{"id":220614,"date":"2025-10-23T10:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?p=220614"},"modified":"2025-10-24T08:28:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:28:46","slug":"new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers","title":{"rendered":"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The writers Jim Harrison (1937\u20132016) and Peter Matthiessen (1927\u20132014) might have seemed, on the surface, to have little in common. A scion of a moneyed East Coast family, Matthiessen grew up in New York City and Connecticut and in the boarding schools he attended before entering Yale; Harrison, the son of a county farm agent, grew up in rural Michigan in a house so small that one sibling slept in a hallway. After graduating from Yale, Matthiessen worked as a CIA operative in Cold War Paris, where he cofounded <em>The Paris Review<\/em>; that same decade, after temporarily dropping out of Michigan State University, Harrison reputedly signed up to fight alongside Fidel Castro in Cuba, although his brief flirtation with revolutionary politics might\u2019ve been owing to the \u201cfree donuts [and] radical ladies\u201d at the meetings. They were a contrast in appearances as well, Matthiessen standing \u201cstork-like at six foot one, with a wave of blondish brown hair that crashed across a high forehead and glacial blue eyes,\u201d and Harrison beefy and dark-complected with his blind left eye askew from a childhood injury. Matthiessen once expressed an affection for \u201ccoarse dull food\u201d; Harrison once reveled in a thirty-seven-course lunch at a medieval French manor.<\/p>\n\n\n<!-- Promo shortcode start --><div id=\"nlf-1c\" class=\"gg-promo topic-distilled\"><div class=\"grid\"><div class=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/promos\/bourbon-tall.jpg\" class=\"tall\" alt=\"glass of bourbon with ice\"><\/div><div class=\"right\"><form id=\"nlf-1\" method=\"post\" class=\"form\" action=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/newsletters\/\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"gg_form_submit\" value=\"nlf-1\"><div class=\"hed\">Get Our Bourbon Newsletter!<\/div><div class=\"dek\">Distilled is our newsletter about the South\u2019s favorite spirit.<\/div><div class=\"action two-items\"><div class=\"input-left\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"email\" class=\"email-input\" value=\"\" placeholder=\"you@example.com\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"group_id\" value=\"151240180\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"shortcode_form\" value=\"nlf-1\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"subscription_99416\" value=\"on\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"prev_page_id\" value=\"220614\"><\/div><div class=\"gform_footer\"><div style=\"display:none;\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"nl-nov-st\" id=\"nl-nov-st1\" value=\"\" autocomplete=\"off\" tabindex=\"-1\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"nl-nov-b\" value=\"\" autocomplete=\"off\" tabindex=\"-1\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"nl-nov-r\" id=\"nl-nov-r1\" value=\"2025-11-14\" autocomplete=\"off\" tabindex=\"-1\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"nl-nov-et\" id=\"nl-nov-et1\" value=\"\" autocomplete=\"off\" tabindex=\"-1\"><\/div><button data-sitekey=\"6Lc-hRkaAAAAAI84hbB81Jl48pGievR_C_UgHdnY\" data-callback=\"on_submit_nlf_1\" data-action=\"submit\" class=\"g-recaptcha button button-primary after-email\">Sign Up<\/button><\/div><\/div><div class=\"captcha-terms\"><p>This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p><\/div><\/form><script>document.getElementById('nl-nov-st1').value=Date.now();document.getElementById('nl-nov-r1').value='';function on_submit_nlf_1(token) {document.getElementById('nl-nov-et1').value = Date.now();document.getElementById('nlf-1').submit();}<\/script><\/div><\/div><\/div><!-- Promo shortcode end -->\n\n\n\n<p>What the two men did share, however, was a fierce love of wild landscapes, both exterior and interior, and an equally fierce hatred of what Matthiessen called the \u201cmonoculture that spreads like a plastic sheet across the world, stifling the last indigenous whiffs and quirks and colors.\u201d That, piled atop their joint devotion to literature and Zen Buddhism, fueled a decades-long friendship. It\u2019s fitting, then, that the first major biographies of both should debut within weeks of each other, as if the pair had plotted their legacies as carefully as they did their fishing trips. Todd Goddard\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9781799902362\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Devouring Time<\/a><\/em> chronicles Harrison\u2019s life and work; Lance Richardson\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9781524748319\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">True Nature<\/a><\/em> captures Matthiessen\u2019s. (Disclosure: Jim was a longtime friend, and I make a couple of cameos in the bio.) Both are top-notch: sensitive, probing, admiring but never fawning, and exhaustively researched. The men\u2019s flaws go unscrubbed and their contradictions unsmoothed. Both books send you back to their works with freshened eyes and a hungry heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harrison is arguably best known for <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9780802126221\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Legends of the Fall<\/a><\/em>, his 1979 novella collection, and for his Falstaffian food writing. Matthiessen\u2019s renown often centers on <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9780143105510\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Snow Leopard<\/a>,<\/em> his 1978 account of his physical and spiritual journey in the Nepalese Himalayas. The irony, both bios make clear, is that these pinnacles were peripheral, even subordinate to the pair\u2019s true literary missions. Fiction, Matthiessen often said, was at the heart