{"id":246891,"date":"2025-09-22T18:09:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/246891\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T18:09:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:09:15","slug":"5-essential-peter-matthiessen-books-to-read-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/246891\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Essential Peter Matthiessen Books to Read Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
    \n
  1. Books<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. A Peter Matthiessen Primer<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    From the Amazon and the Caribbean to the Himalayas and Florida, these five works\u2014fiction and nonfiction\u2014show Matthiessen at his fiercest and most humane.<\/p>\n

    \"Open1AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD (1965)\"atVintage<\/p>\n

    In this adventure novel that evokes comparisons to Joseph Conrad\u2019s Heart of Darkness, missionaries and mercenaries travel deep into the Amazon rainforest seeking contact with an elusive tribe of Indigenous people in order to \u201csave\u201d and kill them, respectively. The book was adapted for a 1991 film with an all-star cast including Tom Berenger and John Lithgow.<\/p>\n

    BUY THE BOOK<\/a><\/p>\n

    2FAR TORTUGA (1975)\"farKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group<\/p>\n

    Written in stripped-down, minimalist prose, this novel about a doomed turtle-fishing voyage in the Caribbean was Matthiessen\u2019s personal favorite. His spare writing focuses on the Lillias Eden\u2019s nine crew members as they confront their places in the indifferent yet unified natural world.<\/p>\n

    BUY THE BOOK<\/a><\/p>\n

    3THE SNOW LEOPARD (1978)\"thePenguin Classics<\/p>\n

    A two-month journey into the Himalayas with a famed naturalist provides a high-altitude showcase for Matthiessen\u2019s talent. While capturing the majestic beauty of the mountains, Matthiessen also meditates on his relationship with his wife Deborah Love, who had died of cancer the previous year. The title earned two National Book Awards: for Contemporary Thought (1979) and for Nonfiction (1980).<\/p>\n

    BUY THE BOOK<\/a><\/p>\n

    4IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE: THE STORY OF LEONARD PELTIER AND THE FBI\u2019S WAR ON THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT (1983)\"inPenguin Books<\/p>\n

    In this moving account of the 1975 gun battle in which two FBI agents and one Native American were killed near Wounded Knee, South Dakota, Matthiessen argues that AIM activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of murdering the agents, was framed. The book\u2019s wide release was delayed by unsuccessful libel suits against Matthiessen and his publisher.<\/p>\n

    BUY THE BOOK<\/a><\/p>\n

    5SHADOW COUNTRY (2008)\"shadowModern Library<\/p>\n

    A winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, this 912-page novel was more than 30 years in the making. It\u2019s a shocking tale\u2014told by 12 first-person narrators\u2014of a Florida man who was credited with shooting Oklahoma outlaw Belle Starr in 1889 and later charged with killing several others, only to be murdered by his neighbors in 1910.\u2022<\/p>\n

    BUY THE BOOK<\/a><\/p>\n

    Advertisement – Continue Reading Below<\/p>\n

    Advertisement – Continue Reading Below<\/p>\n

    Advertisement – Continue Reading Below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Books A Peter Matthiessen Primer From the Amazon and the Caribbean to the Himalayas and Florida, these five…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":246892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[131227,131224,131219,131216,1022,171,131223,131218,131226,131220,131225,131222,131214,131215,131228,131221,131217,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-246891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-amazon-novel","9":"tag-american-literature","10":"tag-at-play-in-the-fields-of-the-lord","11":"tag-best-peter-matthiessen-books","12":"tag-books","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-environmental-writing","15":"tag-far-tortuga","16":"tag-himalayas-memoir","17":"tag-in-the-spirit-of-crazy-horse","18":"tag-leonard-peltier","19":"tag-national-book-award","20":"tag-peter-matthiessen","21":"tag-peter-matthiessen-books","22":"tag-reading-list","23":"tag-shadow-country","24":"tag-the-snow-leopard","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}