Pieces of the Frame

John McPhee

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Apr 1, 2011 - Literary Collections - 320 pages

Pieces of the Frame is a gathering of memorable writings by one of the greatest journalists and storytellers of our time. They take the reader from the backwoods roads of Georgia, to the high altitude of Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico; from the social decay of Atlantic City, to Scotland, where a pilgrimage for art's sake leads to a surprising encounter with history on a hilltop with a view of a fifth of the entire country. McPhee's writing is more than informative; these are stories, artful and full of character, that make compelling reading. They play with and against one another, so that Pieces of the Frame is distinguished as much by its unity as by its variety. Subjects familiar to McPhee's readers-sports, Scotland, conservation-are treated here with intimacy and a sense of the writer at work.

Contents

• Travels in Georgia: 3
• Reading the River: 61
• The Search for Marvin Gardens: 75
• Pieces of the Frame: 93
• Josies Well: 113
• From Birnam Wood to Dunsinane: 127
• Basketball and Beefeaters: 141
• Centre Court: 153
• Firewood: 193
• Ranger: 219
• Ruidoso: 265

About the author

John McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. Also in 1965, he published his first book, A Sense of Where You Are, with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and in the years since, he has written nearly 30 books, including Oranges (1967), Coming into the Country (1977), The Control of Nature (1989), The Founding Fish (2002), Uncommon Carriers (2007), and Silk Parachute (2011). Encounters with the Archdruid (1972) and The Curve of Binding Energy (1974) were nominated for National Book Awards in the category of science. McPhee received the Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977. In 1999, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Annals of the Former World. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Pieces of the Frame
• Author: John McPhee
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011
• ISBN: 0374708606, 9780374708603
• Length: 320 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Journalism; Language Arts & Disciplines / Writing / Fiction Writing; Language Arts & Disciplines / Writing / General; Literary Collections / Essays; Literary Collections / Women Authors