Eugene, Ore. (AP) – Award-winning author Barry Lopez, who tried to tighten the bond between people and place by describing the landscapes he saw during his 20-year journey, has died. He was 75 years old.
Lopez died Friday in Oregon’s Eugene after years of struggle with prostate cancer, his family said.
Longtime friend Kim Stafford, a former Reagan poet winner, said Lopez’s books “define a field, a time, a cause. He also exemplifies the devotional life of handicrafts and learning, of being humble in the face of all kinds of wisdom. ”
Lopez was awarded the National Book Award in 1986 for “Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in the Northern Landscape”, along with an article and short story collection of about 20 books on the study of natural history. It was the result of almost five years of travel to the Arctic.
His final work was “Horizon”, an autobiography that recalls a lifelong journey to more than 70 countries.
Born in 1945 in Port Chester, New York, Lopez grew up in the San Fernando Valley, California, after his mother married New York City. In Horizon, he writes that in those creative years, he “developed a desire to move.” To find out what the skyline has cordoned off. “
He spent the following years with his wife, Debra Gwart, in an area bordering the Mackenzie River east of Eugene. After years of writing about the natural world and the impact of humans on climate change, he lamented the loss of acres of timber, not to mention personal papers, in a September 2020 holiday farm fire.
The wildfire damaged Lopez’s home so badly that he could not live in it. The blast also destroyed the building containing his original manuscripts, personal letters, photos and a typewriter he used to write his books. The IBM Selectic III was quickly replaced by a similar model by its friends.
“Just an incredible body of work and memories,” said his stepdaughter Stephanie Woodruff. “Very carefully kept and planned. It was (devastating) devastating, certainly. He wrote every single book on a typewriter. “
In 2013, Lopez wrote the essay “Sliver Sk f Sky”, which revealed that he was sexually abused by a family friend when he was 7 years old. Lopez said the essay was an attempt at catharsis.
Woodruff said the essay helped lead to “Horizon,” a book with more than two decades in the making. In a 2019 review, the Associated Press said the book looks like Lopez’s famous career earnings, describing it as part travel journal, part history, part science lecture, part autobiography and completely unique.
Woodruff said, “I think (the essay) really did release something out of the ground and completed ‘Horizon’. Everything he wrote was personal.”
In a statement Saturday, his family promoted financial support for the Mackenzie River Trust, with which Lopez worked on conservation efforts.
Lopez’s family includes his wife, four stepdaughters and an older brother. A younger brother died in 2017.
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