The Invisible Pyramid - by Loren Eiseley (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published: New York: Scribner, 1970.

Book Synopsis

In 1910 young Loren Eiseley watched the passage of Halley's Comet with his father. The boy who became a famous naturalist was never again to see the spectacle except in his imagination. That childhood event contributed to the profound sense of time and space that marks The Invisible Pyramid. This collection of essays, first published shortly after Americans landed on the moon, explores inner and outer space, the vastness of the cosmos, and the limits of what can be known. Bringing poetic insight to scientific discipline, Eiseley makes connections between civilizations past and present, multiple universes, humankind, and nature.

From the Back Cover

In 1910 young Loren Eiseley watched the passage of Halley's Comet with his father. The boy who became a famous naturalist was never again to see the spectacle except in his imagination. That childhood event contributed to the profound sense of time and space that marks The Invisible Pyramid. This collection of essays, first published shortly after Americans landed on the moon, explores inner and outer space, the vastness of the cosmos, and the limits of what can be known. Bringing poetic insight to scientific discipline, Eiseley makes connections between civilizations past and present, multiple universes, humankind, and nature.

Review Quotes

"A relentless haunting and haunted figure devils the man [Eiseley] and twists from him some of the best prose we have. . . . The beauty of The Invisible Pyramid is that it communicates the awesome spectacle of our environmental crisis without a single shrill note. . . . Eiseley is a master of significant anecdote. There is an unstated but real gothic terror prowling behind his vision."--New York Times Book Review

"There can be no question that Loren Eiseley maintains a place of eminence among nature writers. His 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. . . .We now routinely expect our nature writers to leap across the chasm between science, natural history, and poetry with grace and ease. Eiseley made the leap at a time when science was science, and literature was, well, literature. . . . His writing delivered science to nonscientists in the lyrical language of earthly metaphor, irony, simile, and narrative, all paced like a good mystery."--The Bloomsbury Review

About the Author

Loren Eiseley's many works include The Night Country (Bison Books 1997). Introducing The Invisible Pyramid is Paul Gruchow, a professor of English at Concordia College and the author of Boundary Waters: The Grace of the Wild.