Homepage
For over than 70 years, John McPhee has written compelling stories about real people and the world around them, revolutionizing the genre of nonfiction writing along the way. With greater than three million words of his published in more than 35 books, hundreds of magazine articles and more, even his most devoters have struggled to keep track of his vast body of work.
That changes with the release of Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee, which brings his entire career into focus, cataloging his works and telling the story of his remarkable journey as a writer.
For 60 years, McPhee has been one of the leading staff writers for the New Yorker, among the world's most esteemed and cherished magazines. Designed for both longtime admirers of McPhee's work and newcomers, this book explores his New Yorker work while also uncovering writing that has been rarely seen or never before connected with him, including his extraordinary stories for Time magazine that were published without his name on them.
“John McPhee is a master and his readers deserve to know where to find every last nugget of his work. With his exacting bibliography, Noel Rubinton draws the map with the care and precision of his subject. Any reader of John McPhee will be grateful to own and refer to Looking for a Story. He leads you, again and again, to where the gold is.”
—David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker
“Noel Rubinton has dug hard, collected John McPhee’s hidden gems, and fashioned a volume that documents the dazzling array of work by the most influential nonfiction writer of our time. Looking for a Story is aptly rigorous, like McPhee’s reporting, demonstrating a passion for the details that add up to a portrait of the man and his craft.”
—Marc Fisher, associate editor and columnist, Washington Post
"Rubinton's book offers McPhee's fans a complete bibliographical and critical guide to his writings, from his earliest jottings, through years of NPR interviews, to books and essays. . . . The fact remains that you can still learn to write a sentence from McPhee: Readers can use this book as a guide."
—Kirkus Reviews
"The Princeton-based McPhee (still hanging in there at age 94) has reinvented the art of nonfiction reporting in his books and long essays for The New Yorker, and the story behind the story is just as compelling."---Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer
The story behind Looking for a Story: Noel Rubinton's essay on how he found the world of John McPhee