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The Pine Barrens ()


Mr. Doggett's Suggested Summer Reading for Students

In the Introduction to the Second John McPhee Reader, David Remnick (now McPhee's editor at The New Yorker) notes that many people find McPhee's subjects too obscure & are put off by his decision to remain "distant from politics, preferring to make something of very little."   I don't doubt that this is true, but I feel sorry for people who miss out on reading his terrific work because they feel that way.  Over nearly 40 years of writing non-fiction essays for The New Yorker, McPhee has crafted a body of great literature by immersing himself in a variety of American subcultures and explicating them for the general public.  In Pine Barrens, by discussing everything from growing cranberries to the natural history of fires to the legend of the Jersey Devil and introducing us to a cast of fascinating characters along the way, McPhee accomplishes what only the best writers can, he brings alive an entire world that might otherwise have remained unknown to us.  Those of you who think that New Jersey consists of only highways and chemical plants, should find the book especially interesting.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (A)


Websites:

John McPhee Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: John McPhee
    -John McPhee Home Page
    -Featured Author: John McPhee ( With News and Reviews From the Archives of The New York Times)
    -Bibliography
    -Creative Nonfiction: Writers: John McPhee
    -EXCERPT: FIRST CHAPTER of The Founding Fish by John McPhee
    -ESSAY: A Philosopher in the Kitchen: Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. (John McPhee, February 11, 1979, The New Yorker)
    -AUDIO INTERVIEW: John McPhee's Fish Tales (Dick Gordon, 11/22/2002, The Connection)
    -ESSAY: McPhee on Catch-and-Release (Les Palmer, Alaska Outdoor Journal)
    -Essay on McPhee & New Journalism (Sharon Bass)
    -"Twenty Questions: A Conversation with John McPhee" (Creative Nonfiction, Michael Pearson)
    -BOOK SITE: Annals of the Former World   by John McPhee (FSB Associates)
    -EXCERPT: Chapter One of Annals of the Former World
    -AUDIO: McPhee on Science Friday (NPR)
    -ARTICLE: McPhee wins Pulitzer for Annals (PrincetonUniversity)
    -John A. McPhee '53 Web Shrine
    -ESSAY: PRINCETON'S SMALL WORLD OF BIG WRITERS (GLENN COLLINS, NY Times Book Review)
    -ESSAY: How Reading John McPhee’s Book on Tennis Helped Me Write About Skateboarding: Jonathan Russell Clark Finds Better Ways to Describe the Action (Jonathan Russell Clark, February 9, 2022, LitHub)
    -
   
-ARCHIVES: "john mcphee" (Find Articles)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish by John McPhee (Craig Nova, Washington Post)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (James Swan, National Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (William Moody, CS Monitor)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (Bill Pride, The Denver Post)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (Curtis Edmonds, Bookreporter)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (Stephen Bodio, Minneapolis Star Tribune)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (Michael David Sims, PopMatters)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (BRUCE TIERNEY, Book Page)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (Rob Buchanan, Outside Online)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (MICHAEL S. ROSENWALD, Boston Globe)
    -REVIEW: of The Founding Fish (Keith C. Heidorn, Living Gently Quarterly)
    -REVIEW: of Annals of the Former World by John McPhee Rocks of Age: In his travels along Interstate 80, John McPhee has seen the history of the earth. (DAVID QUAMMEN, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Basin and Range by John McPhee (Paul Zweig, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of  BASIN AND RANGE. by John McPhee (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt , NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of In Suspect Terrain (Michiko Karutani, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of IN SUSPECT TERRAIN. By John McPhee (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt , NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of Rising from the Plains (Herbert Mitgang, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of Rising From the Plains (Evan S. Connell, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Assembling California (David Rains Wallace, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of Annals of the Former World  Eloquence fills a tome of geological weight (Rob Laymon for The Philadelphia Inquirer)
    -REVIEW: Like Water From a Stone: The secret of this fervently worshiped nonfiction stylist: neurotically withhold. (Sarah Kerr, Slate)
    -REVIEW: of Annals of the Former World (Ellen Scott, your Guide for Ecotourism, About.com)
    -REVIEW: of Annals of the Former World (MICHAEL SIMS, BookPage)
    -REVIEW : of John McPhee, Annals of the Former World   (Mike Lepore for crimsonbird.com)
    -REVIEW: Seeing the USA with John McPhee: Deep Structure and Travels in the Fourth Dimension  (Theodore C. Humphrey,  California State University, Pomona)
    -REVIEW: 40,000 Words About Rocks: Road cuts and the people who look at them (Ron Hogan, Crosswinds)
    -REVIEW: The Stone Diaries:  A pioneer of narrative nonfiction takes on his biggest topic: the history of the ground we stand on (Sabine Hrechdakian, Boston Phoenix)
    -REVIEW of Basin and Range (NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW of Coming into the Country (NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW: of Tabula Rasa by John McPhee (Mark Oppenheimer, Washington Post)
   
-REVIEW: of Tabula Rasa (Noah Rawlings, LA Review of Books)
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Book-related and General Links:
   
-Creative Nonfiction: Writers: John McPhee
    -Essay on McPhee & New Journalism (Sharon Bass)
    -"Twenty Questions: A Conversation with John McPhee" (Creative Nonfiction, Michael Pearson)
    -REVIEW of The Ransom of Russian Art (NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW of Basin and Range (NY Review of Books)
    -REVIEW of Coming into the Country (NY Review of Books)
    -New Jersey Pinelands Commission
    -Pinelands Information
    -Piney Power: Presents An Insider's Tour of the New Jersey Pine Barrens
    -The Jersey Devil of the Pine Barrens (Anthony Perticaro, Strange Magazine)
    -Plants of the Pine Barrens
    -Vertebrates of the Pine Barrens by Robert W Hastings
    -Paddling the Barrens (Canoe & Kayak Magazine)
    -The New Jersey Pine Barrens

Other recommended books by John McPhee:
    -A Sense of Where You Are : A Profile of William Warren Bradley
    -Levels of the Game  (1969)    (read Orrin's review, Grade: A)
    -Encounters with the Archdruid (1971)  (read Orrin's review, Grade: B+)
    -The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed
    -The Curve of Binding Energy
    -The Survival of the Bark Canoe (1975)
    -Coming into the Country (1977)
    -Annals of the Former World (1998) (read Orrin's review, Grade: B+)