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A Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles
In this unique book, John McPhee takes us into the world of several fascinating people. His inimitable style reveals the intricate details of his characters' lives.
1. Thomas P. F. Hoving
2. Euell Gibbons
3. M.I.T. Fellows in Africa
4. Robert Twynam, of Wimbledon
5. Temple Fielding
1. Thomas P. F. Hoving
2. Euell Gibbons
3. M.I.T. Fellows in Africa
4. Robert Twynam, of Wimbledon
5. Temple Fielding
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
19 people are currently reading
259 people want to read
About the author
John McPhee
132 books1,864 followersJohn Angus McPhee is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth occasion in 1999 for Annals of the Former World (a collection of five books, including two of his previous Pulitzer finalists). In 2008, he received the George Polk Career Award for his "indelible mark on American journalism during his nearly half-century career". Since 1974, McPhee has been the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 16, 2009
You know how sometimes you hear that a musician or band that you like, is releasing an acoustic, or rarities, or demo album, and you get excited for it's release, but it always falls flat? And you think to yourself, why did I fall for this again?
First off, Hovings certainly isn't billed as that, but it is one of his earliest books, and the 5 essays here are rarities is some of their style and substance.
As I read through it, I continually found myself making mental lists of all the people I wanted to lend this book to afterwards - not every essay for everyone, but the first one for Bill, the second for Jessica, the third for Bill and Jessica, the fourth for Brad and Reed, etc.
There are some weak points at the beginning of the fifth essay, and in the middle of the third - but otherwise, it was my pleasure.
McPhee was so much more personally involved in the Hoving essay than usual - he is often involved the actual story, but in this case he seemed to be involved in the background of the story.
In the Gibbons story, McPhee includes great background to the events by discussing his attempts to talk Gibbons into their trip.
For M.I.T. fellows in Africa, many parts almost read as a straight history and not the disjointed asides and quotes that usually constitute McPhee.
Wimbeldon grass has a footnote!
And Fielding has flashbacks!
First off, Hovings certainly isn't billed as that, but it is one of his earliest books, and the 5 essays here are rarities is some of their style and substance.
As I read through it, I continually found myself making mental lists of all the people I wanted to lend this book to afterwards - not every essay for everyone, but the first one for Bill, the second for Jessica, the third for Bill and Jessica, the fourth for Brad and Reed, etc.
There are some weak points at the beginning of the fifth essay, and in the middle of the third - but otherwise, it was my pleasure.
McPhee was so much more personally involved in the Hoving essay than usual - he is often involved the actual story, but in this case he seemed to be involved in the background of the story.
In the Gibbons story, McPhee includes great background to the events by discussing his attempts to talk Gibbons into their trip.
For M.I.T. fellows in Africa, many parts almost read as a straight history and not the disjointed asides and quotes that usually constitute McPhee.
Wimbeldon grass has a footnote!
And Fielding has flashbacks!
April 25, 2012
Certainly a good collection of personal profiles, I just didn't find them as compelling as most of his later work.
It could be that I enjoy how he usually inserts his own personal details into his later work. There's a little of that here, just not as much as I'm used to. Without these details, I found these essays to be somewhat flat and impersonal. I suppose it's just the style that was used in magazine writing at the time, which McPhee of course helped to change.
I did enjoy the way he described the travel writer, Fielding. A man who defined himself by his outward appearance, is described by a detailed list of his personal possessions.
It could be that I enjoy how he usually inserts his own personal details into his later work. There's a little of that here, just not as much as I'm used to. Without these details, I found these essays to be somewhat flat and impersonal. I suppose it's just the style that was used in magazine writing at the time, which McPhee of course helped to change.
I did enjoy the way he described the travel writer, Fielding. A man who defined himself by his outward appearance, is described by a detailed list of his personal possessions.
August 18, 2009
OMG best book ever!!
August 6, 2025
Reading A Roomful of Hovings, I was reminded of this Tweet, which perfectly summarizes the difference between a career in writing in the American mid-century and writing now:
As a writer now -- that is to say, someone who has been paid mostly in extremely late freelance checks, if at all -- it was stunning to read John McPhee's profiles, which span as much as 50-60 pages and were printed in a major trade magazine (The New Yorker) in my parents' lifetimes. Now, a profile of any one of these people would be some kind of advertorial piece that you have to scroll through 15 pop-up ads to finish. Obviously, the latitude given to McPhee was given mostly to a certain class of well-bred White dude, so I won't have any false nostalgia for a bygone era of writing. But I will say that considering the profits raked in by multinationals, surely there must be someone out there who can get the ear of a magazine exec to cut them a budget for an article like any one of the profiles in A Roomful of Hovings. A John McPhee-style take on The Rizzler? I'd be here for it.
