“My
function as a writer is to provide an atmosphere in which people can think
wisely about what we're doing on this planet.”
– Barry Lopez
Born on this date in 1945, Lopez is the
author of 17 books – both fiction and nonfiction – and a noted essayist whose
work is known for its humanitarian and environmental concerns. He won the 1986 National
Book Award for Nonfiction for Arctic Dreams.
His Of Wolves and Men was a National Book Award finalist.
A native of Port Chester, NY, Lopez
grew up in Southern California and then studied writing at Notre Dame, NYU and
Oregon before starting a writing and photography career in the mid-1960s. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle
as "the nation's premier nature writer,” he frequently examines the
relationship between human culture and the physical landscape.
Lopez now resides in Oregon, but has
been a Visiting Distinguished Scholar at Texas Tech Univesity where that school
recently announced it has established an archive of his many works. His most recent book, Horizon, was published in 2019. 
“When I sit at that typewriter,”
Lopez said, “I have to be frightened of
what I'm trying to do. I'm frightened by my own belief that I can actually get
a story down on paper.”
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