Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape

by Barry Lopez

Overview

Winner of the National Book Award

This bestselling, groundbreaking exploration of the Far North is a classic of natural history, anthropology, and travel writing.

The Arctic is a perilous place. Only a few species of wild animals can survive its harsh climate. In this modern classic, Barry Lopez explores the many-faceted wonders of the Far North: its strangely stunted forest, its mesmerizing aurora borealis, its frozen seas. Musk oxen, polar bears, narwhal, and other exotic beasts of the region come alive through Lopez’s passionate and nuanced observations. And, as he examines the history and culture of the indigenous people, along with parallel narratives of intrepid, often underprepared and subsequently doomed polar explorers, Lopez drives to the heart of why the austere and formidable Arctic is also a constant source of breathtaking beauty, beguilement, and wonder.

Written in prose as memorably pure as the land it describes, Arctic Dreams is a timeless mediation on the ability of the landscape to shape our dreams and to haunt our imaginations.

Look for Barry Lopez's new book, Horizon, available now.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375727481
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/02/2001
Edition description:	First Vintage Books Edition
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	92,323
Product dimensions:	5.15(w) x 7.99(h) x 1.01(d)
Lexile:	1300L (what's this?)

About the Author

Barry Lopez is the author of three collections of essays, including Horizon; several story collections; Arctic Dreams, for which he received the National Book Award; Of Wolves and Men, a National Book Award finalist; and Crow and Weasel, a novella-length fable. He contributed regularly to both American and foreign journals and traveled to more than seventy countries to conduct research. He was the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim, Lannan, and National Science Foundations and was honored by a number of institutions for his literary, humanitarian, and environmental work. He died in 2020. 

www.barrylopez.com

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Author's Note	xvii
	Preface	xix
	Prologue: Pond's Bay, Baffin Island	1
1.	Arktikos	15
2.	Banks Island: Ovibos moschatus	42
3.	Tornarssuk: Ursus maritimus	76
4.	Lancaster Sound: Monodon monoceros	119
5.	Migration: The Corridors of Breath	152
6.	Ice and Light	204
7.	The Country of the Mind	252
8.	The Intent of Monks	302
9.	A Northern Passage	355
	Epilogue: Saint Lawrence Island, Bering Sea	407
	Notes	417
	Maps	421
	Appendices	427
	Bibliography	445
	Index	449

Editorial Reviews

Extraordinary. . . . A master nature writer.” —The New York Times Book Review

“One of those landmark works of travel writing.” —The New Yorker

“Dazzling. . . . Treats the distant, snowy world of the Arctic as a place that exists not only in the mathematics of geography but also in the terra incognita of our imaginations.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Lopez is. . .the most important living writer about wilderness. . . . [Arctic Dreams is] his masterpiece.” —The Guardian

From the Publisher

...[W]ritten after 'four or five' years of traveling in the Arctic; its cargo of observation and research is colossal....[I]n part a series of dispatches on despoliation, the consequences of 'the sudden arrival of a foreign technology'...where Lopez discovers 'some of the saddest human lives I have ever seen.'
— London Review of Books

William Fiennes

This is one of the finest books ever written about the Far North, warmly appreciative and understanding of the natural forces that shape life in an austere landscape. The prize-winning author (Of Wolves and Men spent four years in Arctic regions: traveling between Davis Strait in the east and Bering Strait in the west, hunting with Eskimos and accompanying archeologists, biologists and geologists in the field. Lopez became enthralled by the power of the Arctic, a power he observes derives from ``the tension between its beauty and its capacity to take life.'' This is a story of light, darkness and ice; of animal migrations and Eskimos; of the specter of development and the cultural perception of a region. Examining the literature of 19th century exploration, Lopez finds a disassociation from the actual landscape; explorers have tended to see the Arctic as an adversary. Peary and Stefansson left as a troubling legacy the attitude that the landscape could be labeled, then manipulated. Today, he contends, an imaginative, emotional approach to the Arctic is as important as a rational, scientific one. Lopez has written a wonderful, compelling defense of the Arctic wilderness. Illustrations. BOMC main selection. (March 11)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The themes of this book are as vast as the landscape it encompasses. Having lived in the Arctic for long periods of time, Lopez authoritatively conveys an enormous breadth and variety of knowledge, including Arctic exploration, geography, weather, animal migration, and behavior. His portraits of animalsmuskox, polar bear, narwhale, and othersreflect a sensitive melding of facts and mystery. The work is suffused with philosophical and lyrical strains. Through the centuries the Arctic landscape has woven a ``legacy of desire'' in many a mind and heart, shaping imagination and knowledge. For Lopez, how the Arctic is comprehended will determine its fate. Whether its land, peoples, and animals are honored or vitiated will depend upon the working out of this metaphorical analogy between mind and landscape. Highly recommended for most collections. Carol J. Lichtenberg, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman

Library Journal

...[W]ritten after 'four or five' years of traveling in the Arctic; its cargo of observation and research is colossal....[I]n part a series of dispatches on despoliation, the consequences of 'the sudden arrival of a foreign technology'...where Lopez discovers 'some of the saddest human lives I have ever seen.'
— London Review of Books

William Fiennes