Peter
Matthiessen’s, The Snow Leopard, winner of the National Book Award: It is my
favorite non-fiction book, maybe my favorite book among all genres. The book
cover states: "Across the most awesome mountains on earth, Peter Matthiessen went
in search of the rare snow leopard. His dangerous trip became a pilgrimage, a
luminous journey of the heart.”
Below are
two samplings of his extraordinary writing:
“Still I sit
a little while, watching the light rise to the peaks. In the boulder at my
back, there is a shudder, so slight that at another time it might have gone
unnoticed. The tremor comes again; the earth is nudging me. And still I do not
see.” The Snow Leopard, p 114
“The two
ravens come to tritons on the gompa roof. Gorawk,
gorawk, they croak, and this is the name given to them by the sherpas.
Amidst the prayer flags and great horns of Tibetan argali, the gorawks greet
first light with an odd musical first note—a-ho—that
emerges as if by miracle from those ragged throats. Before sunrise every day,
the great black birds are gone, like the last great tatters of the night.” The
Snow Leopard, p 216
Considered
one of the greatest writers of all time, compared to Melville, Conrad, and
Dostoyevsky, his lyrical and harrowing explorations of both the world and the
human heart, made him the only writer to win the National Book Award for both
non-fiction (The Snow Leopard, 1978) and fiction (Shadow Country, 2008).
A literary lion died last
year.
booksbylindaleegreene.gallery-llgreene.com
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