Barry Lopez (1945–2020,) in full Barry Holstun Lopez, was an American essayist and fiction writer. He wrote nearly 20 books on natural history studies and was recognized for chronicling his journeys to remote places and the landscapes he discovered.
Born in Port Chester, New York, Lopez grew up in Southern California and New York City. After graduating with a bachelor’s and master’s from the University of Notre Dame, he briefly attended the University of Oregon before dropping to become a full-time writer.
Lopez wrote several nonfiction books, which usually deal with the association between human culture and the physical landscape, like Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape (1986; National Book Award) and Of Wolves and Men (1978; National Book Award.)
Lopez also wrote fictional narratives such as Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven (1976,) River Notes: The Dance of Herons (1979,) and Resistance (2004.) Among his short-story volumes were Winter Count (1981,) Light Action in the Caribbean (2000,) and Outside (2014.) Lopez was a contributor to Harper’s, National Geographic, The Paris Review, and other magazines.
Lopez edited the anthology Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape (2010.) His final book is Horizon (2019,) an autobiography that recalls a lifetime of travel in more than 70 countries.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Barry Lopez
How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
—Barry Lopez
Topics: Integrity, Light
To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together
—Barry Lopez
Topics: Water
The land is like poetry: it is inexplicably coherent, it is transcendent in its meaning, and it has the power to elevate a consideration of human life.
—Barry Lopez
Topics: Wilderness
We simply do not understand our place in the universe and have not the courage to admit it
—Barry Lopez
Topics: Universe
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Peter Matthiessen American Naturalist, Novelist
Rachel Carson American Biologist
Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
Langston Hughes American Poet, Writer
William Saroyan American Playwright, Novelist
Walker Percy American Novelist
William Gaddis American Novelist
Norman Mailer American Novelist, Journalist
Ken Kesey American Novelist
Raymond Carver American Author