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Arctic dreams : imagination and desire in a northern landscape / Barry Lopez.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Vintage Books, [2001]Edition: First Vintage books editionDescription: xxix, 464 pages : maps ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780375727481
  • 0375727485
  • 9780844672229
  • 084467222X
  • 9781435296145
  • 1435296141
Subject(s):
Contents:
Pond's Bay, Baffin Island -- Arktikos -- Banks Island: Ovibos moschatus -- Tornarssuk: Ursus maritimus -- Lancaster Sound: Monodon monoceros -- Migration: the corridors of breath -- Ice and light -- The country of the mind -- The intent of monks -- A northern passage -- Saint Lawrence Island, Bering Sea.
Awards:
  • National Book Award, 1986
Summary: This book is an account of the history, ecology, and mystique of the arctic region. The author offers a thorough examination of this obscure world, its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires, and dreams. Its prose as hauntingly pure as the land it describes, and is nothing less than an indelible classic of modern literature.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 508.98 L864 Available 33111009702727
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Originally published: New York : Scribner, 1986.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 445-448) and index.

Pond's Bay, Baffin Island -- Arktikos -- Banks Island: Ovibos moschatus -- Tornarssuk: Ursus maritimus -- Lancaster Sound: Monodon monoceros -- Migration: the corridors of breath -- Ice and light -- The country of the mind -- The intent of monks -- A northern passage -- Saint Lawrence Island, Bering Sea.

This book is an account of the history, ecology, and mystique of the arctic region. The author offers a thorough examination of this obscure world, its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires, and dreams. Its prose as hauntingly pure as the land it describes, and is nothing less than an indelible classic of modern literature.

Reading Counts RC 9-12 9.0 36.0 577.

National Book Award, 1986

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