True Nature: The Lives of Peter Matthiessen
Book by Lance Richardson
Penguin Random House (Chatto & Windus in the U.K.). 2025. 709p. hardbound. $40.00.
A super biography of a fascinating, complex man, a charmer who could be difficult at times, especially for his family, mainly due to his extended absences when he lived, worked, and wrote in so many parts of the world. It is surprising to learn of his rather deep interest in Big Foot that resulted in many trips to various Native American tribes, and also his interest in Yeti.
PM is the only author to garner National Book Awards for both non-fiction (the Snow Leopard, set in Nepal with legendary mammalogist George Schaller) as well as fiction (Shadow Country, a one-volume version of his 3-volume Everglades trilogy). His At play in the fields of the Lord (concerns missionaries in South America) was made into a Hollywood movie, starring Daryl Hannah, who was/is a birder, too.
PM was a birder all his life, resulting in his Wildlife in Amerca (1959), The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes (2001, with art by Robert Bateman), and The Wind Birds (1973, concerning shorebirds). Birds figure in other of his titles, that concern East Africa, Antarctica, Amazonia, New Guinea et al.
True Nature goes into great detail on PM’s life as an author, the great amount of work of his editors and publishers, and colleagues devoted to him, and the considerable time PM spent revising and re-writing his books.
A lot of this time was spent at his beloved house in Sagaponack, (Southampton) Long Island. Editors, friends, and literary illuminati frequently made visits all the way out there from NYC and elsewhere. Sagaponack has at times recently been variously the zip code (11962) with the highest or 2nd highest household income. PM was a speaker at Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, when he patiently autographed 6 of his titles for me.
PM’s YOUTH. PM was somewhat at odds with his WASPy, upper crusty, preppy days of youth: St. Bernard’ School, Greenwich Country Day School, Hotchkiss School, and Yale University. As a youth his family lived variously adjacent to Central Park, at Stamford, and Fishers Island, but he found time to catch snakes and to nurture his childhood interest in birds. At an early age he requested his name be removed from the Social Register.
In Paris PM was a sort of undercover informant for the CIA, a surprising role, that didn’t last too long. There were lots of expats there then, writers, artists, intellectuals. PM and George Plimpton founded The Paris Review there and then. Richardson describes that scene well. At a Paris concert PM was not very taken with Richard Strauss’ ‘Alpine Symphony’. That’s surprising, too.
PM’s crane book Birds of Heaven is impressive. He traveled all over, especially the Old World, to be sure he saw all the world’s cranes.
ENHANCEMENTS. It seems presumptuous to suggest ways in which this splendid biography might be enhanced, but, here are a few suggestions anyway.
Helpful would be a map showing the many places PM lived and worked. A photograph of the house where he lived for so many years at Sagaponack, Long Island. A sort of Dramatis Personae listing 20 or 30 of the most important persons in his life with thumbnail descriptions of them, perhaps only 2 or 3 sentences each, say at least for the 19 listed on p. 602 of abbreviated “Names”.
There are so many, and his 3 wives and other women, various children and step children, editors and publishers - hard to keep track of them all. More photographs of PM would be good. It is difficult to see details in many of the photographs shown here. His photo and accomplishments at Hotchkiss School would have been an interesting addition.
A glossary would make it much easier to understand some aspects of his life, especially the many terms relating to his deep involvement with Zen Buddhism, particularly the influence of Japan on ZB. There’s a letter in relation to True Nature in the Nov. 24, 2025 New Yorker stressing the compatibility of Buddhism and science.
It would have added interest if PM’s Audubon article about a trip he and his father made to the Santee Hunt Club had been detailed. Only 12 families were members of this 24,000-acre club that had over 100 miles of dirt roads. One field there was maintained as a wet, boggy area just so members could hunt it for snipe.
MECHANICS. It was a little OCD, but tabulating the quantity of various parts of this biography helps to emphasize what a massive and successful undertaking it was. There are 2,503 chapter notes comprising 170 pages, some of them annotated. There are 55 black-and-white photographs. There are 119 footnotes, some with more wording than the conventional text that appears above them on the same page. The 32 books PM authored are listed on pp. 602-603. Richardson’s 32-page Index has c. 2,720 entries.
VICTOR EMANUEL, PM’S FRIEND. “I wish I could write like Peter Matthiessen … “, lamented Roger Tory Peterson, as recounted by Victor Emanuel in One more warbler: a life with birds (U. Texas Pr., 2017, p. 107). But anyone who has spent some time with Birds over America or Wild America can easily see that RTP was a fine writer.
PM and Victor Emanuel became close friends. Several times PM was a guest celebrity and tour leader on some of Victor’s VENT trips. Once when Victor identified some terns in a painting as common terns PM remarked: “Warbler [Victor’s nickname], look how short the legs are. They’re Arctic terns.” as told by Victor in One more warbler (p. 63). Victor came all the way from Texas to speak at PM’s memorial service on Long Island.
I highly recommend True Nature. Much of it is not tied directly to birds, but of great interest.