Thursday, December 12, 2002

A NOBLE THOUGHT: A bunch of us were emailing around one day debating the following question: the next time a writer working in the English language wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, who should it be?

Philip Roth and Thomas Pynchon were among the more worthy names tossed around, and I added two to the discussion. My first choice was the Czech-born playwright Tom Stoppard, whose brilliant words and sheer wit, questioning and considering everything, embody the best of what writing can do.

My number two choice was a bit of an odd one: Princeton's John McPhee, America's best nonfiction writer, and I'm posting this today because this profile in yesterday's Boston Globe makes this case for his all-encompassing brilliance far better than I could (which does not get much more articulate than drooling over his Bill Bradley pieces.)

He would not be the first Nobel laureate to win for non-fiction writing, and he would be as worthy as they come.

Disclaimer: My wife was a student of his at Princeton.

No comments:

Post a Comment