Author and naturalist Peter Matthiessen died on Saturday at the age of 86 after a fight with leukemia. Matthiessen is the author of many works of fiction and nonfiction, including Sal Si Puedes (Escape If You Can): Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution, recently reissued by UC Press.
Matthiessen was a founder of The Paris Review and a three-time National Book Award-winner. He was also a prominent environmental activist. His nonfiction featured nature and travel—notably The Snow Leopard (1978), and the controversial study of the Leonard Peltier case, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983). In 2008, at age 81, Matthiessen received the National Book Award for Fiction for his book, Shadow Country.
Read more at The New York Times, NPR, and The Paris Review.
