The Invisible Pyramid: A Library of America eBook Classic

Loren Eiseley

nov. 2016 · Library of America

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A revered ecologist and conservationist examines the origins and possible futures of humankind within the context of the Space Age, masterfully “[communicating] the awesome spectacle of our environmental crisis” (New York Times Book Review)

To read Loren Eiseley is to renew a sense of wonder at the miracles and paradoxes of evolution and the ever-changing diversity of life. In this brilliant collection, he considers the cosmological significance and ultimate meanings of our evolutionary history, offering a series of profound, lyrical meditations on the origins and possible futures of humankind against the backdrop of the Apollo landings. As Western civilization attains new heights of scientific awareness and technological skill, he asks, is it also blind to its own limits and destructive capacities? Always a fond observer of the natural world, Eiseley makes a newly urgent, environmentalist plea in The Invisible Pyramid: we must protect the fragile “world island” against our unchecked power to pollute and consume it. 

“A relentless, haunting, and haunted figure devils the man [Eiseley] and twists from him some of the best prose we have. . . . Eiseley is a master of significant anecdote. There is an unstated but real gothic terror prowling behind his vision.” —New York Times Book Review

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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.