Peter Matthiessen
Encyclopedia
Peter Matthiessen is a two-time National Book Award
-winning American
novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as an environmental activist. He has written about American Indian
issues and history, as in his detailed study of the Leonard Peltier
case, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
(1983).
In November 2008, at age 81, he received his second National Book Award for Shadow Country
, an 890-page revision of a trilogy of novels set in frontier Florida, which he released in the 1990s. His first National Book Award was won in 1980 for The Snow Leopard
.
His story "Travelin' Man" was adapted by Luis Buñuel
as the film The Young One
(1960).
, Harold L. Humes
, Thomas Guinzburg and Donald Hall
, in 1953 Matthiessen founded the literary magazine The Paris Review. At the time he was working for the CIA
.
In 1959, Mathiessen published the first edition of Wildlife in America, a history of the extinction and endangerment of various animal and bird species because of human settlements throughout North American history, as well as historical efforts at endangered species protection. It was one of the first books to call attention to global warming
, by mentioning how the polar ice cap formations caused the lowering of the seas, and how the isthmus that Mongoloid people crossed from Asia to present-day Alaska to establish North America's first settlement is now submerged by the Bering Strait.
In 1965, Matthiessen published At Play in the Fields of the Lord
, a novel about a group of American missionaries and their encounter with a South American indigenous
tribe. The book was adapted into the film of the same name
in 1991. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In 1979, Matthiessen's nonfiction book The Snow Leopard won the Contemporary Thought category of the National Book Award
.
His work on oceanographic research, Blue Meridian, with photographer Peter A. Lake, documented the making of the film Blue Water, White Death (1971), directed by Peter Gimbel
and Jim Lipscomb. It was thought to have inspired Peter Benchley
to write Jaws in 1974.
Interested in the Wounded Knee Incident
and the 1976 trial and conviction of Leonard Peltier
, an American Indian Movement
activist, Mathiessen wrote a non-fiction account, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983).
In 2008, Matthiessen revisited his trilogy of Florida novels published during the 1990s: Killing Mr. Watson (1990), Lost Man's River (1997) and Bone by Bone (1999), inspired by the frontier years of Florida and the death of planter
Edgar J. Watson shortly after the Southwest Florida Hurricane of 1910
. He revised and edited the three books, which had originated as one 1,500-page manuscript. His single volume Shadow Country
(2008) won the National Book Award
that year.
agent, and William J. Janklow, the former South Dakota governor. The plaintiffs sought over $49 million in damages; Janklow also sued to have all copies of the book withdrawn from bookstores.
After four years of litigation, Federal District Court Judge Diana E. Murphy
dismissed Price's lawsuit, upholding Matthiessen's right "to publish an entirely one-sided view of people and events." In the Janklow case, a South Dakota court also ruled for Matthiessen. Both cases were appealed. In 1990, the Supreme Court
refused to hear Price's arguments, effectively ending his appeal. The South Dakota Supreme Court dismissed Janklow's case the same year. With the lawsuits settled, the paperback edition of the book was finally published in 1992.
. She died in New York City
near the end of 1972. She and Matthiessen had four children; the youngest, Alex Matthiessen
, was seven or eight years old at the time of her death. In September of the following year, Matthiessen went on an expedition to the Himalayas
with field biologist George Schaller
.
Matthiessen later became a Buddhist priest of the White Plum Asanga
. Before practicing Zen
, Matthiessen was an early pioneer of LSD
. He says his Buddhism evolved fairly naturally from his drug experiences.
In 1980, Matthiessen married Maria Eckhart, born in Tanzania, in a Zen ceremony on Long Island, New York. They live in Sagaponack, New York
.
In 2005, Matthiessen, along with Barry Lopez
, Terry Tempest Williams
, and James Galvin
, was hailed in Mark Tredinnick's The Land's Wild Music in which Tredinnick analyzed how the landscape nourished and developed Matthiessen's writing.
