I’ve recently taken a lot of comfort from this Paris Review Q&A with John McPhee, in which the non-fiction master confesses that his writing remains a day-to-day struggle. (Celebrities—just like us!) But while most of the interview is dedicated to the creative process and the occasional madness it engenders, there is also this dead-on snippet […]
Tags:Cameroon·geology·John McPhee·language·philosophy·pidgin·writing
An absolutely haunting collection of photographs that document America’s push westward. The one above is by no means the most dramatic, but something about the facial expressions stuck with us. The caption simply reads: A noon meal in Ferdinand V. Hayden’s camp of the U.S. Geological Survey. Red Buttes, Wyo. Terr., August 24, 1870. Hayden […]
Tags:Ferdinand V. Hayden·geology·National Archives·surveying·U.S. history·Wyoming
