Obituary Note: Peter Matthiessen

Shelf Awareness

Peter Matthiessen, who wrote more than 30 books and was co-founder of the Paris Review, a naturalist, explorer, Buddhist teacher and political and environmental activist in his spare time, died on Saturday. He was 86 and had been ill with leukemia.

Matthiessen is the only author to win the National Book Award more than once, garnering three wins, twice in nonfiction for The Snow Leopard (in two categories) and once in fiction for Shadow Country, which was originally published in longer form as a trilogy, Killing Mr. Watson, Lost Man's River and Bone by Bone.

"Peter was a force of nature, relentlessly curious, persistent, demanding--of himself and others," his literary agent, Neil Olson, said. "But he was also funny, deeply wise and compassionate."

Matthiessen's last book, In Paradise, is being published by Riverhead Books tomorrow. Riverhead described it as "a novel inspired by a profound experience Matthiessen underwent as a participant in a Zen meditation retreat at Auschwitz in the 1990s, In Paradise is a powerful and uncompromising exploration of the legacy of evil and our unquenchable, imperfect desire to wrest good from it."

Riverhead publisher Geoff Kloske commented: "We are deeply honored to be custodians of Peter's final, characteristically bold work of art." He noted that with the publication of In Paradise, Matthiessen was reunited with editorial director Rebecca Saletan, who worked with him on several books since the early 1980s.

The New York Times has a lengthy obituary as well as a feature about Matthiessen in yesterday's magazine section that was printed before his death.