Crossing Open Ground [Hardcover]

Barry Lopez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 1988

The author travels through the American Southwest and Alaska, discussing endangered wildlife and forgotten cultures.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"He makes the reader at home with himself and the world. Anyone who has ever felt lost should read this book."

-- San Francisco Chronicle

Barry Lopez, winner of the 1996 American Book Award for Arctic Dreams, weaves the same invigorating spell in Crossing Open Ground. Through his crystalline vision, Lopez urges us toward a new attitude, a re-enchantment with the world that is vital to our sense of place, our well-being..our very survival.

"Lopez looks at flocks of geese, and bull riders, and the tracks of Arctic fox in the snow, and then he tells us about ourselves. He restores to us the name for what it is we want." -- Philadelphia Inquirer

"Barry Lopez is the best nature writer of our decade, repeatedly reminding us of the ages-old ties between the wild places and humanity." -- Sacramento Bee --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

The author travels through the American Southwest and Alaska, discussing endangered wildlife and forgotten cultures. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons; 1st edition (February 11, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684188171
• ISBN-13: 978-0684188171
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #972,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eyes of Wonder, June 15, 2004

By 

Patricia Kramer (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crossing Open Ground (Paperback)

This collection of essays is glorious and sad. The writing lets the reader see what Barry Lopez is seeing with so few precise words. The gifts of wilderness are felt while reading sentences like, "You could feel the creek vibrating in the silt and sand.". The saddness comes from knowing these essays were written in the 1980's and so much more has been destroyed since then.

Due to when this book was written, there are a couple of references to former President Reagan's "environmental record" written in real time.

There were so many essays that I loved, including the one speaking of traveling the river with Paul Winter. I am going to quote a passage from "Children in the Woods".

"The quickest door to open in the woods for a child is the one that leads to the smallest room, by knowing the name each thing is called. The door that leads to the cathedral is marked by a hesitancy to speak at all, rather to encourage by example a sharpness of the senses. If one speaks it should only be to say, as well as one can, how wonderfully all this fits together, to indicate what a long, fierce peace can derive from this knowledge."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Door to a cathedral of nature, January 5, 2001

By 

Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crossing Open Ground (Paperback)

Lopez is concerned with our collective understanding of nature. From studying a 3000-year-old horse intaglio to looking for Anasazi granaries he seeks our ancestral relationships. The essays work best when he mixes his reflection with keen observations. Where the essays have a heavier philosophical hand they aren't as effective. As he says "The door that leads to the cathedral is marked by a hesitancy to speak at all, rather to encourage by example, a sharpness of the senses". Lopez 's narratives sharpen many senses from the sudden assault of the sound of snow geese to "two snails small as pinheads chewing a leaf".

There are reflections on the role of biologists, from communicating between scientists and shipmates in the arctic to their role in a whale stranding. Perhaps he thinks biologists have greater insight, but he also understands the need for mystery and direct experience.

For Paul Winter fans there is a description of the raft down the Grand Canyon that produced the album "Canyon". As a current update, the snow geese written about in one essay are continuing to boom and damage their arctic breeding grounds.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Food for the soul, August 3, 1998

By 

Cheron L. Ferland - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crossing Open Ground (Paperback)

Excellent reading for those connected with the Earth. Food for the soul. One of the best gifts I have ever recieved.