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Peter Matthiessen
Peter Matthiessen is an American writer and naturalist, however these two words do not come close to describing the scope and depth of his life's work. Matthiessen was born in New York City on May 22, 1927 to relatively wealthy parents, Erard and Elizabeth (Carey) Matthiessen. His interest in nature probably began with the influence of his father who was a trustee of the National Audubon Society. Matthiessen first attended St. Bernard's School in NYC and later attended the prestigious Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT. Despite being a less than model student, Matthiessen discovered early on that he had a talent and affinity for writing. After leaving boarding school, Matthiessen enlisted in the Navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor during a period from 1945-46. Matthiessen had a very powerful and terrifying experience during this time, which he reflects on in the following passage from The Snow Leopard:
One night in 1945, on a Navy vessel in Pacific storm, my relief on bow watch, seasick, failed to appear, and I was alone for eight hours in a maelstrom of wind and water, noise and iron; again and again, waves crashed across the deck, until water, air, and iron became one. Overwhelmed, exhausted, all thought and emotion beaten out of me, I lost my sense of self, the heartbeat I heard was the heart of the world, I breathed with the mighty risings and declines of the earth, and this evanescence seemed less frightening than exalting. (42-43)
Matthiessen would seek this one-ness with the universe in many of his subsequent endeavors. Upon returning from the Navy, Matthiessen lived briefly with his Aunt Bess in New York City before entering Yale University. While at Yale (1946-50), he majored in English, wrote for the Yale Daily News, and took classes in ornithology and zoology -- all three of which would help him in his future writing career. During his junior year, Matthiessen traveled abroad to participate in the New School for Social Research in Paris. While here, he met Smith College student, Patsy Southgate, whom he would marry in 1951.
Following graduation from Yale, Matthiessen was offered a position at the university teaching creative writing. During this time, he had success publishing a couple of articles in the Atlantic Monthly, one of which received the Atlantic Prize in 1951. This early success catapulted the young writer onto the literary scene. By the end of 1951, he had moved to Paris and began hanging out with other expatriots, such as George Plimpton, William Styron, Ben Bradlee, harold Humes, and James Baldwin. One result of this society was The Paris Review -- begun in by Matthiessen and Humes in 1953 and still flourishing today, both in print and on the web. The Matthiessen's first child, Lucas, was born in Paris during this time as well. The family returned to Long Island by the end of 1953, where Matthiessen began working as a commercial fisherman. Here the duality of Matthiessen's personality becomes clear: a need for both intellectual and experiential stimuli. In 1954, Matthiessen's daughter Carey was born, as well as his first novel, Race Rock. Matthiessen was very content during this time, with the combination of writing/editing and working the sea. This period was brief, however. By 1956, Matthiessen began seeking more lucrative employment and began the process of separating from his wife.
At the age of 29, Matthiessen set out on the road with some field guides and a gun with the intent of visiting every wildlife refuge in the United States. The idea was to write a history of wildlife in America. The book was published in 1959, after three years of travel. Also in 1959, The New Yorker sponsored a trip to South America, which resulted in The Cloud Forest (1961). In 1963, Peter married his second wife, Deborah Love. They had met previously in Paris ten years prior, however their second meeting was coincidental. Matthiessen adopted Love's daughter, Rue, and in 1964, they had a son, Alexander. Meanwhile, he continued to travel the world and write -- resulting in a remarkable collection of fiction and non-fiction dealing with issues both social and environmental. In December, 1969, Matthiessen accompanied his wife on a Zen Buddhist retreat. This was the beginning of a lasting relationship with Zen, culminating in his ordination as a Zen monk in 1981. In 1971, Deborah Love began to experience the symptoms of the cancer that would take her life in early 1972. Following this tremendous tragedy, Matthiessen set out, along with zoologist George Schaller, on a 250-mile trek of the Dolpo region of the Himalaya. This spiritual and intellectual quest was documented in journal form and published as The Snow Leopard in 1978.
Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Matthiessen continued to feed his need for both intellectual and experiential life. He traveled to Africa, South America, Canada, Japan; he conducted research among American Indians, published several books, deepened his understanding of and commitment to Zen, and married his third wife, Maria Eckhart. Matthiessen's 1983 book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, which defends Leonard Peltier, the young Ojibwa-Sioux convicted of murdering two FBI agents, sparked two multi-million dollar lawsuits by the former governor of South Dakota and FBI agent David Price. The lawsuit was finally dismissed in 1990.
