Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1992
Abstract
Loren Eiseley, anthropologist and essayist,created his own persona in his essays and autobiography. Reluctant to have his self-portrait examined, he snubbed at least one biographer who became too curious about the facts. Several years after Eiseley's death, but still in time to conduct fruitful interviews with Eiseley's wife, Mabel, and many friends and associates, biographer Gale Christianson arrived at the right moment, with the technique and discernment to produce a fine biography that provides a new perspective on Eiseley's self-portrayal. Not that Christianson's version is better or even truer than Eiseley's-but it makes possible a deeper, more complex view of a remarkable writer.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 12:3 (Summer 1992). Copyright © 1992 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.