John McPhee, Deerfield Class of 1949, is recognized as one of the greatest living nonfiction writers in the English language. He has authored more than a hundred articles during his 64 years as a contributor to The New Yorker and has published 33 books, including The Headmaster, his profile of Frank Boyden, and Annals of the Former World, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999.
Noel Rubinton ’73, a former reporter for Newsday whose work has appeared in The Atlantic and the Washington Post, has read every word that Mr. McPhee has published. (That’s three million words in total!) That depth of scholarship provides the basis for Mr. Rubinton’s new book, Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee (Princeton University Press, 2025).
Mr. Rubinton will be at sitdown dinner on Sunday and, afterward, we will hold a community event in the Garonzik Auditorium where he will discuss Mr. McPhee’s career and the life of a writer in conversation with our own Jean Meza ’26 and Silvie Sobotka ’26.
Copies of Looking for a Story are available in Hitchcock House, which is open from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm on Saturday.