The Blue Hill Public Library and Blue Hill Books are cosponsoring an author talk with Noel Rubinton on his new book, Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee on Tuesday, July 15 at 7PM in the library's Howard Room. 

In this talk, Noel Rubinton will touch on the classics of McPhee, including The Pine Barrens, Encounters with the Archdruid, The Survival of the Bark Canoe, and The Control of Nature, as well as some little-known parts of McPhee's life, like his time as a screenwriter for a 1950s drama series on NBC, or his various books on geology.

John McPhee has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1965 and has written more than thirty acclaimed books that began on the magazine’s pages. But few readers know or fully appreciate the true breadth of his writing. Looking for a Story is a complete reader’s guide to McPhee’s vast published work, documenting much rarely seen or connected with McPhee, including remarkable early writing for Time magazine published without his name.

In chronicling McPhee’s career where he broke ground applying devices long associated with fiction to the literature of fact, Noel Rubinton gives insights into McPhee’s techniques, choice of subjects, and research methods, shedding light on how McPhee turns complicated subjects like geology into compelling stories. Beyond detailing more than seventy years of McPhee’s writing, Rubinton recounts McPhee’s half century as a Princeton University writing professor, a little known part of his legacy. McPhee inspired generations of students who wrote hundreds of books of their own, also catalogued here.

Noel Rubinton is a journalist whose writing has appeared in leading publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He was a reporter and editor for Newsday for many years. He is a frequent visitor to Maine and is a long-time reader and admirer of E.B. White.

This talk is free and open to the public. Blue Hill Books will be on site with copies of the book available for purchase. For more information, please call the library at 374-5515 or email Assistant Director Kayleigh Thomas at kayleigh.thomas@bhpl.net.