35 Facts About Loren Eiseley

Loren Eiseley was an American anthropologist, educator, philosopher, and natural science writer, who taught and published books from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Loren Eiseley received many honorary degrees and was a fellow of multiple professional societies.

Loren Eiseley was a "scholar and writer of imagination and grace," whose reputation and accomplishments extended far beyond the campus where he taught for 30 years.

Loren Eiseley's father, Clyde, was a hardware salesman who worked long hours for little pay, writes Brill.

Loren Eiseley lost her hearing as a child and sometimes exhibited irrational and destructive behavior.

Loren Eiseley later attended the Lincoln Public Schools; in high school, he wrote that he wanted to be a nature writer.

Loren Eiseley enrolled in the University of Nebraska, where he wrote for the newly formed journal, Prairie Schooner, and went on archaeology digs for the school's natural history museum, Morrill Hall.

Loren Eiseley became a naturalist and a bone hunter because something about the landscape had linked his mind to the birth and death of life itself.

Loren Eiseley later noted that he came to anthropology from paleontology, preferring to leave human burial sites undisturbed unless destruction threatened them.

Loren Eiseley began teaching at the University of Kansas that same year.

Loren Eiseley was elected president of the American Institute of Human Paleontology in 1949.

Loren Eiseley was a fellow of many distinguished professional societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Philosophical Society.

Loren Eiseley had received 36 honorary degrees over a period of twenty years, and was the most honored member of the University of Pennsylvania since Benjamin Franklin.

Loren Eiseley's contemporaries failed to see the duality of the man, confusing the deep, wise voice of Eiseley's writings with his own personal voice.

Loren Eiseley was a natural fugitive, a fox at the wood's edge.

Loren Eiseley published works in a number of different genres including poetry, autobiography, history of science, biography, and nonfictional essays.

Loren Eiseley's writing was unique in that it could convey complex ideas about human origin and the relationship between humans and the natural world to a nonscientific audience.

Loren Eiseley's first book, The Immense Journey, was a collection of writings about the history of humanity, and it proved to be that rare science book that appealed to a mass audience.

Loren Eiseley uses his own experiences, reactions to the paleontological record, and wonderment at the world to address the topic of evolution.

The subjects discussed here include the human ancestral tree, water and its significance to life, the mysteries of cellular life, 'the secret and remote abysses' of the sea, the riddle of why human beings alone among living creatures have brains capable of abstract thought and are far superior to their mere needs for survival, the reasons why Dr Loren Eiseley is convinced that there are no men or man-like animals on other planets,.

Loren Eiseley took the occasion of the lunar landing to consider how far humans had to go in understanding their own small corner of the universe, their home planet, much less what he called the 'cosmic prison' of space.

Loren Eiseley's opinion continues to be influential among certain environmentalists, and these graceful essays show why that should be so.

Loren Eiseley turns his considerable powers of reflection and discovery on his own life to weave a compelling story, related with the modesty, grace, and keen eye for a telling anecdote that distinguish his work.

Loren Eiseley's story begins with his childhood experiences as a sickly afterthought, weighed down by the loveless union of his parents.

Just before his death Loren Eiseley asked his wife to destroy the personal notebooks which he had kept since 1953.

Science writer Connie Barlow says Loren Eiseley wrote eloquent books from a perspective that today would be called Religious Naturalism.

Loren Eiseley takes the circumstances of whatever "business" he is about as the occasion for new questioning, new searching for some sign, some glimpse into the meaning of the unknown that confronts him at every center of existence.

Loren Eiseley's writing often includes his belief that mankind does not have enough evidence to determine exactly how humans came to be.

Loren Eiseley talked about the illusions of science in his book, The Firmament of Time:.

Loren Eiseley died July 9,1977, of cardiac arrest following surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital.

Loren Eiseley was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Loren Eiseley was awarded the Distinguished Nebraskan Award and, in 1986, inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.

Loren Eiseley's extended explorations of human life and mind, set against the backdrop of our own and other universes are like those to be found in every book of nature writing currently available.

Loren Eiseley made the leap at a time when science was science, and literature was, well, literature.

Loren Eiseley's writing delivered science to nonscientists in the lyrical language of earthly metaphor, irony, simile, and narrative, all paced like a good mystery.