My attention was drawn to McPhee after the passing of William Langewiesche, a master of longform journalism whose work, more than any other writer's, helped me understand how to improve my prose. McPhee was a similar influence on Langewiesche, and not long into the first profile here, the one that gives the book its name, it's easy to see what captivated Langewiesche. McPhee takes the "Ballin Out Boredest Babes"-esque profile and turns it into high literature, finding curious types (an American wild food forager), hyper-specialists (the groundskeeper at Wimbledon), and good old fashioned eccentrics (Temple Fielding, an author of a popular European travel guide). McPhee restrains judgment, sneaking in perceptive lines about his subjects that are crystalline in their literary construction. Of the subject of the title profile, Thomas Hoving (the director of the Met in New York), for instance, McPhee writes, "He is a lover of intrigue, secrecy, and mystery, and he sometimes finds shadows more interesting than the objects that cast them." If I ever write a sentence that good I can toss away the pen for good, I'd say.
Though I marvel at the space McPhee was afforded in this profiles, at times they drag, and in many cases he lets his subjects prattle on longer than necessary. His restraint in assessing his subjects, while in general the right strategy, falters a bit with the final piece in this collection, "Templex," on the aforementioned Temple Fielding. I have to imagine at least one person among those who came up with the "Most Interesting Person in the World" campaign for Dos Equis knew of this profile, as the breathlessness with which McPhee characterizes Fielding's influence on whole European countries is borderline sponsored content. I'm no expert on the cocktail preferences of the European mid-century, but I question McPhee's assertion in this passage:
May all of us writers find an editor with whom we can build up the equity to get a locution like "Johnny Martiniseed" to survive the first edit.
to be a writer in 1967 meant getting paid the equivalent of $30,000 for an article called “Ballin’ Out The Boredest Babes In The Riviera” and hanging out in a restaurant 19 hours a day. today it means $200 to write the worst idea you can think of so people rage share your article
As a writer now -- that is to say, someone who has been paid mostly in extremely late freelance checks, if at all -- it was stunning to read John McPhee's profiles, which span as much as 50-60 pages and were printed in a major trade magazine (The New Yorker) in my parents' lifetimes. Now, a profile of any one of these people would be some kind of advertorial piece that you have to scroll through 15 pop-up ads to finish. Obviously, the latitude given to McPhee was given mostly to a certain class of well-bred White dude, so I won't have any false nostalgia for a bygone era of writing. But I will say that considering the profits raked in by multinationals, surely there must be someone out there who can get the ear of a magazine exec to cut them a budget for an article like any one of the profiles in A Roomful of Hovings. A John McPhee-style take on The Rizzler? I'd be here for it.
My attention was drawn to McPhee after the passing of William Langewiesche, a master of longform journalism whose work, more than any other writer's, helped me understand how to improve my prose. McPhee was a similar influence on Langewiesche, and not long into the first profile here, the one that gives the book its name, it's easy to see what captivated Langewiesche. McPhee takes the "Ballin Out Boredest Babes"-esque profile and turns it into high literature, finding curious types (an American wild food forager), hyper-specialists (the groundskeeper at Wimbledon), and good old fashioned eccentrics (Temple Fielding, an author of a popular European travel guide). McPhee restrains judgment, sneaking in perceptive lines about his subjects that are crystalline in their literary construction. Of the subject of the title profile, Thomas Hoving (the director of the Met in New York), for instance, McPhee writes, "He is a lover of intrigue, secrecy, and mystery, and he sometimes finds shadows more interesting than the objects that cast them." If I ever write a sentence that good I can toss away the pen for good, I'd say.
Though I marvel at the space McPhee was afforded in this profiles, at times they drag, and in many cases he lets his subjects prattle on longer than necessary. His restraint in assessing his subjects, while in general the right strategy, falters a bit with the final piece in this collection, "Templex," on the aforementioned Temple Fielding. I have to imagine at least one person among those who came up with the "Most Interesting Person in the World" campaign for Dos Equis knew of this profile, as the breathlessness with which McPhee characterizes Fielding's influence on whole European countries is borderline sponsored content. I'm no expert on the cocktail preferences of the European mid-century, but I question McPhee's assertion in this passage:
Some years ago, Martinis of any quality were insignificantly available in Europe, but now there are good ones from Finnmark to Andalusia, and it is possible that Fielding will be remembered as Johnny Martiniseed, the man who ingratiated himself with several thousand European bartenders and then - almost always getting behind the bar himself - taught them how to make his favorite drink.
May all of us writers find an editor with whom we can build up the equity to get a locution like "Johnny Martiniseed" to survive the first edit.
August 28, 2024
10/10. John McPhee is a true master of the written word, and is one of the very, very few nonfiction authors that I am willing and excited to read. Above all others, he has a talent for making even the most mundane subjects fascinating. Whenever I want to improve my own writing fundamentally, his work is the first thing I turn to.
June 6, 2021
100013)
November 27, 2023
Wonderful.
October 26, 2016
In another time, these short biographies/ long essays might have been news features. They are snippets of lives in the 1960s; all important, many less known. Reading his prose made me long for longer nights of reading.
May 5, 2007
Especially liked the profile of the lawnkeeper at Wimbledon.
August 9, 2007
An excellent collection of McPhee's earlier pieces, written well before he buried himself in the world of geology.
April 14, 2011
This guy is one of my writing heroes -- entertaining yet amazingly informing.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews