<p>In 1968, Thomas McGuane (b. 1939) dazzled the literary world with his highly acclaimed debut novel, <i>The Sporting Club</i>. His second work, <i>The Bushwacked Piano</i>, a comic novel, won the Rosenthal Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1974, his third novel, <i>Ninety-two in the Shade</i>, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Critics marveled at McGuane's abilities and drew comparisons between him and America's greatest writers. <p>McGuane has been dubbed "a writer's writer." He has been praised for his technical luminosity, his savagely comic vision of American culture, his cast of unforgettable, existentially blundering protagonists, and his fanatical, fertile, and anything but prosaic imagination. <p><i>Conversations with Thomas McGuane</i> is the first volume of interviews that spans his writing life to date. These exchanges trace the evolution of a mature literary writer and the growth and transformation of a complex and creative mind. <p>Beef Torrey is a psychologist associate at the Beatrice State Developmental Center, in Beatrice, Nebraska. His work has been published in <i>Foreword</i>, <i>Blue Suede News</i>, <i>RayGun</i>, and many other magazines and journals.