True Nature is a magnificent achievement: an immense work of scholarship, synthesis and empathy, written throughout with verve and lucidity, which illuminates one of the most fascinating writerly lives of the past century -- ROBERT MACFARLANE A fascinating biography of a writer whose story aches to be told -- KATHERINE MAY, author of Wintering An irresistible portrait... Some of Matthiessens books read like an elegy to the planet, and this biography reads like an elegy to the last of the cool WASP men. Its quite a story -- KATHERINE BUCKNELL, author of Christopher Isherwood Inside Out A remarkable achievement... Perceptive and consistently readable -- CAL FLYN, author of Islands of Abandonment I can't imagine that a fairer, better researched, more elegant biography will come out this year -- BENJAMIN MOSER, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sontag Naturalist, novelist, Yeti-hunter, CIA agentPeter Matthiessen led an exceptional life, and Lance Richardson does a wonderful job capturing it in all its complexity. True Nature is generous and sensitive, but at the same time clear-eyed about its outsized subject -- ELIZABETH KOLBERT, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction Comprehensive, deeply researched and lucidly written, this is the definitive biography of a complicated, fascinating and sometimes exasperating man -- ADAM SISMAN, author of The Secret Life of John Le Carre There is adventure, beauty, compassion, and deep insight on nearly every page. Compellingly crafted, doggedly researched, and elegantly written, True Nature is a true masterpiece of literary biography -- HEATHER CLARK, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath A comprehensive, compelling life of a man of many parts -- Kirkus