The Star Thrower

I discovered this writer in college and consistently pass this book out to friends. They must enjoy it because I never get a copy back!

Eiseley's prose is pure poetry. His message ageless. I wish I had discovered him sooner.

Loren Eiseley can take a moment in time, analyze it, and explain it from a perspective of deep knowlege, understanding, and an intimate connection with the essence of nature, and this earth on which we all reside. His writings will take you away from this hectic lifestyle we lead, and help you to appreciate the little things in life all around you that you usually ignore, and will let you see a new dimension of this world. He transcends the normal thought process that most of us have of categorizing experiences, immediately judging what we see, then forgetting whatever is not immediately beneficial to us. He sees the miracles that occur all around us each and every day, and understands that the complexity of life comes from millions and millions of years of slow change on this earth. He appreciates what nature has created in animals, plants, and the earth's ecosystem, and how nature has created the human mind. He was truly a revolutionary thinker, a poet, and a voice of reason.

I first encountered this book when I was looking for an author to do a high school english project on, and I was immediately drawn to this little-known author through the expressive style of his writing and the deeply unique philosophy inherent in every piece of work. Eiseley was not just a talented writer but a deeply emotional naturalist and his profound respect for all things living is apparent throughout his works. As he walks us through his close brushes with nature we are allowed a glimpse of the vast poetic world that we so often ignore.Eiseley writes intimately of his natural encounters, and we get a feeling that he is a rare man who felt somewhat out of place in the busy, fallible human world, and dwelled more along the indistinct boundary whose edges blur first into the natural world and then into the world we have made our own. An old adage has often gone "Every minute is precious" and Eiseley holds to this with an energy that turns every second, be it spent on a balcony bathed in early morning sunlight, or watching the jeweled webs of a spider into an infinitely precious memory never to be forgotten.This is without a doubt one of the most lyrical and insightful works on nature that you will ever read. If you are an avid naturalist you will be even more appreciative of all things that grow when you have finished reading this book. With a flourish of his pen, Eiseley reminds us that there is another life we may live, one where money, which has come to be central to our societies, and the essential human weakness, has no place beside the whisper of leaves drifting to the forest floor and the silken flow of crystal waters.

Loren Eisley has been described as the 20th century's answer to Henry David Thoreau, and when reading this book it's hard to doubt the description. Eisley writes in a thought-provoking, almost mystical style unlike few authors I've ever read...he has a gift for seeing both the heights and limits of science like no other scientist I have known of. He is a naturalist, poet, realist, existentialist, haunted mystic, evolutionary anthropologist, environmental advocate, historian, and human being, 200 proof. Few have lived their lives so fully; few have left us such a legacy of poetry and prose. This book is an anthology of his best work, selected from several past publications including "The Immense Journey" and others, as well as including a few rare gems like his poetry. His reflections upon humankind, time, evolution, the Earth, the natural world, the unknown, and even the very nature of existence itself are more powerful than the most dense scientific formulae or the most sacred tomes of Scripture. He looks at our mysterious universe with the eyes of a human being, and he looks at his own soul in the process...and along the way, he helps us to find our own. Make no mistake; this is not the work of a theologian or a secularist; if one is looking for affirmations of either God's glory or dry theses of a devout Darwinist, look elsewhere. These are the stories of a complex human being who, first to himself and then to the rest of us, admits that there is far more in heaven and earth than is dreamed of in our philosophy.