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
-winning American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as an environmental activist. He has written about American Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
issues and history, as in his detailed study of the Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement . In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine...
case, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (book)
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse is a book by author Peter Matthiesen chronicling the tumultuous history between the Sioux and the United States government, with emphasis on contemporary events on the Sioux reservations of South Dakota. He focused on the events of the 1970s on the Pine Ridge Indian...
(1983).
In November 2008, at age 81, he received his second National Book Award for Shadow Country
Shadow Country
Shadow Country is a novel by Peter Matthiessen published in 2008 by Random House. It tells the semi-fictional life story of Edgar "Bloody" Watson, a real Florida sugar cane planter and alleged murderer and outlaw who was killed in the remote Ten Thousand Islands region of southwest Florida in...
, an 890-page revision of a trilogy of novels set in frontier Florida, which he released in the 1990s. His first National Book Award was won in 1980 for The Snow Leopard
The Snow Leopard (book)
The Snow Leopard is a 1978 book by Peter Matthiessen, which is an account of his two month journey along with naturalist George Schaller in 1973 to Crystal Mountain, in the Dolpo region on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas.- Awards and acclaim :...
.
His story "Travelin' Man" was adapted by Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
as the film The Young One
The Young One
La joven is a 1960 film by the Spanish director Luis Buñuel. Produced in Mexico and shot in English with American actors, La Joven is Buñuel's second and last American film...
(1960).
Career
Along with George PlimptonGeorge Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
, Harold L. Humes
Harold L. Humes
Harold Louis Humes, Jr. was known as HL Humes in his books, and usually as "Doc" Humes in life. He was the originator of The Paris Review literary magazine, author of two novels in the late 1950s, and a gregarious fixture of the cultural scene in Paris, London, and New York in the 1950s and early...
, Thomas Guinzburg and Donald Hall
Donald Hall
Donald Hall is an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2006.-Personal life:...
, in 1953 Matthiessen founded the literary magazine The Paris Review. At the time he was working for the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
.
In 1959, Mathiessen published the first edition of Wildlife in America, a history of the extinction and endangerment of various animal and bird species because of human settlements throughout North American history, as well as historical efforts at endangered species protection. It was one of the first books to call attention to global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, by mentioning how the polar ice cap formations caused the lowering of the seas, and how the isthmus that Mongoloid people crossed from Asia to present-day Alaska to establish North America's first settlement is now submerged by the Bering Strait.
In 1965, Matthiessen published At Play in the Fields of the Lord
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (novel)
At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a 1965 novel by Peter Matthiessen. A film adapted from the book was made in 1991....
, a novel about a group of American missionaries and their encounter with a South American indigenous
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
tribe. The book was adapted into the film of the same name
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a drama film directed by Héctor Babenco adapted from the 1965 novel of the same name by American author Peter Matthiessen. The screenplay was written by Babenco and Jean-Claude Carrière...
in 1991. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In 1979, Matthiessen's nonfiction book The Snow Leopard won the Contemporary Thought category of the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
.
His work on oceanographic research, Blue Meridian, with photographer Peter A. Lake, documented the making of the film Blue Water, White Death (1971), directed by Peter Gimbel
Peter Gimbel
Peter R. Gimbel was an American filmmaker and underwater photojournalist.Born in New York City, Peter was the son of Bernard Gimbel and heir to the Gimbels department store chain. After serving in the United States Army occupation force in Japan in 1946-1947, he graduated from Yale University in...
and Jim Lipscomb. It was thought to have inspired Peter Benchley
Peter Benchley
Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author, best known for his novel Jaws and its subsequent film adaptation, the latter co-written by Benchley and directed by Steven Spielberg...
to write Jaws in 1974.
Interested in the Wounded Knee Incident
Wounded Knee Incident
The Wounded Knee incident began February 27, 1973 when about 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation...
and the 1976 trial and conviction of Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement . In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine...
, an American Indian Movement
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by urban Native Americans. The national AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty...
activist, Mathiessen wrote a non-fiction account, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983).
