A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, the author began his lifelong exploration of nature in the salt flats and ponds around his hometown and in the mammoth bone collection hoarded in the old red brick museum at the University of Nebraska, where he conducted his studies in anthropology. In this work, the author turns his powers of reflection and discovery of his own life to relate his story. Beginning with his childhood experiences as a sickly afterthought, weighed down by the loveless union of his parents. From there he traces the odyssey that led to his search for early postglacial man. Eiseley crafts a self-portrait of a man who has thought deeply about his place in society as well as humanity’s place in the natural world.