The Matthiessen family in Connecticut: Betty, Matty, Peter, Carey, and Mary. (Courtesy of Jeff Wheelwright)

A Book Essay – Summer 2018 published in The American Scholar

Force of Nature

The racing tides beneath Peter Matthiessen’s literary achievement

By Jeff Wheelwright | June 4, 2018

“Sometimes I feel that Peter Matthiessen is the most underappreciated of recent American writers. I am biased, because he was my uncle and my godfather . . . Peter’s love for nature, unbridled nature . . . had begun during his boyhood on Fishers Island, New York . . .”