Loren Eiseley centennial year kicks off Sept. 7-8 with lectures, tours

The name Loren Eiseley may be familiar to Nebraskans, but many may not be attuned with the international significance of the native Nebraskan and highly respected anthropologist, science writer, ecologist and poet.

The Friends of the Loren Eiseley Society are using the centennial of Eiseley's birth to kick off a yearlong celebration and campaign to educate and energize potential Eiseley fans of all ages by planning lectures, tours and panels, and educational outreach to Nebraska schools.

"Loren Eiseley: A Centennial Celebration, 1907-2007" will bring people together in Lincoln Sept. 7-8 to talk about the significance of Nebraska's literary naturalist, poet, scientist and humanist.

"There are so many people interested in Eiseley, all from different perspectives," said Bing Chen, president of the Friends of the Loren Eiseley Society and a professor of computer and electronics engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Eiseley inspired budding scientists and prose writers, and his writings make Nebraska appear to be exotic. We'd like to identify in this centennial year all of the people interested in his works and get them together to collaborate to engage a new generation and energize a new level of appreciation for him."

Eiseley was born in Lincoln in 1907 and lived a difficult childhood with a distant father and a mother dealing with illness. After his father died, he dropped out of high school and worked various jobs before entering the University of Nebraska, where he worked as an archeologist. When he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1933, he left the university and moved to the western U.S. desert, but after hoboing around the country restlessly during the Great Depression (later describing these travels in his book "All the Strange Hours"), he eventually returned to NU and was awarded his bachelor's degree in English and geology/anthropology, afterward earning his Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania in 1937 and then teaching at University of Kansas. He left KU in 1944 to head the sociology department at Oberlin College in Ohio, returning to Penn in 1947 as head of sociology, later becoming provost.

Eiseley's writings, in addition to his scientific and academic publishing, included "The Immense Journey," a collection of writings about the history of humanity, and "Darwin's Century." In his later career he published many volumes of essays and poetry including "The Invisible Pyramid," "The Unexpected Universe," "The Nigh Country," "Notes of an Alchemist," The Star Thrower," and "Another Kind of Autumn." "All the Strange Hours" (University of Nebraska Press, 1975) was his autobiography. Eiseley died in 1977 and was buried in Pennsylvania.

Eiseley's writings combined scientific explorations with humanism and poetry, and instead of seeing the world simply as a set of scientific facts and figures, he used science to look for the deeper meaning of life.

Many fans, like Chen, are scientists but find themselves connected to his musings and enlightenment about humankind and nature.

Eiseley Centennial events start Sept. 7-8 with a two-day event based at UNL. On Sept. 7, a 10 a.m. ecocriticism discussion at Bailey Library at Andrews Hall at UNL will be followed by a 2 p.m. presentation, "Loren Eiseley's Lincoln," at Bennett Martin Public Library, 14th and N streets. On Sept. 8, a 9 a.m. bus tour of Eiseley's Lincoln begins the day, followed by a centennial program at 1:30 p.m. at Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 12th and R streets. The program will include a panel discussion, a showing of the NETV documentary, "Reflections of a Bonehunter," and a keynote address, "From the Ice Age to the Space Age, to the Age of Climate Change Consciousness: Loren Eiseley as Writer, Activist and Role Model," by Scott Slovic, professor of literature and environment and ecocritical scholar at the University of Nevada in Reno. It concludes with a 5 p.m. reception. The reception is the only event for which a fee is charged, all others are free and open to the public, although reserving a space at the organization's Web site is requested, www.eiseley.org.

The events are the first of the UNL's new Nebraska Colloquium, a series of events and activities that build community engagement in discussion on broad and substantive issues.

CONTACT: Bing Chen, Professor, Computer and Electronics Engineering, President, Loren Eiseley Society, (402) 554-2769