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Writer Peter Matthiessen "On the River Styx."

Naturalist, explorer and writer Peter Matthiessen. For over three decades he's been writing critically acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction. His nonfiction includes the books The Tree Where Man Was Born, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and The Snow Leopard, which won that award. He's also written several novels, including At Play in the Fields of the Lord, also nominated for the National Book Award, and Far Tortuga. His writing addresses themes such as the brutality of nature, and of man's desecration of nature, the compulsion towards violence, the anatomy of bigotry, and the outrage of the oppressed. Matthiessen's new book, On the River Styx and Other Stories, is a collection of short stories written over the span of his literary career. (Rebroadcast. Originally aired April 6, 1989.)

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Other segments from the episode on November 27, 1989

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, November 27, 1989: Interview with Peter Matthiessen; Review of Sofia Gubaidulina albums; Interview with Paul Rudnick and Selma Rudnick; Review of the television show "The…
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Mother and Son Discuss Compulsive Shopping.

Writer and shopper Paul Rudnick, and his mother, Selma. Paul Runick, best-known for his play Poor Little Lambs, for the novel Social Disease, and for his essays in such publications as Esquire and Vanity Fair, has just published a novel about, among other things, a mother and son shopping team. Titled I'll Take It, the thinly veiled autobiographical novel is about the developed inability to resist the temptation to shop, and about the quest for ultimate bliss - a good sale.

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27:44

Writer Peter Matthiessen "On the River Styx"

Matthiessen is a naturalist and novelist who co-founded The Paris Review. His nonfiction has explored Zen Buddhism and American Indians, among other topics. A new collection of his short stories, spanning his entire career, his nearly four-decade long career, just been published.

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