The Princeton Anthology of Writing: Favorite Pieces by the Ferris/McGraw Writers at Princeton University

by John McPhee (Editor), Carol Rigolot (Editor)

Overview

In 1957--long before colleges awarded degrees in creative nonfiction and back when newspaper writing's reputation was tainted by the fish it wrapped--Princeton began honoring talented literary journalists. Since then, fifty-nine of the finest, most dedicated, and most decorated nonfiction writers have held the Ferris and McGraw professorships. This monumental volume harbors their favorite and often most influential works. Each contribution is rewarding reading, and collectively the selections validate journalism's ascent into the esteem of the academy and the reading public.


Necessarily eclectic and delightfully idiosyncratic, the fifty-nine pieces are long and short, political and personal, comic and deadly serious. Students will be provoked by William Greider's pointed critique of the democracy industry, eerily entertained by Leslie Cockburn's fraternization with the Cali cartel, inspired by David K. Shipler's thoughts on race, unsettled by Haynes Johnson's account of Bay of Pigs survivors, and moved by Lucinda Frank's essay on a mother fighting to save a child born with birth defects. Many of the essays are finely crafted portraits: Charlotte Grimes's biography of her grandmother, Blair Clark's obituary for Robert Lowell, and Jane Kramer's affecting story of a woman hero of the French Resistance.


Other contributions to savor include Harrison Salisbury on the siege of Leningrad, Landon Jones on the 1950s, Christopher Wren on Soviet mountaineering, James Gleick on technology, Gloria Emerson on Vietnam, Gina Kolata on Fermat's last theorem, and Roger Mudd on the media. Whether approached chronologically, thematically, randomly, or, as the editors order them, more intuitively, each suggests a perfect evening reading.


Designed for students as well as general readers, The Princeton Anthology of Writing splendidly attests to the elegance, eloquence, and endurance of fine nonfiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691236865
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	09/14/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

John McPhee is the author of twenty-five books, including The Control of Nature, Irons in the Fire, and Annals of the Former World, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. Carol Rigolot is the Executive Director of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University. She is a faculty member in the Romance Languages department, specializing in twentieth-century French literature.

Hometown:

Princeton, New Jersey

Date of Birth:

March 8, 1931

Place of Birth:

Princeton, New Jersey

Education:

A.B., Princeton University, 1953; graduate study at Cambridge University, 1953-54

Website:

http://www.johnmcphee.com/

Table of Contents

Foreword by Robert D. Ballard ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Table of Conversion xvii
Chapter 1: Volcanism: Origins and Consequences 1
SIDEBAR: DATING OF VOLCANIC EVENTS
Chapter 2: The Hawaiian Islands and the Legacy of Pelee the Fire Goddess 22
Chapter 3: The Bronze Age Eruption of Thera: Destroyer of Atlantis and Minoan Crete? 47
Chapter 4: The Eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E.: Cultural Reverberations through the Ages 74
Chapter 5: Iceland: Coming Apart at the Seams 108
Chapter 6: The Eruption of Tambora in 1815 and "the Year without a Summer" 138
SIDEBAR: MOUNT TOBA: BIGGER THAN TAMBORA
Chapter 7: Krakatu, 1883: Devastation, Death, and Ecologic Revival 157
SIDEBAR: THE GHOSTS OF MERAPI
Chapter 8: The 1902 Eruption of Mount Pelee: A Geological Catastrophe with Political Overtones 186
SIDEBAR: MOUNT PELEE AND THE PANAMA CANAL
Chapter 9: Tristan da Cunba in 1961: Exile to the Twentieth Century 209
Chapter 10: Mount St. Helens in 1980: Catastrophe in the Cascades 228
Afterword 250
Glossary 251
Notes and References 261
Selected Bibliography 279
Index 281

What People are Saying About This

Evan Cornog

This book is a delight for the general reader as well as an excellent resource for undergraduate or graduate students of journalism. It represents many of the finest nonfiction writers of the past several decades. There are many treasures here—and some real surprises. This is compelling stuff, wide ranging and beautifully balanced.
— Evan Cornog, School of Journalism, Columbia University

David Abrahamson

The range, care, and thoughtfulness with which this volume has been edited is hugely impressive. It is an extraordinary work whose greatest strength lies in the selections themselves. It will be exceptionally useful as a supplemental text for undergraduate instruction and is very likely to find a receptive audience among the public as well.
— David Abrahamson, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

From the Publisher

"This book is a delight for the general reader as well as an excellent resource for undergraduate or graduate students of journalism. It represents many of the finest nonfiction writers of the past several decades. There are many treasures here—and some real surprises. This is compelling stuff, wide ranging and beautifully balanced."—Evan Cornog, School of Journalism, Columbia University

"The range, care, and thoughtfulness with which this volume has been edited is hugely impressive. It is an extraordinary work whose greatest strength lies in the selections themselves. It will be exceptionally useful as a supplemental text for undergraduate instruction and is very likely to find a receptive audience among the public as well."—David Abrahamson, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

Editorial Reviews

In his preface to this eclectic collection of more than four dozen pieces of literary journalism, McPhee concedes that it lacks a unifying theme other than the simple fact that the various authors have all taught at Princeton. Further, he allowed the contributors to select from their own work the piece to be included. As a result, the end product is a volume meant for browsing rather than reading not necessarily a bad thing. Far from it, with contributors as distinguished as Victor Navasky, Geoffrey Wolff, Harrison Salisbury and Francine du Plessix Gray, not to mention McPhee himself, virtually all of the pieces included have their virtues. But are they all many of them pieces of time-bound journalism worth rereading? For instance, Gina Kolata includes a brief New York Times report on the cloning of the sheep Dolly without considering the long-range implications of the feat. Fortunately, most of the pieces withstand the passage of time better. Haynes Johnson's description of what happened to certain of the American pawns in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion remains as compelling today as when it appeared more than 30 years ago. Likewise, Harrison Salisbury's reporting on the Nazi siege of Leningrad is of continuing interest, as are Blair Clark's recollections of the poet Robert Lowell. Other pieces, like Francine du Plessix Gray's description of the second Nixon inauguration, continue to hold our interest because they evoke a certain nostalgia for passions long since forgotten. Despite the good writing, though, the primary audience for this volume will be students of nonfiction, those reading for style rather than content. (Aug.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"This is a significant collection of first-rate factual writing, and a valuable contribution to the literary scene."

The Virginia Quarterly

"The range, care, and thoughtfulness with which this volume has been edited is hugely impressive. It is an extraordinary work whose greatest strength lies in the selections themselves. It will be exceptionally useful as a supplemental text for undergraduate instruction and is very likely to find a receptive audience among the public as well."—David Abrahamson, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

"This book is a delight for the general reader as well as an excellent resource for undergraduate or graduate students of journalism. It represents many of the finest nonfiction writers of the past several decades. There are many treasures here—and some real surprises. This is compelling stuff, wide ranging and beautifully balanced."—Evan Cornog, School of Journalism, Columbia University

From the Publisher