Winter Count

by Barry Lopez

A magnificent collection of short fiction by one of America’s most original and acclaimed literary authors—haunting and beautiful tales of spiritual mystery and earthly truthBarry Lopez, the National Book Award–winning author of Arctic Dreams, has written eloquently on what it means to be human, taking the demands and gifts of the natural world as a frame and setting for his far-reaching narratives. In this evocative and unforgettable collection of stories, he carries the reader from desert to prairie, from countryside to city streets, in pursuit of the urgent experiences that come with the questioning life. These stories follow a determined explorer’s search for a vanished river in Nebraska; convey the strange death song of a doomed white buffalo herd; and share a mystic’s vision of the universe, revealed in a whirling pattern of levitating stones. Whether describing a life-changing encounter on an empty Caribbean beach or an unexpected wonder on a snowy New York evening, Winter Count is an affecting and enduring collection that will stay with the reader long after the final page. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barry Lopez including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection. 

Genres: Nature, Short Stories, Fiction, Poetry, American, Fantasy, Essays

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Barry Holstun Lopez is an American author, essayist, and fiction writer whose work is known for its environmental and social concerns.

Lopez has been described as "the nation's premier nature writer" by the San Francisco Chronicle. In his non-fiction, he frequently examines the relationship between human culture and physical landscape, while in his fiction he addresses issues of intimacy, ethics and identity.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of ten early short stories by Barry Lopez seems written more than a little under the influence of Borges. Elegantly told, they are designed to evoke a deep sense of wonder in the reader. The settings are often remote - the open prairie, the desert - and touch on what feel like the remote worlds of other cultures and other times, especially Native American.

The title story refers to the Indian practice of keeping a record of tribal history by representing the one most significant event of each year as a picture on a buffalo robe. In this story, a modern-day scholar immersed in the subject of this lost tradition is himself lost and out of place at a conference of academics.

One man becomes fascinated by a French mansion built on the Montana-North Dakota border in the 1860s. Another, an early explorer of the West, attempts to uncover the mystery of a disappearing river in 1840s Nebraska. Still another, in the 1960s - like a chapter out of Castaneda - finds an Indian in the Arizona desert, who conjures a vision of the universe from an arrangement of stones lying in the sand. In the small-scale domesticities of modern fiction, it's hard to find imaginative writing of this kind. I highly recommend these stories as an escape from the everyday and the ordinary.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short works by Lopez, consisting of vignettes/memories and short stories. Common Lopez themes of North American landscapes, Indigenous people, and animals. A few revelatory essays on his childhood, schooling, and family history mixed in too. There isn't an overarching theme that I identified here, but it contains the warm thoughtful tone and mood that he creates in all of his work.

Impromptu read for the Winter Solstice.

[Gizem Nance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in our camper at night, listening to the coyotes howling, at the Tishamingo State Park, once the stomping ground of Chicasaw Native Americans.
It was full moon.
I did not know this at the time but it was the day that Barry Lopez passed away.
I feel like that night was a great tribute to a great writer.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

My good friend Paul recommended this book to me. Because he described Barry Lopez as a naturalist writer I initially expected this book to be completely non-fictional. Boy was I wrong! After getting involved in the stories I was shocked at the supernatural twists and turns they took. However, once I got used to this unexpected formula I found that I really enjoyed the stories. They possess a character and flair that I don't think I've ever seen before. The stories were very captivating. A couple of them were a bit slow, but still pretty interesting. I actually read this book while in the Eastern Caribbean. I found that my unusual setting added to the spirit of the stories. My favorite stories in the book were Buffalo and The Orrery. So fascinating!

[Lani · Rating 5 out of 5]

(currently re-reading)

I once had the pleasure of ghostwriting a speech introducing Barry Lopez, keynote speaker at a college commencement ceremony. I hadn't ever heard of him at the time, but was fascinated by what I learned as the friends, colleagues, and former students I contacted unanimously praised his tremendous talents and personality. I went home and promptly began reading everything of his that I could get my hands on.

"Winter Count" isn't his best known or most lauded book, but it's firmly rooted as my favorite. (I think it's the herd of white buffalo that really gets me.) Contemplating man and nature, as is Lopez's signature style, this slim, quiet book that packs a big emotional wallop.