of his work (with his Everglades-set Edgar Watson trilogy at the heart of that heart); his \u201cnature writing\u201d subsidized his novels. For Harrison, poetry was his everlasting love (he published eighteen books of it in his lifetime), and \u201cif he was remembered at all,\u201d Goddard notes, he thought it would be for that. Richardson\u2019s book includes a telling exchange between the two, in which a prose-weary Matthiessen asks Harrison how he might begin writing poems. Harrison talks him down, noting such points as the \u201cbanknote comedown\u201d it would entail. \u201cI suspect you are right,\u201d Matthiessen answers, \u201cbut I am so bleeding <em>sick<\/em> of all the words. I want to cut away and cut away, in all departments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One way Matthiessen \u201ccut away\u201d was to set off on expeditions: driving in the Serengeti, chasing great white sharks in Australia, seeking Bigfoot out west. Harrison\u2019s wanderlust tended to be more Dionysian: fishing and carousing in Key West, pushing the limits of gluttony in France. Readers of either bio become less fly on the wall than stowaway in a suitcase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t quite know what it means,\u201d Harrison wrote to friends upon hearing the news of Matthiessen\u2019s death from cancer in 2014. \u201cPeter was grand. Last September he had doubts he would make it another year. Fishing was only so-so but two years ago he got a 5 lb brown in fast water which made him glow.\u201d It\u2019s an apt metaphor for the duo\u2019s effect on readers: Whether from outrage, awe, bliss, earth-sadness, voraciousness, laughter, pain, or spiritual longing, they made us glow.<\/p><div id=\"div-gpt-ad-4725808\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad mobile inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-2987023\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad tablet inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-7049742\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad desktop inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-plus-poetry-beyond-words\"><strong>Plus: Poetry Beyond Words<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Fresh Southern verse to savor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"711\" height=\"1100\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/9781639550517-711x1100.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-220616\" style=\"width:385px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/9781639550517-711x1100.jpg 711w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/9781639550517-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/9781639550517-768x1188.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/9781639550517.jpg 776w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 711px) 100vw, 711px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ada Lim\u00f3n, who recently completed her tenure as U.S. poet laureate, conveys the natural world\u2019s beauty and delights in her gorgeous <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/1939\/9781639550517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Startlement: New and Selected Poems<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Milkweed Editions). Lim\u00f3n has lived in Kentucky and California, but her perceptions feel more universal than anchored to place. As she writes in the title poem, \u201cSo many unknown languages, to think we have \/ only honored this strange human tongue.\u201d Isn\u2019t it a joy that one of our finest wordsmiths knows talk has its limits, that phrases can\u2019t precisely convey the chatter of birds or how wind hums? As she writes in \u201cMortality\u201d: \u201cLanguage, I love it, but it is of the air \/ and we are of the earth.\u201d <em>\u2014CJ Lotz Diego<\/em><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Garden &amp; Gun<em>\u00a0has an affiliate partnership with\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/\"><em>bookshop.org<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0and may receive a portion of sales when a reader clicks to buy a book.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A wealth of captivating literary adventures drives a pair of new books on the life and legacies of Jim Harrison and Peter Matthiessen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":220615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-23T14:30:17Z","apple_news_api_id":"a4783526-c4a5-46d1-9347-e22a68e46499","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-23T14:30:17Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ApHg1JsSlRtGTR-IqaORkmQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784,2399],"tags":[29653,74,93,30280],"authors":[1845],"issue":[30797],"recipe-type":[],"class_list":["post-220614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-books","tag-art","tag-books","tag-conservation","tag-whats-new","authors-jonathan-miles","issue-october-november-2025"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v26.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers &#8211; Garden &amp; Gun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A wealth of captivating literary adventures drives a pair of new books on the life and legacies of Jim Harrison and Peter Matthiessen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A wealth of captivating literary adventures drives a pair of new books on the life and legacies of Jim Harrison and Peter Matthiessen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Garden &amp; Gun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-23T14:30:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-24T12:28:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941-1202x1200.