John McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. Also in 1965, he published his first book, A Sense of Where You Are, and in the years since, he has written over 30 books, including Oranges, Coming into the Country, The Control of Nature, The Founding Fish, Uncommon Carriers, and Silk Parachute. Encounters with the Archdruid and The Curve of Binding Energy were nominated for National Book Awards in the category of science. McPhee received the Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977. In 1999, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Annals of the Former World. McPhee lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
John McPhee is the recipient of the 2017 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime
Achievement Award "Followers of John McPhee, perhaps the most
revered nonfiction narrative journalist of our time, will luxuriate
in the ship-shape prose of "Draft No. 4" . . . Delightful . . .
Interspersed with observations every writer should remember . . .
The last three chapters will be assigned and reassigned by grateful
writing teachers . . . I savored every word"--Corby Kummer, New
York Times Book Review "[Draft No. 4]'s combination of shop talk,
war stories, slices of autobiography, and priceless insights and
lessons suggests what it must be like to occupy a seat in the
McPhee classroom . . . McPhee's observations about writing are
always invigorating to engage with. And Draft No. 4 belongs on the
short shelf of essential books about the craft." --Ben Yagoda, The
Wall Street Journal
"A sunny tribute to the gloomy side of the writing life . . . It's
McPhee on McPhee; commentary on his greatest hits, a little
backstory, a little affectionate gossip . . . His advice is in the
service of making the text as sturdy, useful and beautiful as
possible. It's an intimate book--and intimacy is rare in McPhee's
work . . . For most of his career, McPhee has written reverently
about . . . methodical, somewhat solitary men (mostly) who work
with their hands and take quiet pride in their work." --Parul
Sehgal, The New York Times
"A book that any writer, aspiring or accomplished, could profitably
read, study and argue with . . . For over half a century, John
McPhee--now 86--has been writing profiles of scientists, eccentrics
and specialists of every stripe. All are exceptional at what they
do. So, too, is their discerning chronicler." --Michael Dirda, The
Washington Post "Draft No. 4 is as lean and punchy a book as
anything McPhee wrote in his thirties . . . The book's ostensible
focus of imparting the wisdom accumulated over a lifetime of
writing blurs often and very enjoyably with reminiscences about
McPhee's own long apprenticeship in the craft . . . The star
attraction here isn't the method but the man; readers who go in
knowing that will be endlessly fascinated--and may learn a good
deal." --Steve Donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor
"The beauty of Draft No. 4 lies partly in our watching a master
deconstruct the nearly invisible habits of his work. The result
celebrates a life--probing, colorful, singular--devoted to
writing." --Joan Silverman, Portland Press Herald "Reading [these
essays] consecutively in one volume constitutes a master class in
writing, as the author clearly demonstrates why he has taught so
successfully part-time for decades at Princeton University. . . .
Almost every sentence sparkles, with wordplay evident throughout. .
. . Readers already familiar with the author's masterpieces . . .
will feel especially fulfilled by McPhee's discussions of the
specifics from his many books. . . . A superb book about doing his
job by a master of his craft." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[Draft No. 4 is] not a general how-to-do-it manual but a personal
how-I-did-it of richer depth--not bouillon cubes, but rich stock .
. . McPhee lays it all out with the wit of one who believes that
'writing has to be fun at least once in a pale blue moon.'"
--Publishers Weekly "McPhee has set the standard for the genre of
creative nonfiction . . . With humor and aplomb, he recalls
anecdotes about how he approached a story: from interviewing and
reporting to drafting and revising, to working with editors and
publishers . . . [Draft No. 4 is] a well-wrought road map to
navigating the twists and turns, thrills and pitfalls, and joys and
sorrows of the writer's journey." --Donna Marie Smith, Library
Journal
"Eight crisply instructive and drolly self-deprecating essays [are]
gathered here in this exceptionally entertaining and illuminating
book . . . [Draft No. 4] is expert, charming, and invigorating."
--Donna Seaman, Booklist "McPhee taught us to revere language, to
care about every word, and to abjure the loose synonym . . .
Perhaps there are writers out there who make it look easy, but that
is not the example set by McPhee. He is of the school of thought
that says a writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult
than for other people. Some people joke about lashing themselves to
the chair to get a piece of writing done, but McPhee actually has
done it, with the belt of his bathrobe . . . I doubt many of us
ever took a class that resonated so profoundly over the years."
--Joel Achenbach, Princeton Alumni Weekly "In college, I took a
twelve-week writing course with McPhee at Princeton. I received a
'P'--for 'Pass.' This was a mercy. McPhee has been teaching the
course, so far as I know, since the Silurian Period. More than half
of his former students have gone on to work at various magazines
and newspapers, to write books. Actually, only a small percentage
of McPhee's students studied with him at Princeton; he has been for
dozens and dozens of nonfiction writers what Robert Lowell used to
be for poets and poet wannabes of a certain age: the model."
--David Remnick "McPhee's sentences are born of patience and
attention: he seems to possess a pair of eyes with the swivel, zoom
and reach of a peregrine falcon's, and a pair of ears with the
recording ability of a dictaphone. He notices almost everything."
--Robert Macfarlane, The Guardian
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