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For twenty years McPhee travelled with geologists along Interstate 80, reading the rock exposed in the road cuts. The four books that came out of it, gathered with a new fifth section as Annals of the Former World, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. He has written about oranges, a headmaster, a birchbark canoe, the Swiss army, the Mississippi's attempt to change its course and the coal trains of the Powder River Basin, almost all of it first in The New Yorker, and he has taught a writing course at Princeton since 1975. His newest book, Tabula Rasa (2023), is about the pieces he never wrote. The ten below were chosen on two counts: each spent a long time inside one subject, and each built a structure that hides how difficult the material is.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Literary non-fiction · Place, science and structure · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love John McPhee, the closest match is Tracy Kidder: the same patience with subjects nobody expected to carry a book. For the natural world, read Annie Dillard and Elizabeth Kolbert; for geology told as story, Simon Winchester; and for walking through deep time, Robert Macfarlane. Tom Wolfe is the opposite school, useful for seeing what McPhee leaves out. Each entry below says what they immersed themselves in and how they built it.
Where to start if you loved John McPhee
If you want the closest match, read Tracy Kidder.
The Soul of a New Machine. A computer, a deadline and the engineers who built it.
If you came for the landscape, read Annie Dillard.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. One creek, one year, every detail.
If you came for the science, read Elizabeth Kolbert.
The Sixth Extinction. Thirteen species, one argument.
If you came for the geology, read Robert Macfarlane.
Underland. Deep time, from caves to burial chambers.
If you want where it began, read Joseph Mitchell.
Up in the Old Hotel. The New York waterfront, before McPhee.
If you want more science writing
My list of the best science books has the rest.
10 authors like John McPhee
Frequently asked questions about authors like John McPhee
Who should I read if I love John McPhee?
Tracy Kidder is the closest match, with the same patience for subjects nobody expected to carry a book. Annie Dillard and Elizabeth Kolbert write the natural world with the same exactness, Simon Winchester and Robert Macfarlane write geology and deep time for general readers, and Susan Orlean, William Langewiesche and Ian Frazier share his long, curious form. Joseph Mitchell came before him at The New Yorker, and Tom Wolfe is the opposite school.
What books are like Annals of the Former World?
Underland by Robert Macfarlane (2019), on deep time and what lies beneath the surface; The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester (2001), on the first geological map of Britain; and The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (2014), which reads the fossil record forward into the present.
What is John McPhee's most famous book?
Coming into the Country (1977), about Alaska, is the one most often named. Annals of the Former World (1998), his geology of North America, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999.
Did John McPhee teach other writers?
Yes. He has taught a non-fiction writing course at Princeton since 1975, and many of his students became well-known writers. His book Draft No. 4 (2017) collects what he teaches about structure and revision.
Where should I start with John McPhee?
Coming into the Country (1977) for Alaska and its people, or Oranges (1967) to see how much he can make of a small subject. My guide to all thirty-six John McPhee books in order covers every one.
Footnotes
List last reviewed 5 October 2026.
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“Writing is selection.”
— John McPhee, Draft No. 4 (2017)
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