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1202\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gardenandgun\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gardenandgun\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13\"},\"headline\":\"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-23T14:30:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-24T12:28:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/\"},\"wordCount\":877,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Art\",\"Books\",\"Conservation\",\"What&#039;s New\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts &amp; Culture\",\"Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/\",\"name\":\"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers &#8211; Garden &amp; Gun\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-23T14:30:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-24T12:28:46+00:00\",\"description\":\"A wealth of captivating literary adventures drives a pair of new books on the life and legacies of Jim Harrison and Peter Matthiessen\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941.png\",\"width\":2450,\"height\":2445},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/\",\"name\":\"Garden &amp; Gun\",\"description\":\"Garden and Gun magazine celebrates the modern South and features the best in Southern food, style, travel, music, art, literature, and sporting culture.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Garden & Gun\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_08_GG_Email_Popup_logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_08_GG_Email_Popup_logo.jpg\",\"width\":166,\"height\":26,\"caption\":\"Garden & Gun\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/gardenandgun\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gardenandgun\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/gardenandgun\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Gardenandgun\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13\",\"name\":\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df72c7dd1ad3bc62869a7fe0556dd0dbca001f49491ac08383a404b3aa30ab9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df72c7dd1ad3bc62869a7fe0556dd0dbca001f49491ac08383a404b3aa30ab9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers &#8211; Garden &amp; Gun","description":"A wealth of captivating literary adventures drives a pair of new books on the life and legacies of Jim Harrison and Peter Matthiessen","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers","og_description":"A wealth of captivating literary adventures drives a pair of new books on the life and legacies of Jim Harrison and Peter Matthiessen","og_url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/","og_site_name":"Garden &amp; Gun","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun","article_published_time":"2025-10-23T14:30:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-24T12:28:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1202,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941-1202x1200.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@gardenandgun","twitter_site":"@gardenandgun","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/"},"author":{"name":"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13"},"headline":"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers","datePublished":"2025-10-23T14:30:11+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-24T12:28:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/"},"wordCount":877,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941.png","keywords":["Art","Books","Conservation","What&#039;s New"],"articleSection":["Arts &amp; Culture","Books"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/","name":"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers &#8211; Garden &amp; Gun","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941.png","datePublished":"2025-10-23T14:30:11+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-24T12:28:46+00:00","description":"A wealth of captivating literary adventures drives a pair of new books on the life and legacies of Jim Harrison and Peter Matthiessen","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-2025-10-22-at-11.07.22-AM-e1761229759941.png","width":2450,"height":2445},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/new-biographies-capture-the-literary-escapades-of-two-of-the-souths-wildest-writers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Biographies Capture the Literary Escapades of Two of the South\u2019s Wildest Writers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/","name":"Garden &amp; Gun","description":"Garden and Gun magazine celebrates the modern South and features the best in Southern food, style, travel, music, art, literature, and sporting culture.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#organization","name":"Garden & Gun","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_08_GG_Email_Popup_logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_08_GG_Email_Popup_logo.jpg","width":166,"height":26,"caption":"Garden & Gun"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gardenandgun","https:\/\/x.com\/gardenandgun","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gardenandgun\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/gardenandgun\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Gardenandgun"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e6cca540eec31439cf98cf9427370a13","name":"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df72c7dd1ad3bc62869a7fe0556dd0dbca001f49491ac08383a404b3aa30ab9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df72c7dd1ad3bc62869a7fe0556dd0dbca001f49491ac08383a404b3aa30ab9a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gabriela Gomez-Misserian"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220684,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220614\/revisions\/220684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220614"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=220614"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=220614"},{"taxonomy":"recipe-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/recipe-type?post=220614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}