John McPhee
John McPhee, a staff writer since 1965, has published more than thirty books, including “ Tabula Rasa, Volume 1.”
Read more on The New Yorker →58 picks · 1965–2023
Featured Picks
personal history ·
Personal History by John McPhee: A project meant not to end.
personal history ·
Personal History by John McPhee: A project meant not to end.
personal history ·
Personal History by John McPhee: A project meant not to end.
the writing life ·
Who is there to help you but the person who is answering your questions?
annals of transport ·
John McPhee writes about his travels across America with a long-haul truck driver who often transports heavy or dangerous cargo.
a reporter at large ·
A REPORTER AT LARGE about Norton Townshend Dodge's collection of unofficial Soviet Russian art. Dodge was born in Oklahoma City in 1927, and first went…
a reporter at large ·
A REPORTER AT LARGE about cattle rustling in Nevada. Writer interviews brand inspector Chris Collis. Chris introduces a rancher they meet on the road as …
annals of the former world ·
John McPhee explores the geology of the Golden State.
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the U.S. Merchant Marine. Writer accompanied second mate George Anderson Chase on the S.S. Stella Lykes on a voyage to the West …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the U.S. Merchant Marine. Writer accompanied second nato George Anderson Chase on the S.S. Stella Lykes on a voyage to the West …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the U.S. Merchant Marine. Writer accompanied a merchant mariner named George Anderson Chase. He had known Andy for several years & …
the control of nature ·
John McPhee on the struggle to control the Mississippi River.
a reporter at large ·
John McPhee’s 1984 profile of a Maine bush pilot who is also named John McPhee.
a reporter at large ·
John McPhee reports on the family-practice movement and the return of the local, family doctor in rural Maine, at a time when medical specialists pervaded American health care.
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Swiss Army. It is a militia composed mainly of soldiers who spend a few weeks a year in uniform and otherwise pursue civilian …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Swiss Army. Writer joined a group of the Tenth Mountain Division getting ready to patrol a sector of the uppermost Rhone. This …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the bear population of New Jersey, which numbers about 60 or 70. Biologist Patricia McConnell keeps track of and studies the bears.…
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about restoring small-scale hydroelectric power facilities in New York State. In the past the power of falling water was utilized but in …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about telephones in Circle City, Alaska, population 80. Richard Hutchinson brought telephones to Circle City in 1977. He has been in …
profiles ·
From 1979: John McPhee’s profile of “Otto,” the mysterious chef who served him the greatest meals of his life.
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Greenmarket: open-air markets at several N.Y.C. sites, which sell local farm produce directly to the consumer. The site shifts …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the upper Yukon region of Alaska and the bush community of Eagle. It is said to be the best-looking town in Alaska. Describes its …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the upper Yukon region of Alaska. Writer tells of visiting with a number of people living in the area, some of them in or near the …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the upper Yukon region of Alaska. Brad Snow & Lilly Allen, a married couple, who came to the region in 1974, built a cabin on the …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about the upper Yukon region of Alaska, referred to by the people there as "the country". People who "come into the country" want to find…
a reporter at large ·
A REPORTER AT LARGE about exploring the Salmon River of the Brooks Range, in Alaska, and the surrounding terrain to consider including them in a national …
a reporter at large ·
A REPORTER AT LARGE about exploring the area of the Kobuk River and the Salmon River of the Brooks Range in Alaska to consider including them in the Kobuk …
a reporter at large ·
A REPORTER AT LARGE about Alaska and the hunt for a new capital site there. Tells about the beginnings of Juneau as a gold mining town in the 1880's. …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about a 100-and-some-mile canoe trip down the St. John River in northern Maine. In late spring, Mike Moody, John Kauffmann, Tom Cabot, …
a reporter at large ·
