The Star Thrower

by Loren Eiseley

A collection of the author’s favorite essays and poems. This volume includes selections that span Eiseley’s entire writing career and provide a sampling of the author as naturalist, poet, scientist, and humanist. “Loren Eiseley’s work changed my life” (Ray Bradbury). Introduction by W. H. Auden.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Essays, Philosophy, Nature, Poetry, Anthropology

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Loren Corey Eiseley (September 3, 1907 – July 9, 1977) was a highly respected anthropologist, science writer, ecologist, and poet. He published books of essays, biography, and general science in the 1950s through the 1970s.

Eiseley is best known for the poetic essay style, called the "concealed essay". He used this to explain complex scientific ideas, such as human evolution, to the general public. He is also known for his writings about humanity's relationship with the natural world; these writings helped inspire the modern environmental movement.

Reviews

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, I'm very sorry. I'm throwing in the towel on this one. I love Eiseley's writing. It's wonderful and poetic and deep and lovely. The problem with the book, and this isn't even remotely his fault, is that ecology has grown and learned so much since when he wrote. So some of the "mysteries" he writes about, we've now know much more about, and many of the conclusions they thought they'd reached in the 70s we now know to be untrue. I kept trying to suspend my disbelief and go with the sense of what he was trying to say. Of course this didn't work.

I still love some of his stuff. It's just that the rest of it I can't make it through. I foresee me reading many of his essays, in isolation, but probably not tackling any more books wholesale.

I feel a bit like a traitor.

[Adriane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this many years ago and the evocative beauty of his prose, his simplicity and passion, his hunger, all wove a spell I've yet to shake off. A number of the stories made me cry, a few made me laugh out loud, and all made me think.

If you like it - also read The Unexpected Universe (probably my favorite Eisley book). I've gone through many copies of both books over the years - friends that "borrow" them usually can't help passing them them on to someone else.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eiseley is a naturalist, a scientist, a humanist and a writer. Before he died in 1977, he put together some of his favourite writing for this anthology.

The book is divided into three parts. In the first section, which was my favourite, he shares some of his experiences in life and with nature, which leads him to pose interesting questions and draw some thoughtful conclusions. The second section is shorter and contains some poetry. In the third section, which compromises most of the book, he explores a number of broad questions about the human species as life evolves against an unseen and an unknown future.

Eiseley is a solitary wanderer and his prose is tinged with melancholy. He is someone who is more comfortable with animals and rocks than human companions. He does not like noises or crowds, because he is at heart a listener, a man whose solitary approach allows him to reflect on the messages he receives from his surroundings. These lead naturally to deep thought and quiet revelations which he shares with his readers.

Although Eiseley is a trained biologist, his prose is not written in the cold, distinct and precise style of a scientist. His training is evident in that it leads him to write logically, providing historic background, moving from one known fact to the next, asking pertinent questions and drawing possible conclusions. But his narrative also includes beautiful descriptive passages filled with sentences that are masterfully constructed.

This is not a quick, easy read. It requires time, attention and a deep breath now and again. Yes, some of the information is dated, but there is still much food for thought.

[Yao MacLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This piece contains so much beauty and sorrow. A deeply moving attempt to grapple with the fundamental gap which haunts modern existence -- how to live in a world both explained and inexplicable?

"The stars," he said, "throw well. One can help them."

"We were part of the rainbow––an unexplained projection into the natural."

"I could feel the movement in my body. It was like a sowing––the sowing of life on an infinitely gigantic scale . . . I flung and flung again while all about us roared the insatiable waters of death."

"We had lost our way, I thought, but we had kept, some of us, the memory of the perfect circle of compassion from life to death and back again to life––the completion of the rainbow of existence."

[Painting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I found myself throwing stars with my nephew who was too young to understand the story but we thoroughly enjoyed the process of being nature helpers.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leaving Goodreads, don't want to be a volunteer content provider for Amazon. This review is now available on LibraryThing, username CSRodgers.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consistently lifted me out of time to mind in space.

[Sandrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr Eiseley states having spent most of his life on his knees searching and investigating the past, bringing it to the present light so we might find a way to understand where we are “now”. Though his search was with the deep past, his eruditions are for the deep future. You don’t read this for the science but for the insights, the wonder, the mystery, the paradox of life.

[C. M. Kosemen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Otiose, badly-written, pompous... Too bad, really wanted to like this book.

[Morgan]

When one chooses to be bold, and wild--when one chooses to believe all things are both utterly random and inextricably connected--when one is filled with desire--well, then there is Eisley. The pliable, starry-eyed, gazing, scientist/poet. A wanderer, a gatherer. A silly, silly man.

[Krista Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably my most favorite non-fiction writer - he has a lot more books - but this is the only one coming up here. I've read him over and over. Will be probably be the last author I'll read on my death bed. No, I'm not exaggerating - I take books far too seriously for that.

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Star Thrower is a posthumous collection of Eiseley's work. Somewhere around a third of the way through the book I considered giving it up. Eiseley may have been an outstanding scientist, naturalist, a modern contemplative - many call him "a modern Thoreau" - and the first part of the book bored me. His style was too contemplative. I kept on thinking "Come on. Make a decision or reach a conclusion."
Something kept me going (thank god for those inner voices). I read The Dance of the Frogs and it caught me completely off guard. It's one of the finest pieces of horror I've read (discussed as such on my blog). I finished the story before I recognized how chilled I was, what a sense of terror, horror, it gave me. Some of that is because I wasn't prepared for a horror story (I still don't know if he meant it as one). I've read it twice in two days and will read it again, I'm sure.
The I read The Fifth Planet. Another gem. What talented story telling!
I don't recommend getting a whole book for two short pieces (Remember the college prof who had you buy a textbook and only read twenty or so pages from it? Never liked those professors) and the rest of the book is a good enough read to keep you going.
Just make sure you get past the first third or so.

