John McPhee: The Life and Writings Quiz

Answer: New Jersey

'A Sense of Where You Are' was his first book, a profile of a Princeton basketball player who later went pro and later became a Senator [Bill Bradley]. McPhee also wrote one other book about his home state entitled 'Pine Barrens' which is the basis for this question. Legend has it that a mystical creature lives there known as the Jersey Devil, which in turn lends its name to the NHL hockey team.

Answer: Oranges

Did you know that an orange is not a natural growing fruit? That's right, it's a hybrid and its origin is not exactly known, but it is suspected to be a cross between a tangerine and a pomelo. The fruit appeared among ancient farmers first in South East Asia. The name itself is traced back to Sanskrit.

Answer: Levels of the Game

The book concerns itself with the US Open in 1968. In that year tennis legend Arthur Ashe competed against Clark Graebner. Ashe, of course, won but that was exactly what intrigued McPhee, to write about such an underdog success happening.

Answer: New Journalism

Gonzo journalism is slightly more radical than New Journalism and it was birthed by one man in particular, Hunter S. Thompson. Gonzo Journalism came about ten years after New Journalism was established.

Answer: Shad

The book is called 'The Founding Fish', perhaps because the Founding Father George Washington was a commercial fisherman of these in his own right! Shad, by the way, are in the family of herring, but, like salmon, they swim up fresh water streams to spawn.

Answer: The New Yorker

Since 1965 McPhee has written for the 'New Yorker', and I'm not sure who this says more about. McPhee gets tunnel vision like no other author I know of. He sets his mind to a topic and extrapolates the maximum amount out of it. Over the years of reading him I've often wished I could control his topics of interest and see what he comes up with.

Answer: The Swiss Militia

It's a very interesting book showing what a small nation does with preparing for war. Everything from soldiers on bicycles, to planes in the side of mountains and mountain passes rigged to be blown up in case of invasion; it's in a class of its own.

Answer: Coming into the Country

This is one of my favorites by him, he goes amongst the homesteaders and portrays their lives in the 'bush' and does a bang up job of it.

Answer: The Pulitzer Prize

'Annals of the Former World' took the prize for the category Non-Fiction. What's interesting about this is the fact that this book was the compilation of four previous books he did on US geography, those being 'Basin and Range', 'In Suspect Terrain', 'Rising from the Plains', and 'Assembling California'. Since the prize he has added his final volume to this series, entitled 'Crossing the Craton'.

Answer: Princeton

Princeton, New Jersey, U.S, founded in 1746, is the fourth oldest university in the U.S. and one of the most prestigious. President Woodrow Wilson served as university president (1902-10) there before he took on the White House. McPhee himself is a graduate of the ole Orange & Black.