A REPORTER AT LARGE about plans to build a floating nuclear power plant off the New Jersey coast. The plant was conceived in 1969 by Richard Eckert, an …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about bark canoes & Henri Vaillancourt, of Greenville, N.H., who builds them entirely by hand the way the American Indians did. He built …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about firewood in N.Y. State. As petroleum reserves ran low early this winter a memorandum went out from Albany, from the director of the…
profiles ·
PROFILE of nuclear physicist Theodore B. Taylor. He was a conceptual designer of nuclear bombs at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from 1949 to 1956. He …
profiles ·
PROFILE of Theodore B. Taylor, 48, a nuclear physicist, who worries about the possibility of people fabricating an atomic bomb on their own with nuclear …
profiles ·
PROFILE of Georgia biologist-ecologist Carol Ruckdeschel, of Atlanta. In her Atlanta house, where she stays for short periods, she keeps a myriad of …
profiles ·
PROFILE of the Aereon aircraft,developed by Princeton, N.J.-based Aereon Corporation, composed of engineers, ministers, & consultants. Founded in 1959 by …
a reporter at large ·
A REPORTER AT LARGE about the game of Monopoly and the city in which it is set, Atlantic City, N. J. Atlantic City was designed in 1852 by an immigrant …
the talk of the town ·
Talk story about a visit to the chocolate factory in Hershey, Pa. and interview with Bill Wagner, who for 45 years has been tasting chocolate in the …
profiles ·
PROFILE of George Hartzog, Director of the National Park Service. The 50-year-old Park Service has had only 7 directors, & Hartzog is the 2nd to come up …
profiles ·
Part 3 of John McPhee’s Profile of the environmentalist and longtime head of the Sierra Club David Brower and the birth of the modern conservation movement.
profiles ·
Part 2 of John McPhee’s Profile of the environmentalist and longtime head of the Sierra Club David Brower and the birth of the modern conservation movement.
profiles ·
Part 1 of John McPhee’s Profile of the environmentalist and longtime head of the Sierra Club David Brower and the birth of the modern conservation movement.
profiles ·
PROFILE of Colonsay, an island off Scotland, in the Hebrides. It is owned by Lord Strathcona. The previous laird, his father, was Donald Third Baron …
profiles ·
PROFILE of Colonsay, a small island in the Atlantic, 25 miles west of the Scottish mainland. It is one of the Hebrides, in the islands of Argyll. More than…
profiles ·
Part 2 of John McPhee’s article about how the rivalry between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner made them both better tennis players.
profiles ·
John McPhee on how the rivalry between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner made them both better tennis players.
profiles ·
PROFILE of Robert Twynam headkeeper of the lawns at Wimbledon. In 1967, the defending tennis champion was Manuel Santana in the draw was Charles Pasarell, …
profiles ·
PROFILE of Euell Theophilus Gibbons, who has written 4 books on the gathering & preparation of wild food. He lives & writes in a farmhouse near …
profiles ·
PROFILE of Temple Hornaday Fielding, travel-guide writer. In the first 16 years of the "Travel Guide" (from 1948 through '63), Fielding called the …
profiles ·
PROFILE of the Pine Barrens a large underdeveloped tract in the south-central part of N.J. Chatsworth in Woodland Township, is the principal community in …
profiles ·
PROFILE of the Pine Barrens, a large tract of wilderness in central & southern N.J., and the inhabitants of the place. In 1913, Elizabeth Kite, a …
profiles ·
PROFILE of Thomas P. F. Hoving, the former N. Y. C. Commissioner of Parks and now the Director of the Metropolitan Museum. In '59, when Homing was a …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about oranges, their history, & the citrus industry in Florida, Gives history of Indian River, in Florida, from which some of the …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about oranges, their varieties, their history, & how they are grown, particularly in Florida. The first known reference to oranges …
profiles ·
PROFILE of Frank Learoyd Boyden, headmaster of Deerfield Academy, a preparatory school for boys in Deerfield, Mass. He has been headmaster since 1902 and …
a reporter at large ·
REPORTER AT LARGE about a program developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed to place highly qualified young men in specific …
profiles ·
John McPhee’s 1965 Profile of the Princeton basketball star Bill Bradley, whose achievements broke barriers in the Ivy League, where athletes of the highest calibre usually don’t show up.