Artifacts and Illuminations: Critical Essays on Loren Eiseley

12. Epic Narratives of Evolution

12 Epic Narratives of Evolution John Burroughs and Loren Eiseley stephen mercier 253 In1961LorenEiseleywasawardedtheprestigiousJohnBurroughsMedalfor The Firmament of Time, joining the ranks of distinguished authors of natural history such as Ernest Thompson Seton, Rachel Carson, Joseph Wood Krutch, and Roger Tory Peterson. Indeed, both Burroughs (1837–1921) and Eiseley (1907–77) belong to a long list of writers who imaginatively delve into environmental explorations, forging connections to ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Surely, their writings cannot escape influences from a long history of previous nature works, from Gilbert White’s discursive firsthand observations on his beloved Selbourne, to Charles Darwin’s profound theories of evolution, to Henry David Thoreau’s paradigmatic Walden. In common with these predecessors they share close observation of phenomena, keen awareness of environmental processes, appreciation of species and their habitats, aesthetic engagement within the natural world, philosophical reflections, and a recognition of the deep kinship between humans and the biosphere. Adding their own unique refinements to the genre of literary natural history, Burroughs and Eiseley create novel rhetorical methods of transmitting aspects of evolution to the masses. Burroughs was one of the first American nature writers to fold Darwinian ideas into his essays in a dramatic fashion for a widespread audience. Therefore, he helped chart new territory of literary narrative on deep time, on which Eiseley would later build. Eiseley inevitably follows Burroughs’s path of influence and innovation, while further stretching the boundaries of literary naturalism. New discoveries in more specialized areas of science, such as anthropology, allowed Eiseley to provide more specific “evidence” for his evolutionary tale and relate it to his audience. Burroughs’s audience was from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while Eiseley’s readership was of the Cold War period; Epic Narratives of Evolution 254 Burroughs lived through the Civil War and the Gilded Age, and Eiseley through World War II. The historical context during which these authors lived surely helped to shape their outlook on the tendency toward violence and the serious responsibility human beings have toward protecting each other and the natural world. Ultimately, they both felt the need to make the point that the fate of humanity and the planet is in our own hands. Many readers may not be entirely familiar with John Burroughs, as he has only recently rejoined the canon of U.S. nature writers. Hailed as the most beloved author of the natural history essay, Burroughs sold more than one and a half million copies of his books. A prolific author, Burroughs penned 450 essays and twenty-seven books, which were published over a fifty-five-year period, from 1867–1922. Burroughs’s perhaps most famous essays recount his rambles exploring native natural history in the Hudson River Valley and Catskills and life on the family farm. Burroughs celebrates rainwater, wildflowers, weeds, apples, strawberries, cows, chipmunks, squirrels , speckled trout, and tree toads, so often taken for granted in favor of more exotic species. Famously known as “John O’Birds,” Burroughs is fascinated by the general behavior and habits of birds, considering not only how they migrate and build nests but also how parents raise their young and survive in the wild. Burroughs remained an extremely popular figure throughout his lifetime. He dreaded the potential misuse of technology and felt that an obsession with materialism was deteriorating the nation. Therefore, he accentuated direct contact with the elements, the taste of wild berries, the enjoyment of taking morning and evening walks, the pleasure of viewing the stars, a bird’s nest, or a wildflower. Enticing readers to see an array of natural beauty with childlike curiosity, Burroughs emphasized what they might recognize nearby in their own familiar surroundings. Miraculously, Burroughs could hitch familiar phenomena, such as a handful of soil or a leaf, with the huge tide of evolutionary processes. Certainly, he was far less known for his writings on evolution, a subject that greatly occupied his mind after reading Darwin. Surely, however, legions of dedicated Burroughs readers gobbled up his profound tracts on evolution and geologic time just as they had invested themselves in his observations of blue birds. stephen mercier 255 John Burroughs and Loren Eiseley developed epic narratives of evolution , and in doing so, they furthered the development of the natural history essay in essential ways.1 They both creatively combine scientific hypotheses with a poetic sensibility. Both writers employ imaginative prose in the form of literary natural history to engage...