The book is Part I of the Library of America’s publication
titled Loren Eiseley: Collected Essays
on Evolution, Nature and the Cosmos, Volume One, edited by William Cronon.
The Library of America (LOA) is my favorite source of reading material. It is a non-profit publisher dedicated to
keeping in print important writings by American writers, preserving the
availability of classics of literature that have passed their commercial appeal,
but not their importance. Their books are
available individually, or via subscription – I’m not sure when I started my
subscription, but my personal library now includes 182 volumes from LOA.
Eiseley (1907 – 1977) was a scientist, an anthropologist
& paleontologist, who became an educator, crossing over to writer … and a
very good writer. You can call him an "off-spring" of Henry David Thoreau, credit him as the
literary father of Carl Sagan, and rank him as a “kissing cousin” contemporary
of Ray Bradbury.
The Immense Journey was his first book, collecting 13 of his
essays that had been printed in magazines or as academic papers. It was published in 1957, when I was four
years old. That date is important when
reading his work because in 1957 carbon-dating was a new technology, and DNA
sequencing merely a somewhat bizarre theory. Yet, his
essays are as on target in 2017 as they were then.
While a scientist, Eiseley was also decidedly a naturalist. My favorite selection in the book is The Judgement of the Birds. It needs to be
required reading for humanity, of all species.
The opening essay, The Slit, is a captivating short story
about descending into (and out of) a mountain crevice, and taking account of
the anthropologic passage of time while doing so. How Flowers Changed the World is an
important exposition on Darwin. And, Little Men and Flying Saucers is one of two
humorous essays on scientific fraud – science as P.T. Barnum would have it.
Recommendation: All
in all a completly interesting collection that has left me eager to read more
of Eiseley’s work.
and required reading for the current administration
ReplyDelete