The White Lantern

by Evan S. Connell

Book by Connell, Evan S.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Essays, Science, Travel, Archaeology, History Of Science

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Evan Shelby Connell Jr. (August 17, 1924 – January 10, 2013) was a U.S. novelist, poet, and short-story writer. His writing covered a variety of genres, although he published most frequently in fiction.

In 2009, Connell was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, for lifetime achievement. On April 23, 2010, he was awarded a Los Angeles Times Book Prize: the Robert Kirsch Award, for "a living author with a substantial connection to the American West, whose contribution to American letters deserves special recognition."

Connell was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the only son of Evan S. Connell, Sr. (1890–1974), a physician, and Ruth Elton Connell. He had a sister Barbara (Mrs. Matthew Zimmermann) to whom he dedicated his novel Mrs. Bridge (1959). He graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City in 1941. He started undergraduate work at Dartmouth College but joined the Navy in 1943 and became a pilot. After the end of World War II, he graduated from the University of Kansas in 1947, with a B.A. in English. He studied creative writing at Columbia University in New York and Stanford University in California. He never married, and lived and worked in Sausalito, California for decades.
(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Rob Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up this book because Dud was reading it on "Lodge 49", and I'd read Connell's "Son of the Morning Star" previously. Really enjoyed "The White Lantern". Historical essays on less mainstream stuff like Vikings, South Pole Exploration, and Astronomy. There's an undercurrent of wry humor (borderline sarcasm) throughout the book that I think I misunderstood initially. Connell pokes fun at a lot of the blunders and missteps explorers and scientists have made in their efforts to understand our world and our universe. But I think, ultimately, he's making the point that, as much as we think we've learned and are certain of, we probably still don't know the half of it.

[Simon A. Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to give this 5-stars because Connell somehow managed to write an educational, historical book of essays (something I would normally never touch for leisure) and made it all thoroughly entertaining, interesting and enjoyable. The man can write. Whether science is his topic or science-fiction, history or literature, the dude can write...

[Marc Washburne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite author....Time-spanning studies of man's insatiable desire for knowledge enter the realms of anthropology, astronomy, linguistics, and archaeology, recounting adventures of inquiry, exploration, and discovery that confirm humankind's wondrous capabilities. Connell weaves stories about historcal events like no one else.

[Edith · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A little dated now in terms of some of the science, but as the author might have predicted, this study of the search for knowledge in the face of the sturdy opposition that ignorance puts up is absorbing--and still depressingly relevant. A series of long essays on a variety of topics. Beautifully written.

[Herb Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gem that I return to every couple of years. It is a collection of historical essays covering the breadth of human history. Evan Connell is the ultimate autodidact and his knowledge about obscure but important events is encyclopedic. He writes with a wry style that makes his books a joy even though some of his points are angry. A rare gift.

I was sorry to hear of his death earlier this year. If you are interested in making his acquaintance pick up this book and its companion The Long Desire.

[Duke Haney]

A sequel, of sorts, to Connell's A Long Desire (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...), every bit as mind-blowing to anyone unfamiliar with its subject(s) -- the exploration, often by eccentrics, of forgotten, ignored, or misunderstood realms -- and perhaps a tad more tedious, given that its essays are, with a single exception, longer than those in Desire. Still, it's more than worthy of a read. If only there were more books like it!

[J. Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty cool book of sprawling essays on obscure but interesting history... stuff like the Vikings in Greenland, early anthropology and the many hoaxes and misapprehensions it overcame, and the nastier details of Antarctic exploration.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book. A Long Desire was mostly about man's desire and find more. This one focuses on what e know enough about to KNOW but have lost enough of to never know for sure. The Mayans, the Etruscans, et. al. The essay is a lost art and Connell was a master of it.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

Almost rambling in the way it jumps from topic to topic.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent essays covering a wide range of science and history.