Raynor Winn’s most inspiring nature writing books

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Reading lists

Raynor Winn’s favourite nature writing books

Arctic Dreams

Winner of the National Book Award in 1986, Lopez’s magnum opus  explores the Arctic landscape and the hold it continues to exert on our imagination

The Arctic dreamland seen and described by a writer of rare perception and poetic descriptive power... The pages sparkle with Arctic light

A marvellous evocation of the Arctic by a naturalist, who is part poet... A magical book to read slowly and savour

Barry Lopez by some rare magic manages to combine a poetic vision with accuracy of observation; and although he writes mainly about Eskimos, polar bears, and other denizens of the frozen north, many of his perceptive insights apply the world over

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

By what comes close to sheer magic, the magic of a highly literate and perceptive naturalist, Barry Lopez has transformed the austerity and Sibelius-like gloom of the tundra and great ice walls into a living pageant of high latitudes. This book will become a classic within its genre

A monumental work, not only in its revelation of the author's depth of vision but, in a very real sense, it is a monument to the uniqueness, the mystery and the drama of the Arctic wilderness... Arctic Dreams is an eloquent testimony and tribute to the infinite interest and beauty of the natural world. It is also a timely reminder that man needs to tune into the land and its creatures

A master nature writer... The gift of sight (and second sight) focused here upon the ocean, ice, skyscapes, landscapes and wildlife is extraordinary... He lavishes his discoveries into a portfolio of delights

A splendid book, passionate and compassionate, by a man who is both a first-rate writer and an uncompromising defender of the wild country and its native inhabitants

One of those landmark works of travel writing like, say, Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta

Wonderfully informed and evocative...keen observation given shape with language that is deft and vivid

If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want

One of the greatest nature books ever written

Barry Lopez is the author of seven works of non-fiction and nine works of fiction. His writing appears regularly in Harper's, The Paris Review, Orion, and The Georgia Review. He is the recipient of a National Book Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and many other honours. Lopez lives in western Oregon.

**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4** 
 
'A master nature writer' (New York Times) provides the ultimate natural, social and cultural history of the Arctic landscape. 
 
The author of Horizon's classic work explores the Arctic landscape and the hold it continues to exert on our imagination. 
 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE 
 
Lopez's journey across our frozen planet is a celebration of the Arctic in all its guises. A hostile landscape of ice, freezing oceans and dazzling skyscapes. Home to millions of diverse animals and people. The stage to massive migrations by land, sea and air. The setting of epic exploratory voyages. 
 
In crystalline prose, Lopez captures the magic of the Arctic: the essential mystery and beauty of a continent that has enchanted man's imagination and ambition for centuries. 
 
'The Arctic dreamland seen and described by a writer of rare perception and poetic descriptive power... The pages sparkle with Arctic light' Scotsman

About This Life

Barry Lopez is the author of six works of non-fiction and eight works of fiction. His writing appears regularly in Harper's, The Paris Review, Orion, and The Georgia Review. He is the recipient of a National Book Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and other honours. Lopez lives in western Oregon.

Once, when asked for advice on how to become a writer, Lopez found himself replying: "Read. Find out what you truly believe. Get away from the familiar." This collection of essays stems directly from that philosophy. Here is far-flung travel (the beauty of remote Hokkaido Island, the over-explored Galápagos, enigmatic Bonaire); a naturalist's concerns (for endangered communities as well as their land) and pure adventure. Here, too, are seven exquisite memory pieces; beautiful, meditative recollections that will stand as classic examples of the personal essay.

Barry Lopez

The greatest nature writer in the world ... He is also the greatest travel writer ... [an] astounding new memoir

Riveting, seductive, and beautifully written. I don’t know of any other writer who so mesmerizingly, so seemingly effortlessly, weaves together art, science and poetry—I found myself underlining sentences on every page. Barry Lopez is one of my literary heroes

Barry Lopez brings the world alive like no other writer. His writing evokes diverse peoples and places with great humanity and humility. Horizon deserves to become a modern classic

A visionary masterpiece, a towering monument to a life dedicated to the whole of the world and everything in it

Neil Ansell, author of The Last Wilderness

A celebration and investigation of the impulse to explore, Horizon is itself an exploration—of both the human and inhuman worlds. In his intensity, his clarity, and his capacity for wonder, Barry Lopez is unmatched

