From Booklist
The latest addition to Twayne's United States Authors series highlights the nonfiction work of a writer who may be best known to readers for pieces published in the New Yorker over the past three decades. That McPhee has also written 23 books is impressive in itself, but perhaps no more so than one theme Pearson stresses in these pages. The stability of McPhee's very solid Princeton existence, as a boy and as a man, seems to have contributed a certain moral fiber that has played an important role in the writer's work. This background may well have fostered his affinity with the self-reliant, independent figures McPhee writes about, together with a recognition of places outside of time, as they allow individuals to experience uniquely fulfilling lives. A reader unfamiliar with McPhee's writings may feel compelled to search out a book or two after exposure to Pearson's insightful study. Alice Joyce