[Tone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became a big fan of Barry Lopez right after reading his most famous work “Arctic Dreams” and have always wanted to read his other works. Honestly didn’t know “Winter Count” was a short story collection before I bought it, but it’s nice to read some fiction from Lopez. His writing is simply beautiful, but I think I’ll seek more non-fiction of his in the future (perhaps short stories are just less my type?).

[Book2Dragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiet, intoxicating tales of revelation and woe evoke beauty from darkness, magic without manipulation, and memory without remorse--liner notes from Avon Bard edition.
I couldn't agree more. His writing is poetic and takes my breath away.

[Ray Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this years ago. Now I have reread it.
And now, a third time.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of unrelated stories. Each is good on its own, but it's not clear why they are placed together in this volume.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A flock of great blue herons descending through a snowstorm to the streets of New York ... A river in Nebraska disappearing mysteriously ... A ghostly herd of buffalo that sings a song of death ... A mystic who raises constellations of stones from the desert floor ... All these are to be found in Winter Count. the exquisite and rapturous collection by the National Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams."
~~back cover

A charming series of exquisite little stories, verging on the edge of mysticism and other-worldly places. A bit difficult to wade into ...

[Zach Gibeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

just beautiful. my first exposure to Barry Lopez, and I can tell I will be a lifelong fan. he mixes anthropology with personal history so effectively. brings emotion to the forefront with such clarity. I connected with The Lover of Words on another level - it is unreal picking up a book and reading your exact personal moral morass as a landscaper in the anthropocene era. a therapy session in 100 pages.

[lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. i rly like the writing

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a great story book for camping 🏕️
I enjoyed the elements that made me feel lost in nature.

[Vel Veeter]

This is a small collection of mostly atmospheric and impressionistic short fiction, more sketches than stories, by the travel and nature writer Barry Lopez. He is most famous for his longer nonfiction like Of Wolves and Men, Arctic Dreams, and you might be hearing his name more prominently in the next few months based on early reviews of his latest book, Horizon.

This book is a series of small fictions that mostly deal with little moments, painted scenes, character sketches, and other little things like this and the effect is somewhat detached, but the writing is absolutely gorgeous at times. It doesn’t make me want to go out and find more of his fiction, but has gotten me more interested in his nonfiction works. The book comes in at about 100 pages and has black and white water color sketches that accompany many of the stories. It’s an oddly soothing work.

“My father grew up in the north of Spain, in a fishing village in Asturias called Cudillero. He moved later to the south of England, then to America. As he grew older he lost his desire to travel alone and asked me to accompany him. We always went to Spain together. I met members of his family who still lived in Asturias and came to know better his relatives in Madrid. I still thought of them as his relatives rather than my own, for they remained distant and unfamiliar to me, even after I met them. They had opposed his marriage to my mother, I understood.”

[Eric F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nine short - but well wound stories weaving myth, fairy-tale, nature and Native American culture into the mix. It felt like a good old western meeting up with Charles de Lint or Neil Gaiman. Lopez touches repeatedly on a likable notion: that the way North America's natural world has been documented and cataloged needs to be reexamined. Instead of allowing the standing European explorers/exploiters attempts to align everything found on this continent with the outline they brought from home - something is gained and improved upon if this natural world is given a fresh treatment and recorded through the eyes of the men that are innately a part of this environment. Lopez also acknowledges that is pretty much too late and very unlikely to happen. But - his story gives the thought a spark. It's full of sparking poetry: "The other years came round him now like soft velvet noses of horses touching his arms in the dark." - "1833 Stars blowing around like snow. Some fall to earth." - “You can only tell the story as it was given to you … Do not lie. Do not make it up.” - “It is too dangerous for everyone to have the same story. The same things do not happen to everyone." I am not here to test the historical accuracy of each of his inclusions - this is a work of fiction. Lopez's words give the mind a lot of room to imagine the world differently.

[Kasey Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among several tribes on the northern plains, the passage of time from one summer to the next was marked by noting a single memorable event. The sequence of such memories, recorded pictographically on a buffalo robe or spoken aloud, was called a winter count.
As Barry Lopez lay dying of prostate cancer on Christmas Day of 2020 one has to wonder what he would’ve included as his own final winter count entry. The world was, at the time, deep within the throes of it’s greatest calamity since World War II, and the previous Fall he’d watched in silent horror as the home he’d built on the MacKenzie River—and all the memories and manuscripts within it—was reduced to ash during a season of unprecedented and cataclysmic wildfires.
One would think it certain that his final passage within a comprehensive archive of mortal seasons would be inexorably bleak, yet as I delve further into his work I am apt to believe he took his last desultory breaths considering a final memento of consciousness that was imbued with far more grace and enlightenment that we may be able to imagine.

