Loren Eiseley - Essayist, Philosopher, Literary Naturalist

Welcome Eiseley fans and visitors,

We are pleased to have you come and visit our website, and we hope you will take some time to explore. The Loren Eiseley Society (LES) has undergone a renewal and revitalization since Eiseley's 2007 centennial year. Below is a list of some of the projects we're working on. Please let us know if you want to help us!

  • Front cover of the Loren Eiseley Reader
    Loren Eiseley Reader Cover
    The Loren Eiseley Reader, a very special collection of his most popular essays and poems, which has just been published and is now available for purchase in hardcover book form. The book has new illustrations, photos, a map of Eiseley's Nebraska, and a foreword by noted author Ray Bradbury. Although many of the books are destined for Nebraska schools and libraries, you can buy the Reader directly from us.
  • Eiseley Curriculum Development: For those of you who are teachers or who know teachers, we are developing educational packages for the K-12 classrooms in order to introduce Eiseley to a new generation of young people. If you are teaching Eiseley in your classroom, we would love to post your curriculum unit/syllabus on our web site as a resource for other teachers. A sample lesson is shown on our website.
  • LES on Facebook: The Loren Eiseley Society is on Facebook! For those of you with Facebook accounts, type "Loren Eiseley Society" in the search bar to find our group page. You can post comments and photos, start a discussion, and find out about all things Eiseley. Sign up and join our discussion!
  • University of Pennsylvania Collaboration: We continue to work closely with Mark Lloyd of the University of Pennsylvania where Loren Eiseley worked for most of his professional life and where the Eiseley archives are located.
  • Loren Eiseley Nature Center: A long-term goal is to create a Loren Eiseley Nature Center at the University of Nebraska's Glacier Creek Preserve.

We are currently conducting a special fund drive for matching funds that are needed to meet the terms of a Peter Kiewit Foundation Challenge Grant for the Reader and curriculum development projects. Any donation, large or small, would help us with this effort.

The Loren Eiseley Society is an all-volunteer organization; we have no paid staff. All contributions go directly to support our educational and outreach programs. Please also consider making a donation to LES. You may find our contact information on our Contact Us / FAQ page if you have any questions about making a donation.

In my travels to both coasts, I know that he has had a strong following over the decades throughout the United States. More than ever, with the world becoming flatter and the myriad issues regarding global warming, pollution, population growth and resource depletion, Eiseley's message may have a special relevancy today in the face of growing world uncertainty with hidden shoals that could be dangerous to our future. In fact, Loren Eiseley may very well prove to be a shaman of our times, providing his special enlightenment for all humankind.

Bing Chen, President, Loren Eiseley Society

 

Loren Eiseley wrote that the brain of a writer is like an attic in which pictures from the past are stored and brought forth to be magnified or reduced in order to form a pattern. Many of the patterns he created in the sixteen books that won him international fame originated with experience he laid away during his early years in Nebraska.

Loren Eiseley's work is outstanding for its richness and the beauty of his language and metaphors; for his ability to portray the long, slow passage of time and the meaning of the past in the present; for his portrayal of the relationships among all living things; for his concern about the future, his awareness of how man's idolization of the machine, an unthinking, unfeeling material thing, was changing the world.

The Loren Eiseley Society was formed in 1982 to encourage interest in and knowledge of Loren Eiseley's work, to provide a forum for readers and scholars, and to collect and preserve material about his life and writing.

Free Event:
Topic: Loren Eiseley: Anthropologist, Nature Writer, Philosopher, and Birdwatcher, Too by Tom Lynch
Date: Thu., Mar. 14, 2024
Time: 7pm CDT
Place: YouTube Livestream
Info: Event & Connection Info
Announcement:
January 9, 2023:


The Star Thrower Opera has been postponed indefinitely.

During this time, we will be reviewing and discussing a supplemental content framework designed to surround the opera and deliver Eiseley's message to a broader audience.
Book Available:
Loren Eiseley Reader advertisement
The Loren Eiseley Reader is now available for purchase from the Nebraska Book Source.
Price: $26.95
S&H: Shipping charges based on weight
Tax: NE residents pay 7% sales tax
Quote:
"The door to the past is a strange door. It swings open and things pass through it, but they pass in one direction only. No man can return across that threshold, though he can look down still and see the green light waver in the water weeds."

- Loren Eiseley, "The Snout," The Immense Journey
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