Peter Matthiessen

Peter Matthiessen’s (1927–2014) prodigious body of short stories, novels, and nonfiction is celebrated for its exploration of vanishing cultures, oppressed peoples, and exotic landscapes. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1974, Matthiessen is acclaimed for such novels as At Play in the Fields of the Lord and Far Tortuga, for his travel journal The Snow Leopard, and for his parallel career as an advocate for wilderness preservation and social justice. He was cofounder of The Paris Review and a three-time National Book Award winner. His distinguished body of work led William Styron to describe him as a writer who “has immeasurably enlarged our consciousness.”