Peter Hessler (b. June 14, 1969) is an American writer and
journalist. He is the author of three books about China,
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (2001),
Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present (2006), and
Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory (2010).
Early life
Peter Hessler grew up in
Columbia, Missouri and graduated from
Hickman High School in 1988. His father was a
sociology professor at the
University of Missouri, and his mother teaches history at
Columbia College, Missouri. He became interested in literature and writing while in high school. He went on to study English and creative writing at
Princeton University, where, during his junior year, he took
John McPhee's renowned writing seminar. Hessler graduated in 1992 and won a
Rhodes Scholarship to study English language and literature at the
University of Oxford.
The summer before graduating from Princeton, Hessler worked as a researcher for the
Kellogg Foundation in southeastern Missouri. He wrote an extensive ethnography about a small town called
Sikeston. It was published in the
Journal for Applied Anthropology.
Career
Hessler joined the
Peace Corps in 1996 and was sent to...
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