Noel Rubinton discusses his recently published book Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee, an annotated guide to the work of the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, teacher, and pioneer of creative nonfiction. This event is cosponsored by Labyrinth and the Princeton Public Library.
This event will be moderated by writer and journalist John Timpane and also feature comments from local artist Diana Weymar, a former student of McPhee. A pop-up exhibit of McPhee's writings stitched by Weymar will also be on display.
John McPhee has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1965 and has written more than thirty acclaimed books that began on the magazine’s pages. But few readers know or fully appreciate the true breadth of his writing. Looking for a Story is a complete reader’s guide to McPhee’s vast published work, documenting much rarely seen or connected with McPhee, including remarkable early writing for Time magazine published without his name.
In chronicling McPhee’s career, where he broke ground applying devices long associated with fiction to the literature of fact, Noel Rubinton gives insights into McPhee’s techniques, choice of subjects, and research methods, shedding light on how McPhee turns complicated subjects like geology into compelling stories. Beyond detailing more than seventy years of McPhee’s writing, Rubinton recounts McPhee’s half century as a Princeton University writing professor. McPhee inspired generations of students who wrote hundreds of books of their own, also catalogued here.
With an incisive foreword by New Yorker staff writer and former McPhee student Peter Hessler, Looking for a Story also includes extensive annotated listings of articles about McPhee, reviews of his books, and interviews, readings, and speeches. Whether you are already an admirer of McPhee or new to his writings, this book provides an invaluable road map to his rich body of work.
Noel Rubinton is a journalist and strategic communications consultant whose writing has appeared in leading publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He was a reporter and editor for Newsday for many years.
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