Title:
Tabula rasa. Volume 1 / John McPhee.
ISBN:
9780374603601
Personal Author:
Edition:
First edition.
Publication Information:
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [2023]
©2023
Physical Description:
viii, 180 pages ; 22 cm.
Contents:
Trujillo -- Thornton Wilder at the century -- The moons of Methuselah -- "Hitler youth" -- The Bridges of Christian men -- The airplane that crashed in the woods -- On the campus -- The guilt of the U.S. male -- Extremadura -- Zoom Laude -- The delta islands of the Great Valley -- Time-out on the floor -- Outcrops of Washington Road -- Blind skier -- Writing about science -- Meredith Willson -- The impostor syndrome -- Sloop to Gibraltar -- The valley -- December 19, 1943 -- The dutch ship tyger -- Ray brock -- Writer -- Beelining -- Walking the Province line -- The safe houses of suburbia -- Joseph Henry House -- Workouts with Princeton coaches -- The commemorations of Woodrow Wilson -- Back up the riverbank -- World premiere -- The leghorn syndrome -- North East rising sun -- Dams 2020 -- Breaking away -- The eunuch of Talcott hall -- Hyperlincs, the Gettysburg addresses, or the shot heard round the web -- Not that one -- Night watchman -- George Recker and Dr. Dick -- Dinners with Henry Luce -- Bourbon and bing cherries -- Dropped antaeus -- Generation P -- The monks of pharma -- O Beautiful for stripes and stars -- Highlander -- La Torre Pendente -- Beantown -- Deep insight.
Summary:
"A literary legend's engaging review of his career, stressing the work he never completed, and why. Over seven decades, John McPhee has set a standard for literary nonfiction. Assaying mountain ranges, bark canoes, experimental aircraft, the Swiss Army, geophysical hot spots, ocean shipping, shad fishing, dissident art in the Soviet Union, and an even wider variety of other subjects, he has consistently written narrative pieces of immaculate design. In Tabula Rasa, Volume 1, McPhee looks back at his career from the vantage point of his desk drawer, reflecting wryly upon projects he once planned to do but never got around to--people to profile, regions he meant to portray. There are so many examples that he plans to go on writing these vignettes, an ideal project for an old man, he says, and a "reminiscent montage" from a writing life. This first volume includes, among other things, glimpses of a frosty encounter with Thornton Wilder, interrogative dinners with Henry Luce, the allure of western Spain, criteria in writing about science, fireworks over the East River as seen from Malcolm Forbes's yacht, the evolving inclinations of the Tower of Pisa, the islands among the river deltas of central California, teaching in a pandemic, and persuading The New Yorker to publish an entire book on oranges. The result is a fresh survey of McPhee's singular planet." -- Provided by publisher.
Personal Subject:
Added Author:
Series Title:
Series Sequence:
OCLC Number:
on1389571508
Availability:
Apple Valley - Galaxie~1
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Eagan - Wescott~1