Peter Matthiessen has dedicated his life to walking the world and reporting his observations with profound insight. While Matthiessen once referred to himself as a "generalist", he is more accurately described as a master -- a master of observation and articulation. He is a naturalist, a story teller, a spiritual guide, a teacher, and a voice for the voiceless. But most admirably, he is a person who continues to appreciate the awesome beauty of the natural world with child-like enthusiasm.
Source: Dowie, William. Peter Matthiessen. Boston: Twayne Publ., 1991.
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Student Activity 1
Journaling: The Power of Observation
Peter Matthiessen is an amazing nature writer in part due to his knack for observation and documentation. For this activity, you will become the naturalist/anthropologist. You may not have the time or resources to begin a trek across the Himalaya, but you can begin by practicing your observation skills in your own back yard (so to speak).
1. First, go to a place where you can safely spend some time observing -- a park, a city square, a shopping center, even your back yard! Be sure to bring paper and pen (or perhaps a laptop...?)
2. Now use all of your senses to observe what is happening. Try focusing on one sense at a time? Can you smell a particular flower? Can you hear the squeak of a playground swing? What does the air feel like?
3. Now challenge yourself to come up with the most precise and descriptive words to explain what you are observing.
4. Spend at least an hour and record as much raw material as you can. If there are plants, animals, objects, etc., that you cannot identify, describe them as accurately as possible and use other resources to identify them later.
5. Later, look over your notes and try to enhance your descriptions even more. Re-write your observation now using complete sentences in a narrative form.
How does your writing compare to this excerpt from The Snow Leopard?
All six sheep are springing for the cliffs, but a pair of wolves coming straight downhill are cutting off the rearmost animal as it bounds across a stretch of snow toward the ledges. In the hard light, the blue-gray creature seems far too swift to catch, yet the streaming wolves gain ground on the hard snow. Then they are whisking through the matted juniper and down over steepening rocks, and it appears that the bharal [sheep] will be cut off and bowled over, down the mountain, but at the last moment it scoots free and gains a narrow ledge where no wolf can follow.
In the frozen air, the whole mountain is taut; the silence rings. The sheep's flanks quake, and the wolves are panting; otherwise, all is still, as if the arrangement of pale shapes held the world together. Then I breathe, and the mountain breathes, setting the world in motion once again. (197-8)
Links and Resources
New York State Writer's Institute -- Matthiessen bio.
"A Series of Tiny Astonishments:
An interview with Peter Matthiessen"
"The Nature of Peter Matthiessen" (NYTimes)
"Walking the Himalayas" (NYTimes - review)
"Book Notes: 'Crazy Horse' Suit" (NYTimes)
E-Naturalist -- Online publication for teaching about, and with, nature.
PETER MATTHIESSEN – Selected Bibliography
(from NY State Writer's Institute)
PARTISANS. New York: Viking, 1955.
RADITZER. New York: Viking, 1961.
AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD. New York: Random House, 1965.
FAR TORTUGA. New York: Random House, 1975.
ON THE RIVER STYX AND OTHER STORIES. New York: Random House, 1989.
KILLING MISTER WATSON. New York: Random House, 1990.
THE CLOUD FOREST: A CHRONICLE OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN WILDERNESS. New York: Viking Press, 1961.
UNDER THE MOUNTAIN WALL: A CHRONICLE OF TWO SEASONS IN THE STONE AGE. New York: Viking, 1962.
SAL SI PUEDES: CESAR CHAVEZ AND THE NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION. New York: Random House, 1969.
THE TREE WHERE MAN WAS BORN. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1972.
THE SNOW LEOPARD. New York: Viking, 1978.
SAND RIVERS. New York: Viking, 1981.
IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE. New York: Viking, 1983.
INDIAN COUNTRY. New York: Viking, 1984.
NINE-HEADED DRAGON RIVER: ZEN JOURNALS 1969–1982. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1986.
MEN’S LIVES: THE SURFMEN AND BAYMEN OF THE SOUTH FORK. New York: Random House, 1986.
AFRICAN SILENCES. New York: Random House, 1991.
BAIKAL: SACRED SEA OF SIBERIA. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1992.
EAST OF LO MONTHANG: IN THE LAND OF MUSTANG. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1995.
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