Lost Man's River

“When you write about Peter Matthiessen, ‘great' is a word you are sorry to have overused.… He has a genius for turning the story of where he has been into something intelligent and permanent and grand.”

—
San Francisco Examiner

“Riveting … Matthiessen has lost none of his skill for describing action.”

—
The Washington Post Book World

“Matthiessen is two-thirds of the way toward realizing a monumental portrait of a ruinous time and a nearly ruined place.”

—
Outside

“Wild and tragic.… Deeply textured.… We are forced to understand that this is not Mister Watson's story anymore. It is not even Mister Matthiessen's. It is ours.”

—
The Seattle Times

“Elegant storytelling … deeply textured.… A family saga full of regret and shattered lives.”

—
The Miami Herald

“As with
Killing Mister Watson
 … Matthiessen's loving descriptions of wildlife, human swamp dwellers and the interwoven land and water of the coastal islands … is first rate.”

—
Time

“[Matthiessen is] one of our few genuine masters.”

—Thomas McGuane

“An original and powerful artist … who has produced as impressive a body of work as that of any writer of our time.”

—William Styron

“A large, vivid, ambitious novel … a powerful meditation on the sources of American violence. Matthiessen has produced one of the best novels of recent years.”

—
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

Acclaim for
KILLING MISTER WATSON

“What a marvel of invention this novel is … a virtuoso performance.
Killing Mister Watson
is Peter Matthiessen at his best.”

—
The New York Times Book Review

“This novel stands with the best that our nation has produced as literature.… As a philosophical study of the quality of human—and all—nature, it is first rate. As a political allegory, it is stunning.”

—
Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Intricately structured, richly documented, utterly convincing … certain to linger in the memory like an experience we have lived through.”

—
The Washington Post Book World

“Matthiessen's moral anguish is inescapable, and he can write like an avenging angel.”

—
Time

“An important and deeply satisfying book, and one that may justifiably be compared to the very finest of American novels.”

—
St. Petersburg Times

“A stunning, imaginative feat.”

—
San Francisco Chronicle

“Brilliant … 
Killing Mister Watson
is spellbinding.”

—
The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Powerful and unforgettable.”

—
Chicago Tribune

“A work of freewheeling imagination … creating engaging, vivid and convincing voices.”

—
The Boston Globe

Peter Matthiessen
LOST MAN'S RIVER

Peter Matthiessen was born in New York City in 1927 and had already begun his writing career by the time he graduated from Yale University in 1950. The following year, he was a founder of
The Paris Review
. Besides
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
, which was nominated for the National Book Award, he has published six other works of fiction, including
Far Tortuga
and
Killing Mister Watson
. Mr. Matthiessen's parallel career as a naturalist and explorer has resulted in numerous widely acclaimed books of nonfiction, among them
The Tree Where Man Was Born
, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and
The Snow Leopard
, which won it.

Fiction

Race Rock
Partisans
Raditzer
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
Far Tortuga
On the River Styx and Other Stories
Killing Mister Watson

Nonfiction

Wildlife in America
The Cloud Forest
Under the Mountain Wall
Sal Si Puedes
The Wind Birds
Blue Meridian
The Tree Where Man Was Born
The Snow Leopard
Sand Rivers
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Indian Country
Nine-Headed Dragon River
Men's Lives
African Silences
East of Lo Monthang

A man still known in his community as E. J. Watson has been reimagined from the few hard “facts”—census and marriage records, dates on gravestones, and the like. All the rest of the popular record is a mix of rumor, gossip, tale, and legend that has evolved over eight decades into myth.

This book reflects my own instincts and intuitions about Watson. It is fiction, and the great majority of the episodes and accounts are my own creation. The book is in no way “historical,” since almost nothing here is history. On the other hand, there is nothing that could
not
have happened—nothing inconsistent, that is, with the very little that is actually on record. It is my hope and strong belief that this reimagined life contains much more of the
truth
of Mr. Watson than the lurid and popularly accepted “facts” of the Watson legend.

—from the Author's Note for
Killing Mister Watson
(1990)

Lost Man's River
is the second volume of a trilogy and, like the first, is entirely a work of fiction. Certain historical names are used for the sake of continuity with the first volume (including the name of the narrator/protagonist Lucius Watson and his family members), and certain situations and anecdotes have been inspired in part by real-life incidents, but no character is based on or intended to depict an actual person, and all episodes and dialogues between the characters are products of the author's imagination.

Once again, I am grateful for the kind assistance of the pioneer families of southwest Florida, who cheerfully supplied much local information, both historical and anecdotal. None of these friends and informants are responsible for the author's use of that material, or for his fictional renditions of the life and times of these families and others.

—Peter Matthiessen

His paternal grandparents:

His parents:

Edgar Artemas
*
Watson

1st Wife (1878): Ann Mary “Charlie” (Collins) Watson, 1862–1879