Editing John McPhee (section)

== Writing career ==
McPhee's writing career began at ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, and led to a long association with the weekly magazine ''[[The New Yorker]]'' from 1963<ref>{{cite web|title=John McPhee The New Yorker|url=https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/john-mcphee|website=newyorker.com|access-date=23 August 2017}}</ref> to the present. Many of his 31 books include material originally written for ''The New Yorker,'' where he has been a staff writer since 1965.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/eighty-five-from-the-archive-john-mcphee |title=Eighty Five from the Archive|magazine= The New Yorker}}</ref>

Unlike [[Tom Wolfe]] and [[Hunter Thompson]], who helped kick-start the "[[new journalism]]" of the 1960s, McPhee produced a gentler, more literary style of writing that more thoroughly incorporated techniques from fiction. He avoided Wolfe's and Thompson's [[Stream of consciousness|stream-of-consciousness]] style, using detailed description of characters and vivid language to make his writing lively and personal, even when it focused on obscure or difficult topics. He is highly regarded by fellow writers for the quality, quantity, and diversity of his literary output.<ref name="RWest">While being interviewed on the August 27, 2009, edition of ''Radio West'' (KUER, Salt Lake City, Utah), writer [[Christopher Cokinos]] said that he has a sign above his desk which says ''Too tired to write?  John McPhee isn't.''</ref><ref name="Royte">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/books/review/Royte-t.html | work=New York Times | first=Elizabeth | last=Royte | title=At Close Range | date=March 21, 2010}}</ref>

Reflecting his personal interests, McPhee's subjects are highly eclectic. He has written pieces on [[lifting body|lifting-body]] development (''The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed''), the psyche and experience of a nuclear engineer (''The Curve of Binding Energy''), a New Jersey wilderness area (''[[The Pine Barrens]]''), the [[United States Merchant Marine]] (''Looking for a Ship''), [[farmers' market]]s (''Giving Good Weight''), the movement of coal across America ("Coal Train" in ''Uncommon Carriers''), the shifting flow of the [[Mississippi River]] ("Atchafalaya" in ''The Control of Nature''), [[geology]] (in several books), as well as a short book entirely about [[Orange (fruit)|oranges]]. One of his most widely read books, ''[[Coming into the Country]]'', is about the three faces of Alaska: the urban, the rural, and the [[Alaska Interior|Alaskan wilderness]].

McPhee has profiled a number of famous people, including conservationist [[David Brower]] in ''[[Encounters with the Archdruid]]'', and the young [[Bill Bradley]], whom McPhee followed closely during Bradley's four-year [[basketball]] career at [[Princeton University]].