True Nature

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 MACFARLANEA fascinating biography of a writer whose story aches to be told – KATHERINE MAY, author of WinteringAn 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 OutA remarkable achievement… Perceptive and consistently readable – CAL FLYN, author of Islands of AbandonmentI can’t imagine that a fairer, better researched, more elegant biography will come out this year – BENJAMIN MOSER, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of SontagNaturalist, 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 ExtinctionComprehensive, 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 CarreThere 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 PlathA comprehensive, compelling life of a man of many parts – Kirkus

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.