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An ardent steward of the land, fearless traveller and unrivalled
observer of nature and culture, Barry Lopez died after a long
illness on Christmas Day in 2020. The previous summer, a wildfire
had consumed much of what was dear to him in his home and the
community around it - a tragic reminder of the climate change of
which he'd long warned. At once a cri de Coeur and a memoir of both
pain and wonder, this remarkable collection of essays adds
indelibly to Lopez's legacy, and includes previously unpublished
works, some written in the months before his death. They unspool
memories, both personal and political, among them tender, sometimes
painful stories of his childhood in New York and California,
reports from expeditions to study animals and sea life,
recollections of travels to Antarctica and other extraordinary
places on earth, and mediations on finding oneself amid vast,
dramatic landscapes. He reflects on those who taught him, including
Indigenous elders and scientific mentors who sharpened his eye for
the natural world. We witness poignant returns from his travels to
the sanctuary of his Oregon backyard and in prose of searing
candour, he reckons with the cycle of life, including own and - as
he has done throughout his career - with the dangers the earth and
its people are facing. With an introduction by Rebecca Solnit that
speaks to Lopez's keen attention to the world, including its
spiritual dimensions, Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World opens
our minds and sounds to the important of being wholly present to
the beauty and complexity of life.
Barry Lopez had no illusions about the seriousness of our global
crisis, yet he also felt a deep conviction about the power of hope
and the sources of renewal in the living world. Syntax of the River
is an extended conversation spanning three days between Lopez and
Julia Martin in which he explores what this juxtaposition means for
him as a writer. On the first day Lopez reflects on years watching
the McKenzie River near his home in Oregon. He describes the
quality of attention he learned from intimacy with the place
itself: a very fine distinction between silence and stillness, the
rich complexities of the present moment, and the syntax of
interrelationships between living things. The second day is
concerned with craft: the work of making sentences and books. Lopez
shares his practical strategies for writing and revising a
manuscript and goes on to speak about vulnerability. He says he
often experienced a deep sense of doubt about his capacity to
achieve whatever he was trying to do in a particular project. Over
time, though, this characteristic experience of not-knowing became
a kind of fuel for his work, and even a weapon at times. On the
final day, Lopez ponders the idea of writing as a praxis, a way of
life, even a prayer for the earth, while concurrently being
terrified by the portents of its destruction. Here, the experience
of being an attentive participant emerges as his core teaching.
Over the decades he developed a practice of attention that was
endlessly curious and enthralled by the living world, what he calls
its pattern or syntax. Despite acclaim as a celebrated writer,
throughout his career Lopez humbly tasked himself with making a
combination of wonder and horror work together to effectively
communicate a life journey of contemplation, exploration, and
discovery.
Hailed by book reviewers as a "masterpiece," "gorgeous and
fascinating," and "sheer pleasure," Home Ground: Language for an
American Landscape was published in fall 2006 in hardcover. It was
met with outstanding reviews and strong sales, going into three
printings. A language-lover's dream, this visionary reference
revitalized a descriptive language for the American landscape by
combining geography, literature, and folklore in one volume. This
is a totally redesigned, near-pocket-sized field guide edition of
the best-selling hardcover. Home Ground brings together 45 poets
and writers to create more than 850 original definitions for words
that describe our lands and waters. The writers draw from careful
research and their own distinctive stylistic, personal, and
regional diversity to portray in bright, precise prose the striking
complexity of the landscapes we inhabit. Includes an introductory
essay by Barry Lopez. At the heart of the book is a community of
writers in service to their country, emphasizing a language
suggesting the vastness and mystery that lie beyond our everyday
words.
Originally published in 1978, this special twenty-fifth-anniversary
edition of the National Book Award finalist includes an entirely
new afterword in which the author considers the current state of
knowledge about wolves and recent efforts to reintroduce wolves to
their former habitats in American wilderness areas. Humankind's
relationship with the wolf is based on a spectrum of responses
running from fear to admiration and affection. Lopez's classic,
careful study won praise from a wide range of reviewers and went on
to improve the way books about wild animals are written. Of Wolves
and Men reveals the uneasy interaction between wolves and
civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's prominence in our
thoughts about wild creatures. Drawing on an astonishing array of
literature, history, science, and mythology as well as considerable
personal experience with captive and free-ranging wolves, Lopez
argues for the necessity of the wolf's preservation and envelops
the reader in its sensory world, creating a compelling picture of
the wolf both as real animal and as imagined by man. A scientist
might perceive the wolf as defined by research data, while an
Eskimo hunter sees a family provider much like himself. For many
Native Americans the wolf is also a spiritual symbol, a respected
animal that can make both the individual and the community
stronger. With irresistible charm and elegance, Of Wolves and Men
celebrates scientific fieldwork, dispels folklore that has enabled
the Western mind to demonize wolves, explains myths, and honors
indigenous traditions, allowing us to further understand how this
incredible animal has come to live so strongly in the human heart.
