An interview with Peter Matthiessen

June 12, 2014 6:00 AM

I like to be out there on the edge with people who, as I say somewhere, haven’t got time to be neurotic.
posted by valkane (5 comments total)

I'd see Peter out on Fishers Island when I was a kid. He'd be on the beach over by the airport looking at sandpipers alone. I'd wave from far off and he'd wave back.
posted by bdc34 at 9:59 AM on June 12, 2014

Can we talk about appropriate font choices for good readability on webpages?
posted by humboldt32 at 10:09 AM on June 12, 2014

If you read all the way to the end you find out the interviewer is the same Jonathan Meiburg who is in Shearwater and you find out that Mrs. Matthiessen was on This American LIfe on the subject of taboo conversation topics. (link to TAL)
posted by bukvich at 10:32 AM on June 12, 2014

I read The Snow Leopard several years ago and was sort of underwhelmed by it, but this interview makes me want to read more of his work. Imagining him hanging out with Vonnegut and Capote is pretty amazing. I wonder if they were ever all three in a room together.
posted by vytae at 4:36 PM on June 12, 2014

Matthiessen: You shoulda been there Kurt! These native girls were running around completely topless!

Vonnegut: (patting shirt pockets) Shit, I'm outta smokes.

Capote: Both of you guys are off the guest list.
posted by valkane at 5:28 PM on June 12, 2014