Barry Lopez is a straight-up magnificent writer. To read Horizon is to be transported to wondrous landscapes far beyond the pale, and thereby obtain an astounding perspective on our increasingly uncertain future. Lopez expresses faith that our species can avert annihilation by investing ‘more deeply in the philosopher’s cardinal virtues’: courage, justice, reverence, and compassion—virtues this book possesses in abundance

The world is vast, and so are the heart and the curiosity of Barry Lopez. His voice is incomparable and necessary. No one else alive, to my knowledge, thinks so carefully about the moral dimensions of landscape

Nobody journeys like Barry Lopez. He's humble, he's ethical, he's honest, he's curious, he's doubtful, he's properly sad and he's wild. He wakes us up to the worth and the mystery of the world. His great affection for humanity comes up from every patch of earth he visits. This is an epic book that goes from pole to pole, and yet manages to make a distinct 'everywhere' out of each little patch he visits. A glorious book, gloriously told

A masterpiece ... huge-hearted, wise and sorrowful book by the Philosopher-King of Gaia

No one has worked harder to make sense of our present civilization than Barry Lopez, and in these chronicles we get to share the travels that helped shape his extraordinary mind and heart. A great gift to us all

The crowning achievement of Barry Lopez's illustrious career… we need adventurous, curious souls like Lopez to keep traveling and bringing back stories from beyond our particular horizon - in order to find our way forward as a species, together

Reading Barry Lopez is a religious experience… most memorable and compelling

Breathtaking in its ambition… There could be no more essential guide than Lopez for navigating the time that remains

Lopez… [is] renewing our sense of the entire planet…as home… He can move from the largest of canvases to the most local and seemingly familiar… [A] keen and uncompromising critic of the continuing colonialism that plagues the so-called developing world… At the same time, hope can be drawn from the fact that more of us are finally beginning to notice our predicament… a surer appreciation and reverence of the world that we inhabit

A winning memoir ... Exemplary writing about the world and a welcome gift to readers

Horizon encompasses both the conquistadors’ lust for gold and the mining of Big Data… I don’t know whether Lopez is possessed of extrasensory perception, but he’s not short of wisdom. And he’s not merely keeping it; he’s sharing it.

Superb essays that reveal the author's remarkable technical mastery of very diverse subjects, and these are rewarding. More-over, the examples of Captain Cook and Charles Darwin are on hand as historical proxies and inspirations for Lopez's own quest for global inclusivity. Finally there is, as distraction almost on every page, the sonorous cadence of his prose

Horizon…[is] a magisterial and deeply personal survey of the world’s most remote regions… it is enthralling

The best parts of Horizon are like a carefully constructed mosaic… Lopez packs his pages like the hold of a cargo plane, with everything strapped down, aisles between, and labelled… Horizon…has a definite design – like that of a garden

Life-affirming in its depictions of the wonders that remain... You’ll find it a lot smarter than your phone

Daily Telegraph, *Travel books of the year*

An epic account of a life lived in love with and scrutiny of our wounded natural world

The horizon…serves as a metaphor for humanity’s future, one in which a definitive ending is not yet in sight. Horizon is not, therefore, without hope. There is still time for us to alter our behaviour

This is a book to be read slowly, savouring the descriptive language and side-tracking to research the human and natural history touched on by its long reach... If you have nature in your soul, you won't regret spending time reading this book when you're not - it will inspire, enthral and encourage your own reflections and observations. In this sense, it is both practical and escapist, and there is no greater praise for such a work of expansive non-fiction, a late enrichment to an already deep and wide life's work

A magnificent achievement: symphonic in structure, epic in scope, its themes and ideas develop across 500 pages, all rendered in prose of spare and sinuous clarity

'Horizon is magnificent; a contemporary epic' Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland 
 
From the author of the classic Arctic Dreams comes a vivid recollection of his travels around the world and the encounters that shaped an extraordinary life. 
 
 Taking us nearly from pole to pole - from modern megacities to some of the earth's most remote regions - Barry Lopez gives us his most far-ranging and personal work. Spanning decades of travel, Horizon describes journeys to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galápagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica. 
 
 Lopez also probes the history of humanity's quests and explorations, from prehistoric expeditions to today's ecotourism. He takes us to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate places on the globe, via friendships with scientists, archaeologists, artists and local residents, in a book that makes us see the world differently. It is the crowning achievement of one of the world's best travel writers. 
 
'The greatest nature writer in the world ... He is also the greatest travel writer ... [an] astounding new memoir' Sunday Times

Barry Lopez

Books by Barry Lopez

Articles featuring Barry Lopez

Raynor Winn’s favourite nature writing books

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