The western mindset is arguably one of the greatest threats to the
world's ecological balance. Corporatism and globalization are two
of the obvious villains here, but what part does human nature play
in the problem? Since its inception in 1982, "Orion" magazine has
been a forum for looking beyond the effects of ecological crises to
their root causes in human culture. Less an anthology than a vision
statement, this timely collection challenges the division of human
society from the natural world that has often characterized
traditional environmentalism. Edited and introduced by Barry Lopez,
"The Future of Nature" encompasses such topics as local economies,
the social dynamics of activism, America's incarceration society,
naturalism in higher education, developing nations, spiritual
ecology, the military-industrial landscape, and the persistent
tyranny of wilderness designation. Featuring the fine writing and
insights for which "Orion" is famous, this book is required reading
for anyone interested in a livable future for the planet.
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Horizon (Paperback)
Barry Lopez
1
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R355
R293
Discovery Miles 2 930
Save R62 (17%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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'Horizon is magnificent; a contemporary epic' Robert Macfarlane,
author of Underland From the author of the classic Arctic Dreams
comes a vivid recollection of his travels around the world and the
encounters that shaped an extraordinary life. Taking us nearly from
pole to pole - from modern megacities to some of the earth's most
remote regions - Barry Lopez gives us his most far-ranging and
personal work. Spanning decades of travel, Horizon describes
journeys to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the
High Arctic; from the Galapagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany
Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of
Antarctica. Lopez also probes the history of humanity's quests and
explorations, from prehistoric expeditions to today's ecotourism.
He takes us to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate
places on the globe, via friendships with scientists,
archaeologists, artists and local residents, in a book that makes
us see the world differently. It is the crowning achievement of one
of the world's best travel writers. 'The greatest nature writer in
the world ... He is also the greatest travel writer ... [an]
astounding new memoir' Sunday Times
Barry Lopez's National Book Award-winning classic study of the Far North is widely considered his masterpiece.
Lopez offers a thorough examination of this obscure world-its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires, and dreams. Its prose as hauntingly pure as the land it describes, Arctic Dreams is nothing less than an indelible classic of modern literature.
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Horizon (Paperback)
Barry Lopez
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R507
R393
Discovery Miles 3 930
Save R114 (22%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Stand at the rim of Palo Duro Canyon or look down from any vista
along the caprock, and let your imagination take over. Beneath an
endless canopy of blue, you find yourself at the edge of an
enormous island of rippling grassland that stretches from the New
Mexico borderlands down through the Texas Panhandle.The Llano
Estacado, Coronado's legendary "staked plains," comprises all or
part of thirty-three counties in Texas and four in New Mexico. It
covers approximately 32,000 square miles of arid prairie used
primarily today for ranching and farming. It lies atop the vast
Ogalalla Aquifer--its primary source of water--and partially covers
the oil-bearing Permian Basin. Its population, outside of four
mid-sized cities, is sparse.The Llano has always required and
appealed to discerning eyes. The artists and writers gathered here
are hardly the first to have felt the pull of this place or the
urgency to capture its essence. Yet the idiosyncrasies and ideals,
the successes and failures, the strangeness and beauty and power of
the land and its people beckon fresh discovery. Look at the Llano
with eyes open to possibility, and you will encounter the
unexpected, a keener understanding of the ways in which landscape
and life are always inescapably intertwined, thrumming, as Barry
Lopez suggests, the eternal questions: Where are we? And where do
we go from here?
The Best American series has been the premier annual showcase for
the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction since 1915. For
each volume, the very best pieces are selected by a leading writer
in the field, making the Best American series the most respected --
and most popular -- of its kind.
The Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 includes
Mary Gordon - Natalie Goldberg - Oliver Sacks - Ptolemy Tompkins -
Patricia Hampl - Gary Snyder - Charles Johnson - Harvey Cox - Todd
Gitlin - Bill McKibben - Philip Levine - W. S. Merwin - and others
Philip Zaleski, editor, is the author of The Recollected Heart, The
Book of Heaven, and, most recently, Prayer: A History (with Carol
Zaleski). He is a senior editor of Parabola and a research
associate in religion at Smith College.
Barry Lopez is the author of Arctic Dreams, the illustrated fable
Crow and Weasel, and several essay and short story collections,
including About This Life and Resistance. He has received the
National Book Award and other honors.
Originally published in 1978, this special twenty-fifth-anniversary
edition of the National Book Award finalist includes an entirely
new afterword in which the author considers the current state of
knowledge about wolves and recent efforts to reintroduce wolves to
their former habitats in American wilderness areas.
Humankind's relationship with the wolf is based on a spectrum of
responses running from fear to admiration and affection. Lopez's
classic, careful study won praise from a wide range of reviewers
and went on to improve the way books about wild animals are
written. "Of Wolves and Men" reveals the uneasy interaction between
wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's
prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures. Drawing on an
astonishing array of literature, history, science, and mythology as
well as considerable personal experience with captive and
free-ranging wolves, Lopez argues for the necessity of the wolf's
preservation and envelops the reader in its sensory world, creating
a compelling picture of the wolf both as real animal and as
imagined by man. A scientist might perceive the wolf as defined by
research data, while an Eskimo hunter sees a family provider much
like himself. For many Native Americans the wolf is also a
spiritual symbol, a respected animal that can make both the
individual and the community stronger. With irresistible charm and
elegance, "Of Wolves and Men" celebrates scientific fieldwork,
dispels folklore that has enabled the Western mind to demonize
wolves, explains myths, and honors indigenous traditions, allowing
us to further understand how this incredible animal has come to
live so strongly in the human heart.
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Arctic Dreams (Paperback)
Barry Lopez; Introduction by Robert Macfarlane
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R352
R289
Discovery Miles 2 890
Save R63 (18%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4** 'A master nature writer' (New York
Times) provides the ultimate natural, social and cultural history
of the Arctic landscape. The author of Horizon's classic work
explores the Arctic landscape and the hold it continues to exert on
our imagination. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE Lopez's
journey across our frozen planet is a celebration of the Arctic in
all its guises. A hostile landscape of ice, freezing oceans and
dazzling skyscapes. Home to millions of diverse animals and people.
The stage to massive migrations by land, sea and air. The setting
of epic exploratory voyages. In crystalline prose, Lopez captures
the magic of the Arctic: the essential mystery and beauty of a
continent that has enchanted man's imagination and ambition for
centuries. 'The Arctic dreamland seen and described by a writer of
rare perception and poetic descriptive power... The pages sparkle
with Arctic light' Scotsman
Two volumes of fiction from the National Book Award-winning author
of Arctic Dreams: "Lopez feels a deep spiritual connection to the
natural world." -San Francisco Chronicle To National Book
Award-winning author Barry Lopez, the desert and the river are
landscapes alive with poetry, mystery, seduction, and enchantment.
In these two works of fiction, the narrator responds viscerally and
emotionally to their moods and changes, their secrets and silences,
and their unique power. Desert Notes portrays the mystical power of
an American desert, and the reflections it sparks in the characters
who travel there. River Notes, a companion piece, celebrates the
wild life forces of a river, calling readers to think deeply on
identity and about the hopefulness of their onward journeys, with a
lyrical collection of memories, stories, and dreams. From an
evocative tale of finding a hot spring in a desert to a meditation
on the thoughts and dreams of herons, Lopez offers enthralling
stories that enable us to see and feel the rhythms of the
wilderness. These sojourns bring readers a specific sense of the
darkness, light, and resolve that we encounter within ourselves
when away from home.
In this collection of twelve stories, Barry Lopez--the National
Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams and one of our most
admired writers--evokes the longing we feel for beauty in our
relationships with one another, with the past, and with nature.
An anthropologist traveling with an aboriginal people finds that,
because of his aggressive desire to understand them, they remain
always disturbingly unknowable. A successful financial consultant,
failing to discover his roots in Africa, jogs from Connecticut to
the Pacific Ocean in order to forge an indigenous connection to the
American landscape. A paleontologist is haunted by visions of
wildlife in a vacant lot in Manhattan. In simple, crystalline
prose, Lopez evokes a sense of the magic and marvelous strangeness
of the world, and a deep compassion for the human predicament.
