Candice LandauLast Updated on April 7, 2025 by Candice Landau
Few people have the opportunity to work with an author as thought-provoking, gentle, visionary and far-reaching in purpose as Barry Lopez. I was lucky enough to get this chance. This is what I learned.
1. The devil really is in the details
It’s important to focus on the nitty gritty. I have never worked with someone who reviewed an article, story, interview or email as many times as Barry did, tweaking and perfecting the language until it was as eloquent as his own speech. While it’s difficult to be patient when sending out a seemingly insignificant communication like an email, I have since learned, is a channel you can use to begin and foster relationships that are both deep and real.
2. There is always something to fix
I can’t tell you how many times we reviewed short stories and drafts of Horizon. But, whenever we did, we came across small things that needed to be changed or fixed and, in each case, the writing was made that much stronger. At some point, you have to stop.
3. It’s important to get things right
Barry’s insistence on fact-checking everything has been an excellent reminder to me to double-check things I think I know. We turned to atlases both online and offline, spread enormous maps over the dining room table, double-checked the meaning of a word and its usage, or dipped into the library to pull out a book on fish of the Galápagos Islands and all just because Barry wanted to be sure the information he had was accurate to the best of his knowledge. I have learned so much from doing this, including developing a health ability to admit to being wrong!
4. Be generous and considerate
When you are an author as much-loved as Barry Lopez, it’s probably not uncommon to receive postcards, letters, and talismans from friends, book fans and other authors. What struck me though, was how carefully Barry considered each item and read each letter sent to him – a beautiful poem on a card that he handed to me when I arrived, a postcard of a painting he kept above his desk, a handwritten letter he filed away after replying to—taking precious time out of his immensely busy schedule to discuss the item or correspond. No person was immune to this generosity of consideration. It’s a presence of mind I have since strived to emulate in my own communications, though I frequently fail.
5. Experience matters more than education
Since learning to scuba dive in 2016 my world view has changed and continues to change. Nowadays I long to be a naturalist, to be out on the ocean, to write about nature and animals, to explore my relationship with the environment, to share observations of the world I love and that I see in my own unique way. I regret frequently not having studied biology or the sciences, though I have always had and will always have varied interests. And, although I have fought to become more literate on my own terms in this realm – I read voraciously and I take courses wherever and whenever I can – I will still likely never have the B.S. degree to back-up any knowledge I do gain. I recall once bringing this up with Barry. His response was something I have turned to for reassurance and bull-headed resolve time and time again. He showed me, by way of a story of course, how people outside of a traditional realm of study could ask questions that those deeply embedded in it fail to ask—questions that are important and necessary and all but invisible to the in-group—that someone outside of “the PhD’s” could offer value and prompt those within to think differently, to explore and explain outside of their comfort zone.
6. The place you are now can teach you as much about the world as traveling it can
If you’ve ever read one of Barry’s essays – here are a couple readily available: The Naturalist; Lessons from the River – you’ll recall his frequent references to life on the river. This is because, although well-traveled, much of what Barry has learned, much of what he has contemplated and thought through has happened in one location. In his own words, “If I have learned anything here, it’s that each time I come down, something I don’t know yet will reveal itself.” As each of our own carbon footprints becomes ever more a concern, it is worth thinking about what we can learn without having to travel halfway across the world to do it.
7. Journal religiously
One day, especially if you want to write a book, you’ll be grateful for even the most mundane of entries. They’ll jog your memory, they’ll give you something to reach back to, they’ll be fodder for stories. I never read any of Barry’s journals, but I do recall seeing box upon box of them. I can’t imagine that this did anything but help him write, help him think, help him learn to craft words as powerful as actions, as long-lasting as a bushman’s arrowhead.
8. You’ve been taught to see the world in a certain way
You don’t have to know Barry to have learned this, you must simply have read Horizon. How we orient ourselves in the world – the ups and downs, the lefts and rights, the norths and souths – all these navigational markers are just one way of looking at the world, of getting around it. They’re not the only way, they’re just the way we were taught to do it. There are other ways, only it’s hard to see them when what we’ve been taught is so deeply entrenched.
9. Take the time to keep in touch with the people that matter
I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to my personal life, I am less than good at this—even and sometimes especially with the people I most care about. I often let an excuse like, “I want to take time to really write out a thoughtful and deep response,” stop me from doing anything at all. I can’t comment on how well Barry stayed in touch with people over the years but I do know that when I was working with him he was so very good at keeping in touch with many people in his life – authors, publishers, agents, family, neighbors, and friends.
These are just a few of the things that struck me when I worked with Barry. No doubt you’ll have your own thoughts, whether from reading one of his books or as a result of having had an opportunity to get to know him. Either way, if you haven’t yet read Horizon, I strongly recommend it–a beautiful yet grave wake-up call to everyone on earth.
