The patch

Title:

The patch

Author:

McPhee, John, 1931- author.

Summary:

"An "album quilt," an artful assortment of nonfiction writings by John McPhee that have not previously appeared in any book. The Patch is the seventh collection of essays by the nonfiction master, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It is divided into two parts. Part 1, “The Sporting Scene,” consists of pieces on fishing, football, golf, and lacrosse―from fly casting for chain pickerel in fall in New Hampshire to walking the linksland of St. Andrews at an Open Championship. Part 2, called “An Album Quilt,” is a montage of fragments of varying length from pieces done across the years that have never appeared in book form―occasional pieces, memorial pieces, reflections, reminiscences, and short items in various magazines including The New Yorker. They range from a visit to the Hershey chocolate factory to encounters with Oscar Hammerstein, Joan Baez, and Mount Denali. Emphatically, the author’s purpose was not merely to preserve things but to choose passages that might entertain contemporary readers. Starting with 250,000 words, he gradually threw out 75 percent of them, and randomly assembled the remaining fragments into “an album quilt.” Among other things, The Patch is a covert memoir." -- Provided by publisher.

General Note:

"Earlier versions of most of these essays first appeared in The New Yorker, Time, and Vogue" -- Verso title page.

Edition:

First edition.

Contents:

The pacth -- Phi Beta football -- The orange trapper -- Linksland and bottle -- Pioneer -- Direct eye contract -- An album quilt.

Physical Description:

242 pages ; 23 cm

Genre:

Essays.

Publisher:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

Publication Date:

2018

ISBN:

9780374229481

Publication Information:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.

Call Number:

814 MCPHEE

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003353904	Adult Nonfiction	814 MCPHEE	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The Patch is the seventh collection of essays by the nonfiction master, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It is divided into two parts. Part 1, "The Sporting Scene," consists of pieces on fishing, football, golf, and lacrosse--from fly casting for chain pickerel in fall in New Hampshire to walking the linksland of St. Andrews at an Open Championship. Part 2, called "An Album Quilt," is a montage of fragments of varying length from pieces done across the years that have never appeared in book form--occasional pieces, memorial pieces, reflections, reminiscences, and short items in various magazines including The New Yorker . They range from a visit to the Hershey chocolate factory to encounters with Oscar Hammerstein, Joan Baez, and Mount Denali. Emphatically, the author's purpose was not merely to preserve things but to choose passages that might entertain contemporary readers. Starting with 250,000 words, he gradually threw out 75 percent of them, and randomly assembled the remaining fragments into "an album quilt." Among other things, The Patch is a covert memoir.

Author Notes

John McPhee is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Draft No. 4 , Table of Contents , Silk Parachute , and The Survival of the Bark Canoe among many other books. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The latest collection from McPhee (Draft No. 4), a New Yorker staff writer, provides a bountiful cornucopia of insightful essays that display the wide range of his interests and tastes. The title essay begins as a characteristically detailed and observant account of fishing for chain pickerel in a New Hampshire lake before becoming a poignant reminiscence of communicating with his stroke-debilitated father via their shared fondness for fishing. In the other selections grouped under the heading "The Sporting Scene," McPhee riffs on his interest in professional golf, college lacrosse, and even bear sighting at his home in New Jersey. The bulk of the book is composed of "An Album Quilt," a patchwork miscellany of excerpts from never-before-collected, and in some cases unpublished, pieces-each of which could have become a full essay or book on its own-that hopscotches from a visit to the gold-stacked vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to an aromatic traipse across the floor of a Hershey chocolate factory. McPhee delights in cracking open subjects, both ordinary and esoteric, and making them accessible to the layperson in works that testify to his virtuosity as one of the greatest living American essayists. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.