Peter Matthiessen was a giant of American twentieth century letters, and the only writer ever to win the National Book Award in both the fiction and non-fiction categories. He was a complicated man who went to great lengths to escape the privilege he was born into.

A comprehensive new biography The Lives of Peter Matthiessen by Australian biographer Lance Richardson sheds fresh light on the many aspects of his complex personality as an eloquent advocate for the environment, through his enduring classic The Snow Leopard and other books about journeys to remote and fragile eco systems; and as social justice crusader and advocacy journalist for native American Indians.

Using previously unpublished letters from his widow Maria, together with other personal sources from previous wives and lovers, Richardson is also able to write about Matthiessen’s three marriages and often messy family life, his powerful ego and his lifelong sense of longing and quest for transcendence.