American · b. 1927
National Book Award (twice)
American novelist, naturalist, and explorer, twice winner of the National Book Award, celebrated for The Snow Leopard and his Watson Trilogy.
Peter Matthiessen was one of the most distinguished American writers of the twentieth century, a figure who combined extraordinary literary gifts with a life of genuine adventure and spiritual seeking. A co-founder of the Paris Review in 1953, he later revealed that his time in Paris had also served as cover for CIA activity — a revelation that added another layer of complexity to an already remarkable biography.
The Snow Leopard, published in 1978, is widely considered his masterpiece. It chronicles a two-month journey into the Himalayas of Nepal with zoologist George Schaller to study the Himalayan blue sheep and, if fortune allowed, catch a glimpse of the elusive snow leopard. Woven throughout the naturalist narrative is a profound meditation on Zen Buddhism, grief, and the nature of presence. The book won the National Book Award and has endured as a classic of both travel writing and spiritual literature.
Matthiessen was also a celebrated novelist. His Watson Trilogy — Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man’s River, and Bone by Bone, later condensed into Shadow Country, which won a second National Book Award — is an ambitious fictionalized account of the life and legend of sugar cane planter E. J. Watson in the Florida Everglades. A committed environmentalist and Zen Buddhist priest, Matthiessen brought moral seriousness and lyrical precision to everything he wrote until his death in 2014.
by Peter Matthiessen
Peter Matthiessen and zoologist George Schaller trek 250 miles into the Himalayas to study the bharal (Himalayan blue sheep) and their predator, the nearly mythical snow leopard — a physical journey that becomes a meditation on grief, Zen Buddhism, and the nature of consciousness.
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Where to start with Peter Matthiessen — how to approach The Snow Leopard, his National Book Award-winning account of a Himalayan journey that becomes a sustained inquiry into grief, presence, and Zen practice. A complete reading guide.
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Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard combines a Himalayan trek with Buddhist philosophy and a meditation on grief. These books share its depth: journeys into extreme landscapes that become inquiries into perception, loss, and what it means to be fully present.
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