In 2008, Matthiessen revisited his trilogy of Florida novels published during the 1990s: Killing Mr. Watson (1990), Lost Man's River (1997) and Bone by Bone (1999), inspired by the frontier years of Florida and the death of planter
Planter
Planter may refer to:*A flower pot or box for plants**Jardinière, one such type of pot*A person or object engaged in sowing seeds**Planter , implement towed behind a tractor, used for sowing crops through a field*A coloniser...
Edgar J. Watson shortly after the Southwest Florida Hurricane of 1910
1910 Atlantic hurricane season
The 1910 Atlantic hurricane season was the period during the summer and fall of 1910 in which tropical cyclones formed in the North Atlantic Ocean. The season was fairly inactive, with only five storms; however, three grew into hurricanes and one became a major hurricane. The season got off to a...
. He revised and edited the three books, which had originated as one 1,500-page manuscript. His single volume Shadow Country
Shadow Country
Shadow Country is a novel by Peter Matthiessen published in 2008 by Random House. It tells the semi-fictional life story of Edgar "Bloody" Watson, a real Florida sugar cane planter and alleged murderer and outlaw who was killed in the remote Ten Thousand Islands region of southwest Florida in...
(2008) won the National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
that year.
Crazy Horse lawsuits
Shortly after the 1983 publication of In The Spirit of Crazy Horse, Matthiessen and his publisher Viking Penguin were sued for libel by David Price, a Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
agent, and William J. Janklow, the former South Dakota governor. The plaintiffs sought over $49 million in damages; Janklow also sued to have all copies of the book withdrawn from bookstores.
After four years of litigation, Federal District Court Judge Diana E. Murphy
Diana E. Murphy
Diana E. Murphy born in 1934, is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.- Education :Murphy received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota in 1954 and her Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1974, where she was an editor on the...
dismissed Price's lawsuit, upholding Matthiessen's right "to publish an entirely one-sided view of people and events." In the Janklow case, a South Dakota court also ruled for Matthiessen. Both cases were appealed. In 1990, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
refused to hear Price's arguments, effectively ending his appeal. The South Dakota Supreme Court dismissed Janklow's case the same year. With the lawsuits settled, the paperback edition of the book was finally published in 1992.
Personal life
In his book The Snow Leopard, Matthiessen reports having had a somewhat tempestuous on-again off-again relationship with his wife Deborah, culminating in a deep commitment to each other made shortly before she was diagnosed with cancer. Matthiessen and Deborah had practiced Zen BuddhismZen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
. She died in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
near the end of 1972. She and Matthiessen had four children; the youngest, Alex Matthiessen
Alex Matthiessen
Alex Matthiessen is an environmentalist and lives in New York City. He is the son of author and naturalist Peter Matthiessen.-Biography:...
, was seven or eight years old at the time of her death. In September of the following year, Matthiessen went on an expedition to the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
with field biologist George Schaller
George Schaller
George Beals Schaller is an American mammalogist, naturalist, conservationist and author. Schaller is recognized by many as the world's preeminent field biologist, studying wildlife throughout Africa, Asia and South America. Born in Berlin, Schaller grew up in Germany, but moved to Missouri as a...
.
Matthiessen later became a Buddhist priest of the White Plum Asanga
White Plum Asanga
White Plum Asanga, sometimes termed White Plum Sangha, is a Zen school in the Harada-Yasutani lineage, created by the late Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi. It consists of Maezumi's Dharma heirs and subsequent successors and students...
. Before practicing Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
, Matthiessen was an early pioneer of LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
. He says his Buddhism evolved fairly naturally from his drug experiences.
In 1980, Matthiessen married Maria Eckhart, born in Tanzania, in a Zen ceremony on Long Island, New York. They live in Sagaponack, New York
Sagaponack, New York
Sagaponack is a village in the town of Southampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The village incorporated on September 2, 2005, in the wake of the failed attempt by Dunehampton, New York to incorporate. Dunehampton's incorporation would have blocked Sagaponack from Atlantic Ocean...
.
In 2005, Matthiessen, along with Barry Lopez
Barry Lopez
Barry Holstun Lopez is an American author, essayist, and fiction writer whose work is known for its environmental and social concerns.-Biography:...
, Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams
Terry Tempest Williams , is an American author, conservationist and activist.Williams’ writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah in which she was raised...
, and James Galvin
James Galvin (poet)
James Galvin is an American poet. He has published six collections of poetry, most recently As Is , "X: Poems," and Resurrection Update, Collected Poems, 1975-1997 which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and the Poet’s Prize...
, was hailed in Mark Tredinnick's The Land's Wild Music in which Tredinnick analyzed how the landscape nourished and developed Matthiessen's writing.
Awards
- 1980 National Book Award for General Non-Fiction, for The Snow Leopard
- 1993 Helmerich AwardHelmerich AwardThe Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award is an American literary prize awarded by the Tulsa Library Trust in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is bestowed annually upon an "internationally acclaimed" author who has "written a distinguished body of work and made a major contribution to the field of...
, the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library TrustTulsa City-County LibraryThe Tulsa City-County Library is the major public library system in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.-Overview:The library system serves those who live, work, go to school in, own land in, or pay property taxes on land in Tulsa County. There are 25 branches in the system: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,...
. - 1995-1997, designated the State Author of New York
- The 6th Annual Heinz AwardHeinz AwardThe Heinz Award is an award currently given annually to ten honorees by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards recognize outstanding individuals for their contributions in the five areas of: Arts and Humanities, the Environment, the Human Condition, Public Policy, and Technology, the Economy...
in the Arts and Humanities (2000) - 2008 National Book Award for Fiction, for Shadow Country
- 2010 Spiros Vergos Prize for Freedom of Expression
Fiction
- Race Rock (1954)
- Partisans (1955)
- Raditzer (1961)
- At Play in the Fields of the LordAt Play in the Fields of the Lord (novel)At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a 1965 novel by Peter Matthiessen. A film adapted from the book was made in 1991....
(1965) - Far Tortuga (1975)
- On the River Styx and Other Stories (1989)
- Killing Mister Watson (1990)
- Lost Man's River (1997)
- Bone by Bone (1999)
- Shadow CountryShadow CountryShadow Country is a novel by Peter Matthiessen published in 2008 by Random House. It tells the semi-fictional life story of Edgar "Bloody" Watson, a real Florida sugar cane planter and alleged murderer and outlaw who was killed in the remote Ten Thousand Islands region of southwest Florida in...
(2008) (a new rendering of the Watson trilogy)
Nonfiction
- Wildlife in America (1959)
- The Cloud Forest: A Chronicle of the South American Wilderness (1961)
- Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in the Stone Age (1962)
- "The Atlantic Coast", a chapter in The American Heritage Book of Natural Wonders (1963)
- The Shorebirds of North America (1967)
- Oomingmak (1967)
- Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution (1969)
- Blue Meridian. The Search for the Great White Shark (1971).
- The Tree Where Man Was Born (1972)
- The Snow LeopardThe Snow Leopard (book)The Snow Leopard is a 1978 book by Peter Matthiessen, which is an account of his two month journey along with naturalist George Schaller in 1973 to Crystal Mountain, in the Dolpo region on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas.- Awards and acclaim :...
(1978) - Sand Rivers (1981)
- In the Spirit of Crazy HorseIn the Spirit of Crazy Horse (book)In the Spirit of Crazy Horse is a book by author Peter Matthiesen chronicling the tumultuous history between the Sioux and the United States government, with emphasis on contemporary events on the Sioux reservations of South Dakota. He focused on the events of the 1970s on the Pine Ridge Indian...
(1983) ISBN 0-14-014456-0 - Indian Country (1984)
- Nine-headed Dragon River: Zen Journals 1969-1982 (1986)
- Men's Lives: The Surfmen and Baymen of the South Fork (1986)
- African Silences(1991)
- Baikal: Sacred Sea of Siberia (1992)
- East of Lo Monthang: In the Land of the Mustang (1995)
- The Peter Matthiessen Reader: Nonfiction, 1959-1961 (2000)
- Tigers in the Snow (2000)
- The Birds of Heaven: Travels With Cranes (2001)
- End of the Earth: Voyage to Antarctica (2003)