True Nature

Impressive… a rigorous and balanced account of this restless soul * Spectator *
True Nature is a magnificent achievement: an immense work of scholarship, synthesis and empathy, written throughout with verve and lucidity, which illuminates one of the most fascinating writerly lives of the past century – ROBERT MACFARLANE
Accomplished… In Richardson’s account there are many Matthiessens and they all get their due * Financial Times *
Exhaustive and insightful * London Review of Books *
A fascinating biography of a writer whose story aches to be told – KATHERINE MAY, author of Wintering
An irresistible portrait… Some of Matthiessen’s books read like an elegy to the planet, and this biography reads like an elegy to the last of the cool WASP men. It’s quite a story – KATHERINE BUCKNELL, author of Christopher Isherwood Inside Out
The first biography of the writer, and an engaging one at that, the book narrates how a child of privilege evolved into an esteemed naturalist-writer and a crusader for various left-wing causes… grounded in remarkably candid interviews with Matthiessen’s family members and lovers * The New Yorker *
Richardson portrays the peripatetic life of Matthiessen—a celebrated author, magazine editor, and undercover agent who died in 2014—not as an eclectic series of adventures but as a single, 86-year spiritual quest… [An] elegant and rigorous biography * The Atlantic *
A remarkable achievement… Perceptive and consistently readable – CAL FLYN, author of Islands of Abandonment
I can’t imagine that a fairer, better researched, more elegant biography will come out this year – BENJAMIN MOSER, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sontag
Naturalist, novelist, Yeti-hunter, CIA agent—Peter Matthiessen led an exceptional life, and Lance Richardson does a wonderful job capturing it in all its complexity. True Nature is generous and sensitive, but at the same time clear-eyed about its outsized subject – ELIZABETH KOLBERT, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction
Comprehensive, deeply researched and lucidly written, this is the definitive biography of a complicated, fascinating and sometimes exasperating man – ADAM SISMAN, author of The Secret Life of John Le Carre
There is adventure, beauty, compassion, and deep insight on nearly every page. Compellingly crafted, doggedly researched, and elegantly written, True Nature is a true masterpiece of literary biography – HEATHER CLARK, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
A comprehensive, compelling life of a man of many parts – Kirkus
Lance Richardson… tracks his elusive prey along every uneven path with heroic thoroughness… [A] fair-minded, grippingly paced, and tremendously readable narrative – Pico Iyer * Air Mail *

Lance Richardson’s first book, House of Nutter- The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named one of the notable books of 2018 by the Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Esquire and the American Library Association. He has been awarded several fellowships, including a year-long residency at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He teaches on the MFA in Writing programme at Bennington College, Vermont.

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