" The Spanish incursion into the New World, with its brutal
destruction of indigenous peoples and their cultures and its
material exploitation of much of two continents, reverberates in
our history down to the present century. So contends prize-winning
writer Barry Lopez in this beautifully written book. "The quest for
personal possessions," he observes, "was to be, from the outset, a
series of raids, irresponsible and criminal, a spree, in which an
end to it was never visible... in which an end to it had no
meaning." In this luminous essay, written five hundred years after
the Spanish conquest, Lopez reexamines the attitudes that informed
that event and that have underlain the entire European settlement
of America. "The assumption of an imperial right conferred by God,
sanctioned by the state, and enforced by the militia, the
assumption that one is due wealth in North America," he writes, is
apparent in the journals of people on the Oregon Trail, in the
pronouncements of nineteenth-century industrialists, and in the
political rhetoric of our own day. But, for Lopez, coming to grips
with this terrible legacy opens new possibilities. "This violent
corruption needn't define us. We can take the measure of the horror
and assert that we will not be bound by it." We can "rediscover"
our continent -- not as a source of income but as a home, a place
in which we are to find our strength and character, and in which
certain moral courtesies and obligations obtain. We can develop a
philosophy of place will enable us, finally, to take up a true
residence in our homeland. Here is a voice for our time.
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Resistance (Paperback)
Barry Lopez
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R444
R386
Discovery Miles 3 860
Save R58 (13%)
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From the National Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams," a
highly charged, stunningly original work of fiction-a passionate
response to the changes shaping our country today. In nine
fictional testimonies, men and women who have resisted the
mainstream and who are now suddenly "parties of interest" to the
government tell their stories.
A young woman in Buenos Aires watches bitterly as her family
dissolves in betrayal and illness, but chooses to seek a new
understanding of compassion rather than revenge. A carpenter
traveling in India changes his life when he explodes in an act of
violence out of proportion to its cause. The beginning of the end
of a man's lifelong search for coherence is sparked by a Montana
grizzly. A man blinded in the war in Vietnam wrestles with the
implications of his actions as a soldier-and with innocence, both
lost and regained.
Punctuated with haunting images by acclaimed artist Alan Magee,
Resistance is powerful fiction with enormous significance for our
times.
Five hundred years ago an Italian whose name, translated into English, meant Christopher Dove, came to America and began a process not of discovery, but incursion -- "a ruthless, angry search for wealth" that continues to the present day. This provocative and superbly written book gives a true assessment of Columbus's legacy while taking the first steps toward its redemption. Even as he draws a direct line between the atrocities of Spanish conquistadors and the ongoing pillage of our lands and waters, Barry Lopez challenges us to adopt an ethic that will make further depredations impossible. The Rediscovery of North America is a ringingly persuasive call for us, at long last, to make this country our home.
The author travels through the American Southwest and Alaska, discussing endangered wildlife and forgotten cultures.
From the author of the National Book Award-winning Arctic Dreams
comes a masterful work of fiction, a collection of stories that
balances the marvelous and the real, intellect and heart, with
extraordinary grace.
Set variously in Peru, Chine, the Caribbean, California, and the
American West, here are tales of men and women exploring the
landscapes of their own innocence and desire; confronting violence,
estrangement, and the disillusionment of war; or encountering the
hope, fierce integrity, defiance, and wisdom of others. A packet of
recently discovered seventeenth-century Peruvian love letters
presents a twentieth-century man with the paralyzing choice of
either protecting or exposing their stunning secret. A man's
encounter with a young deaf girl ("eerie in her stillness and
independence") rearranges his notions of pity. When some young boys
on the lookout for easy money get caught with a truckload of stolen
horses, their fates raise questions of justice and redemption. For
a group of convicts, a gathering of birds in the prison yard may be
the key to transcendence, both figurative and literal. Here are
saints who shouldn't touch, but do; sinners who insist on the life
of the spirit; a postcard paradise that turns into a nightmare.
With "Light Action in the Caribbean," Barry Lopez, whose fiction
has been hailed as "haunting... mysterious" (Time) and
"superb...exquisitely wrought" (SF Chronicle), carries his central
concerns -- place, compassion, memory, the quest of the traveler --
to exciting new frontiers, both geographic and emotional.
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