[Joe Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to make of Loren Eiseley. I like him, his heart's in the right place, he's well read, writes well, etc. He's a mystic with a well developed sense of the numinous. What surprises me is that he doesn't seem to understand the sciences very well. Doesn't understand the Milankovitch cycles or about human impact on climate, clueless as to kin selection and reciprocal altruism, and, most strangely of all, he doesn't seem to understand the Second Law. Emphasizes life's exquisite order with no mention of the tremendous amount of energy that goes into establishing and maintaining that order. Seems to exalt life as a enthalpic phenomenon while disregarding the entropic cost to the overall system. Seems like a professor of Anthropology would know better, even in the 1950s and '60s. In places his writing becomes esoteric and his meaning hard to follow. Found my mind wandering while reading. Didn't really hold my interest in places. Poetry struck me as mediocre. Some cool anecdotes, though. Can't strongly recommend but you might like him if you're inclined towards life's mysterium.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esch essay holds a message that strikes at the heart. The words are lyrical, in fact musical in thought. An ever present fit for nature, anthropology, history, and the surroundings imagined or not. These words cannot be taken lightly. You might read an essay another day and be rewarded in some new never before thought about way.

An absolute joy for those of us who are continually stopping as we meander the earth to find a treasure in the most remote spot. His tale about the fox has be reminded often of the feel, the passion, the evocation of nature in living things.

[Jen Cratsenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was intrigued by Eiseley’s suggestion of Thoreau as an early process philosopher. I think having some understanding of Whitehead is helpful while reading these essays to appreciate their relational qualities but by no means necessary (however, I think Eiseley is highly Influenced by Whitehead and much depth is added). I’ve read and reread “the star thrower” many times over the last couple of years.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of you who have heard the story of the man on the beach throwing the starfish back into the ocean, this book is the origin of that story, and the story within is actually "The Star Thrower" but it contains much more than that. Eiseley writes deeply of our world. I need to read this again.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most fantastic books I have read recently. Sometimes hard to follow and not because the writing was not excellent but because the author was so intelligent. Nature, man, nature and man, philosophy of nature, the mind of man, past and present, these are what Loren Eiseley discusses in a very beautiful and meaningful way.

[Dave Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elegant and only slightly dated by recent discoveries. I liked part I, Nature and Autobiography, over Part II, Early Poems, and Part III, Science and Humanism.

[Jackie DeVille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome essayist

[Penelope Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

He calls himself a loser because he never found what he was looking for. What he did find and shared with me is momentous. I ordered all of his books.

[Gordon Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully meditative book of essays by the late naturalist and scholar-poet from Nebraska. Haunting descriptions of his encounters with the natural and sometimes not so natural worlds.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting. The essay, "The Star Thrower," in particular, keeps ringing in my brain, decades later.

[David Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book to be savored and read slowly. Best to read excerpts and bits & pieces at a time.
It's NOT light reading. Yet, it's worthwhile to ponder upon and just think quietly as you read.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

His prose is incredible, absolutely one of my favorites of all time

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit long winded, but the message was gorgeous. I will never look at starfish quite the same. Do what you can, when you can, the best you can, as often as you can. Simple and beautiful.

[Beky Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

The star thrower STUCK WITH ME

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loren Eiseley is simply incredible, undoubtedly Thoreau’s heir. What a voice

[Scout Who · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly I just wasn't blown away by this.
It may deserve a re-reading.

[SJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some very lyrical and vivid writing from an interesting perspective. At the same time, tedious and repetitive. The science is dated, and the author is so entrenched in certain perspectives that it is difficult to ignore, hence tedious. Certain essays are definitely worth the time, but I recommend skipping the Thoreau essays and some of the more science-y ones in the latter half.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loren Eiseley represents a nexus, where the worlds of science and the imagination meet. His poems and essays are meditations about who we are, where we come from, and where we are going as a species, in conjunction with all the other species with whom we share this world. Star Thrower is his last book, a selection of essays on nature and science, joined with a handful of early poems that show him to be at ease in both worlds.

It is unfortunate for all of us that Eiseley is not around any more, because no one has, as yet, replaced him. No one asks those deep questions that resonate through our very being. In his essay "The Lethal Factor," he writes:

In one of those profound morality plays which C. S. Lewis is capable of tossing off lightly in the guise of science fiction,one of his characters remarks that in the modern era the good appears to be getting better and the evil more terrifying. It as as though two antipathetic elements in the universe were slowly widening the gap between them. Man, in some manner, stands at the heart of this growing rift. Perhaps he contains it within himself. Perhaps he feels the crack slowly widening in his mind and his institutions. He sees the finest intellects, which in the previous century concerned themselves with electric light and telephonic communication, devote themselves wholeheartedly to missiles and supersonic bombers.

Although he was a noted anthropologist and academic, Eiseley's sympathies were with the downtrodden forms of life. In answer to the Biblical injunction to love not the world neither the things that are in the world, Eiseley responds:

"But I do love the world.... I love its small ones, the things beaten in the strangling surf, the bird, singing, which flies and falls and is not seen again." I choked and said, with the torn eye still upon me, "I love the lost ones, the failures of the world." It was like the renunciation of my scientific heritage. The torn eye surveyed me sadly and was gone.

There is a gentility here in Eiseley's writing that seems to have gone out of the world.