[Doug Canfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drop dead gorgeous. A literary friend of mine loaned me this book, saying "this is my favorite book of all time" (which is saying a lot since she's the editor-in-chief of a book publishing company, though not the one that publishes Lopez). Reading these short stories felt to me like slowly moving through an exhibit of a master artist's impressionist paintings. Was it always clear to me what the writer was saying? No, but I could feel it.

Lopez's stories are close to long form poetry. But don't let that scare you off. The writing is very accessible, and the stories are short so you don't get so much in your head that you can't follow each vignette all the way through to its end. That said, I did reread stories more than once, but that was mainly to savor the words again, rather than to understand them better.

This is art that will make you feel. Its exceptional and, some how, I feel privileged to have read it.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mystical and lyrical. I am giving this 5 stars, even though most of the stories left me wondering, with no real resolution, especially the one that ends, "I awoke in the morning to find my legs broken" (from "Buffalo"). Still, the language is beautiful, and the stories flow effortlessly. I don't know that I had a favorite, but maybe "Winter Herons." I love the image of "Great blue herons were descending slowly against the braking of their wings, their ebony legs extended to test the depth of the snow..." which is in the middle of a street in New York. And yet that contrast between urban setting and the natural world does not seem contrived or jarring. It is a peaceful moment to be observed and, for this reader, with joy.

[tonia peckover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny enough, the first time I read this book, I didn't realize I was reading fiction and not essays. Lopez grounds his stories so easily in the natural world - by geography and sensual imagery, but also by rhythm: each story feels like a plant unfurling from the ground, blossoming, then returning again to the earth - that it is easy to forget these aren't real experiences, real episodes in Lopez' own life. But no matter, these chapters, real or imagined, hold beautiful, precise language, glowing images, and stories that don't so much resolve as linger and impress.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really fascinating pieces here, I was expecting non-fiction and I got this gorgeous blend of fiction and magical realism.

Girl Xoxo Monthly Motif Challenge 2019
November: Seasons, Elements and Weather (Embrace a winter wonderland setting, pick a beach read, or read about a natural disaster. As long as a season, element, or the weather plays a key role in the story or is part of the title, it counts. (ex. Little Fires Everywhere, The Snow Child, On The Island))

Flourish & Blotts Golden Trio Challenge 2019
Prompt 2, Ron: Read a book under 200 pages

[Daniel Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-crafted collection of stories ("Buffalo" was the standout for me, and "The Lover of Words" the only misfire) about the natural world and man's (dis)placement therein. Sample lines: "He came to hear a story unfold, to regard its shape and effect. He thought one unpacked history, that it came like pemmican in a parfleche and was to be consumed in a hard winter" (p. 55). Reading these stories felt a bit like that -- although to be frank, I have no idea what a parfleche is.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite authors. Whenever I read one of Mr. Lopez's works, my life is impacted greatly for a bit and I am taken over by reflection and consideration of the meaning of experiences both public and personal. These stories seemed as if he was speaking directly to me.

[Jonathan Hiskes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange, supernatural stories about people and nature. "If one is patient," says one desert hermit, "if you are careful, I think there is probably nothing that cannot be retrieved."

[Goldie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, this book. So peaceful, such a good good place to find one's heart.

[Bree Hatfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

“And he wrote poetry in the evening, against a breeze from the window. It was not brilliant poetry, for he could not effect the transition from what he admired to what he wrote, but this did not come into his mind.”

The stories in this collection describe the deep longing humans have for answers about many of life’s ineffable questions. He explores the concept of the past and our obsession with it, friendship, stories and what they mean to us, and even magic. These stories are fantastic, but many of them are just a tad dull. The ones that are good, though, are really good.

“Restoration” was such a beautifully pleasant tale about books and the nature of humanity. The main theme is one of preserving the past so the future generations can remember it, in both restoring books and discovering small details about the life of one man. It gets at our obsession with the past and how we handle it, and opens up many questions about why we focus on the past and if it’s healthy. It was honestly one of the best short stories I have ever read, and easy and solid 5 stars.

