Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
0 0
Download high-resolution image

The Unexpected Universe

A Library of America eBook Classic

Author Loren Eiseley
Edited by William Cronon
Ebook
The Library of America | Library of America
On sale Nov 15, 2016 | 186 Pages | 9781598535457
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

“No one has ever managed to make the pursuit of knowledge feel more soulful or more immediate than Loren Eiseley . . . ” —Ben Cosgrove, The Daily Beast
 
At the height of a distinguished career as a paleontologist, Loren Eiseley turned from fieldwork and scientific publication to the personal essay. Here, in The Unexpected Universe, he displays his far-reaching knowledge and searching curiosity about the natural world, and the qualities that led many to hail him as a “modern Thoreau.” Fascinating accounts of the journeys of Odysseus, Captain Cook, and Charles Darwin frame Eiseley’s more modest wanderings as a suburban naturalist, attentive to the lives of small creatures. Sometimes he travels no further than the local dump. And yet, like Homer’s hero or these great explorers, he continually finds a universe “not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”
Loren Eiseley was born in Nebraska in 1907. An accomplished paleontologist teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, Eiseley turned late in his career to writing for a popular audience with the essay collection The Immense Journey, which became a surprise bestseller when published in 1957. It and the five collections that followed--The Firmament of Time, The Unexpected Universe, The Invisible Pyramid, The Night Country, and The Star Thrower--established him as one of America’s most beloved and distinctive naturalists. He died in 1977.
Loren Eiseley View titles by Loren Eiseley

About

“No one has ever managed to make the pursuit of knowledge feel more soulful or more immediate than Loren Eiseley . . . ” —Ben Cosgrove, The Daily Beast
 
At the height of a distinguished career as a paleontologist, Loren Eiseley turned from fieldwork and scientific publication to the personal essay. Here, in The Unexpected Universe, he displays his far-reaching knowledge and searching curiosity about the natural world, and the qualities that led many to hail him as a “modern Thoreau.” Fascinating accounts of the journeys of Odysseus, Captain Cook, and Charles Darwin frame Eiseley’s more modest wanderings as a suburban naturalist, attentive to the lives of small creatures. Sometimes he travels no further than the local dump. And yet, like Homer’s hero or these great explorers, he continually finds a universe “not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

Author

Loren Eiseley was born in Nebraska in 1907. An accomplished paleontologist teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, Eiseley turned late in his career to writing for a popular audience with the essay collection The Immense Journey, which became a surprise bestseller when published in 1957. It and the five collections that followed--The Firmament of Time, The Unexpected Universe, The Invisible Pyramid, The Night Country, and The Star Thrower--established him as one of America’s most beloved and distinctive naturalists. He died in 1977.
Loren Eiseley View titles by Loren Eiseley

Other Books by this Author

Related Articles

Subscribe

Penguin Random House Higher Education

© 2025 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)