A Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles [Paperback]

John McPhee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1979

In this unique book, John McPhee takes us into the world of several fascinating people. His inimitable style reveals the intricate details of his characters lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"McPhee writes as well as anyone in America. His prose is simple and lyrical, his images are sharply focused. And here are five profiles that prove it. His subjects: Thomas P. F. Hoving, art historian, sometime political influence, former floorwalker; the late Euell Gibbons, famous forager of edible wild plants and author of Stalking the Wild Asparagus; Carroll Brewster of the intrepid team of M.I.T. Fellows, in the Sudan; Robert Twynam, tender of the lawn at Wimbledon; and Temple Fielding, mercurial and influential author of the popular travel guides to Europe."—Clarence Peterson, Chicago Tribune

About the Author

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, with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and in the years since, he has written nearly 30 books, including Oranges (1967), Coming into the Country (1977), The Control of Nature (1989), The Founding Fish (2002), Uncommon Carriers (2007), and Silk Parachute (2011). Encounters with the Archdruid (1972) and The Curve of Binding Energy (1974) 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.  He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 5 edition (May 1, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374515018
• ISBN-13: 978-0374515010
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McPhee's Hoving into view..., April 4, 2000

By 

William "williamnedblake" (Kansas City, MO, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles (Paperback)

Originally, I picked this book out to read more about Thomas Hoving, as I had recently completed his 'King of the Confessors' and, as an appreciative receptor of McPhee's writings on geological history ('Basin and Range', 'In Suspect Terrain', et cetera), I hoped to find the same sort of insight in his biographies. I was completely unfamiliar with the other subjects of the 'other Profiles' - they were merely an added bonus.

Nor was I to be disappointed. McPhee's portraits, whether of eccentric and unusual landscapes or of interestingly striated and deformed personalities, are fascinating. Aside from the humanised portrait of Hoving (who from his own writing appears to be something of an intellectual leviathan with the boundless energy of a cheetah after one too many coffees), there are the portraits of Euell Gibbons, a forager for the edible delicacies of the vacant yards and open spaces of wildernesses both urban and rural (who, amusingly, is described as 'the late' Euell Gibbons, which immediately led me to wonder, perhaps uncharitably, whether he had succumbed to one of his experimental foods); Robert Twynam, the Man Who Grew the Grass at Wimbledon (capitalisation my own) - an account which one might expect to be as interesting as, well, watching the grass grow, but really turns into a manner of deft psycho-horticulturo-sporting commentary; Temple Fielding, traveller and hotel connoisseur extraordinaire, who's favourite hotels became the basis for the ratings of an entire guidebook industry; and Carol Brewster, who's entry into the Sudanese civil service is a tale of intrigue and interest in a strife-torn corner of Africa.

These five biographical sketches, drawn with McPhee's effortless, almost conversational prose, are held together by one primary common thread: their subjects are intensely interesting men, pursuing occupations that, for various assorted reasons, are also intensely interesting. It is a book that grips and enthralls strangely, for it is not what one would expect to be a gripping, enthralling book. That, I believe, is its secret.

I can't imagine anyone not finding favourable comments for any of John McPhee's books - for once, popularity in a modern author is entirely justified. McPhee is a lucid, amusing, and thoroughly fascinating guide, no matter the subject which he has chosen about which to write. By all means, read 'A Roomful of Hovings', or, for that matter, any of his books, if your fellow-travellers on this beknighted little planet hold any interest at all for you. John McPhee is a fine a guide as one could ask.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Read, November 28, 2000

By 

Rumaan Alam "rumaan" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles (Paperback)

It is difficult to say who you admire more by the time you're through reading this book: the author or the engaging personalities he profiles so brilliantly. The title essay is a really engaging study of the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and readers will get caught up in the movement of it almost despite themselves. McPhee so wonderfully elucidates every aspect of a problem that he can explain the most complex events and progressions with enviable ease. The essay "A Forager" is also a brilliant exercise in detail and narrative, and reads, like much of McPhee's work, easily, vibrantly. This book is really a classic of non-fiction, and McPhee is a master of the form.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine scotch, December 31, 2009

By 

Gary R. Bradski (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles (Paperback)

What can you say about McPhee? Goes down like find scotch, makes any subject a pleasure to read. This book is just a collection of biographical snippets, each very enjoyable in their own way. A perfect airline read.