“Buffalo” is a fantastic story about the bond between humans and nature, and how animals and those closer connected to the earth are spiritually wiser than we are. The telling was stately, but with a hint of whimsical reverence that made the story feel magical. 4.5 stars.

“The Orrery” is a beautiful story that explores friendship and what it means; it’s mysterious and peculiar and even otherworldly, much like the wind on Earth or the vaguely similar celestial wind of the solar system. 4 stars.

I didn’t understand all of “Winter Count 1973,” but a push for authentic and genuine stories is important. Understanding an individual’s story, and the story of their culture, is what makes us who we are; and the differences between every person and every culture, and between person and their culture, strengthens our bond. 3.5 stars.

“The Lover of Words” is a wonderful tale about enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment with the natural world and mundane things that many of us have gone through or are in the process of going through. 4.25 stars.

The stories that I didn’t mention were ones I didn’t like enough to take note of, and are likely between 2 and 3 stars. Overall, though, this was a beautiful collection! It’s not for everyone, but if you like thematic short stories that make you think, you’ll love this.

[Daniel Winnick · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Among several tribes on the northern plains, the passage of time from one summer to the next was marked by noting a single memorable event. The sequence of such memories, recorded pictographically on a buffalo robe or spoken aloud, was called a winter count. Several winter counts might be in progress at any one time in the same tribe, each differing according to the personality of its keeper.”

This is the first work I’ve read by Lopez, who will have passed away two years ago two days from this writing. What a loss for us. He had a unique voice, apparent even in these early short stories, and I look forward to reading his acclaimed later works.

His Wikipedia article notes that amidst a life of letters and scientific pursuits, Lopez for a time was also—concurrent to writing this collection—a landscape photographer. That is easy to imagine. There is a stillness and clarity to these stories, each in their own way, and there is a sense of knowing and trying to distill the beauty of a natural scene that then extends its influence across what for each narrator may be a lifetime of memories and associations.

I was taken by three of the stories in particular: “The Orrery,” “Winter Count 1973,” and “The Lover of Words.”

[Moritz Fritschle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barry Lopez malt in diesem Buch Landschaften mit Worten. Leider sind ein paar der Geschichten etwas verworren, was das Lesen dieser einzelnen Passagen eher zäh macht. Es ist komisch. Manche Geschichten saugt man regelrecht in sich auf, andere sind wirklich eine Qual. Bei den langwierigen Geschichten, muss ich persönlich dann auch mir selber zugestehen, dass ich wahrscheinlich den dahinter liegenden Sinn nicht verstehe.
Jetzt stellt sich die Frage, würde ich das Buch empfehlen? Es kommt darauf an. Menschen, die gerne sich mit nordamerikanischen Landschaften beschäftigen, gerne der vorherrschenden Tierwelt, den Natives und der Natur lesen, die sollten auch dieses Buch lesen. Die beschreibende Art und Weise dieses Buches ist toll. Wer aber spannende Stories erwartet, sollte vielleicht sich ein anderes Buch suchen.

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audible rendition and was a bit disappointed; after hearing Robert Macfarlane recommending the author, this was my first encounter with Lopez; the stories are good but not great; I'll check some more well known works; Of Wolves and Men and Arctic Dreams.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me years to read because I'd read a story(?)(essay?) and put it down, think about it, not come up with an appreciation, set the book aside hoping for a mood or point in life in which I'd be more receptive... and I never did find a way to appreciate the pieces.

Yes, nature & wilderness evoke the divine, provoke spirituality. But I don't like pieces that may or may not be based in fact nor do I like the 'woo-woo' sort of spirituality that these approach and I do feel that readings about rivers, cranes, etc. should vibe more 'grounded' in the 'earth.' You may feel entirely differently and that's ok.

[Lindseyb · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 - I loved this small collection of short stories and creative nonfiction pieces...it’s like Lopez invented his own genre. Winter Count explains, reflects upon, and gives examples of the actual American Indian tradition of “winter count” pictographs....but this core concept is also punctuated by several memorable encounters with nature which represent significant life events in the protagonists’ own personal histories.

The writing is quiet, crisp, and meditative, and it sinks in slowly but deeply.