Barry Lopez

Barry Holstun Lopez ( born January 6, 1945 in Port Chester, New York) is an American author, anthropologist and photographer.

Life and works

Lopez grew up in New York in Southern California, where, in particular fascinated him the Mojave Desert, and from the age of twelve. He studied aeronautics, English, Drama, American cultural history and journalism. Since 1968 he lives, apart from numerous trips to many countries, as a writer in Oregon.

Main theme of his works are the nature and the culture of different nations and the question of a life worth living. His trilogy Desert Notes, River Notes and Field Notes appeared in the years 1976 to 1994; the last band is only loosely connected to the previous one.

In his book, Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping With his Daughter by 1977, the 1996 under the title The wily coyote. What Indians around the campfire telling in German translation appeared to the figure of the trickster Coyote of Native American myths is in the foreground. In 1978 he published based on a title John Steinbeck's Of Wolves and Men ( Of Wolves and humans), a book in which the bad reputation of the predator wolf is relativized. For Arctic Dreams (1986 ), he received the National Book Award. The German translation of this work, Arctic Dreams, was published in 2000. 1993 appeared the anxious by Michael Mundhenk translation of his children's book Crow and Weasel ( Crow and Weasel ), in 2004 Resistance ( When I disappeared from the world ), a tale of artists and scientists who are trying to put up a fight against the encroachments of state institutions.

Lopez also served as an editor, for example, of Home Ground, a literary guide to the American landscape.

Awards

Lopez has been awarded scholarships from the Guggenheim, Lannan, and National Science Foundation. In addition, he was awarded the John Burroughs, the John Hay and the Christopher Medal.

An archive of his works was established at Texas Tech University.