding, “But the thing that is hard to know is which Peter Matthiessen they would like to meet.” Richardson doesn’t shy away from the less attractive traits and episodes, some born of having been raised to perform “the socially sanctioned role of a ‘well-brought-up Wasp.’” Estranged from his father early on, Matthiessen had trouble connecting with his own children, with son Luke calling Matthiessen’s devotion to Zen “a way of tuning everything else out…a way of him escaping,” and daughter Rue saying, “He did not respond well to need.” All the same, Matthiessen enriched the literature of his time and beyond, leaving luminous books such as Killing Mister Watson, Wildlife in America, and, of course, The Snow Leopard.

A comprehensive, compelling life of a man of many parts.