A Wilder Time

Glassley ponders the nature of perception and the human mind, describes the dramatic physical features of Greenland’s makeup and recounts the thrilling adventures of his extended visits there.

— Scientific American

Glassley eloquently evokes a place where land feathers into Arctic sea, ice floes glide by on mirror-smooth tongues of clear, frigid water and silence reigns. . . . This story offers perspectives on deep time to boggle minds. . . . Glassley’s vivid impressions of East Greenland attempt what few scientist-writers try: to explore beyond the comfort zone of his field.

— Nature

Straddles the line effortlessly between poetic and scientific. . . . What really pushes A Wilder Time into the upper echelons of nature books is its higher-reaching aims, using this location and journey to explore time, self, and the human relationship to nature.

— Glassworks Magazine

Builds a case for the necessity of wild places, both as respite from the noise and clutter of modern life and for their inherent values.

— Anchorage Daily News

Engaging. . . . A treat for geology buffs.

— Pasatiempo

Mesmerizing. . . . [Glassley] is a thoroughly accessible guide whose wonder at the landscape that surrounds him is infectious.

— Washington Independent Review of Books

Transport[s] readers across the world and deep into the past, while suggesting a way forward into the future. For budding naturalists, armchair geologists, and anyone who loves a good expedition, this is an ideal read.

— Bookish

Amazing. A Wilder Time is a book for those who love nature and have that longing desire to learn the unknown, all hidden along the walls of the fjords of Greenland.

— North of Oxford

Writing with the same poetic precision, artistry, and soulful receptivity as Gretel Ehrlich and Barry Lopez, with the added impact of his rigorous scientist-in-the-field expertise, Glassley is spellbinding as he chronicles his exhilarating adventures.

— Booklist (starred review)

Profound and moving. . . . A superb tool for a better understanding of the natural world and why real science matters.

— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Poetic, enthusiastic. . . . Combining the strengths of travel writing and lyrical memoir, Glassley translates his own ‘incandescent experience of place’ into a conservation message: ‘We must share and celebrate the wild so that it might be saved.’

— Foreword Reviews (starred review)

Thoughtful. . . . Evincing humility in the midst of the great ‘unshaped wild,’ Glassley exudes a palpable and infectious sense of wonder.

— Publishers Weekly

A poetic, metaphysical and philosophical treatise on the wildness of life on earth. . . . [Glassley’s] enthusiasm for geology is palpable. His love of the wild is tangible, and his way with words beautiful.

— Shelf Awareness

A Wilder Time is nature writing at its informative and inspirational best and unreservedly recommended.

— Midwest Book Review

Very highly recommended. . . . A Wilder Time is a celebration of wilderness, written in poetic prose that can be appreciated by anyone who enjoys good nature writing. It is also a call to save the wilderness areas we have left.

— She Treads Softly

Very few people have spent as much time as William E. Glassley in such deep wilderness. So it would behoove us to pay attention even if he had not brought back such a fascinating, lovely, and useful set of observations. This is a remarkable book.

— Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Oil and Honey

Glassley exhibits an uncanny ability to put us in the midst of Greenland’s vast silence, where he takes us deep into the planet’s soul. It is an important and well-told adventure that opens us to life’s grand expanse and begs us to follow in spite of the brevity of our existence.

— John Francis, author of Planetwalker and The Ragged Edge of Silence

While conveying the geological hypotheses, techniques of data collection, and adventures of his expeditions to Greenland with his two Danish colleagues, Glassley also brings startling sensory precision to his descriptions. The velvety feeling of moss, the taste of lichen, the alternating rhythms of terror and fluidity in schools of fish through which a predatory sculpin cruises—such experiences bring what might have seemed a stark world of rock and ice alive. This delicacy of perception is the vehicle through which not only the scientific quest but also the profound mystery of our living Earth saturates this memorable book.

— John Elder, coeditor of The Norton Book of Nature Writing and author of Picking Up the Flute

Glassley’s A Wilder Time is a wonderful mix of science and poetry. It delves into the kind of spiritual effect that wilderness has on those privileged to work in it and how it changes the way we experience and understand our surroundings and our lives. The science, including the geological controversy at the heart of the book, is lucidly explained, and readers will be absorbed by the story Glassley tells as well as his many vividly described encounters with nature. Next time someone asks me why I am a geologist, I will just hand them this book.

— William L. Griffin, professor of geology at Macquarie University

While conducting research probing deep time and the origin of continents, Glassley discovered a further source of fascination: the Arctic wilderness of Greenland. In A Wilder Time, he shares his encounters with unvarnished nature still free—for now—from the corruptions and constructs of human settlement. With openness, clarity, and a keen eye for detail, he weaves adventure, research, astonished awe, and thoughtful reflection into an absorbing account of his sojourns.

— Martha Hickman Hild, author of Geology of Newfoundland: Field Guide

In this extraordinary narrative, Glassley, a geologist, describes his intimate relationship with Greenland’s ancient rocks in such a fashion that the reader who knows nothing about geology is hooked; that reader feels like he’s not only been transported to the rockribbed coast of West Greenland, but is also bent down and studying its rocks right along with Glassley. At the same time, the book reminds us of the degree to which climate change is damaging the planet. . . . Urgently recommended!

— Lawrence Millman, author of Last Places and At the End of the World

As geologists, we may be rational scientists, but expeditions to remote places touch something deep in us that moves us to also be poets. Glassley has turned his experiences in Greenland into searingly beautiful descriptions of a wild landscape and the ways in which that landscape moves and changes him. Every sentence is evocative, connoting curiosity, awe, and respect in equal measure. A Wilder Time is a paean on the importance of wilderness to the human spirit and a saddening reminder of what we lose when we divorce ourselves from contact with wild places. Glassley’s voice will stay with me the way the works of Loren Eiseley, Edward Abbey, Rachel Carson, and Aldo Leopold have stayed with me over the decades.

— Jane Selverstone, professor emerita in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico

We’re a bit swoony-eyed about A Wilder Time. . . . Glassley joins the ranks of naturalist writers who make talking about rocks and lichens sexy with this witty and engrossing memoir of time spent wandering about on Greenland. . . . His enthusiasm is infectious and his wonder at this wild place is inspiring.

— NW Book Lovers “Face Out” selection by A Good Book Café (Sumner, WA)

A fascinating gem of a book about a geological exploration of Greenland that leads to a scientific breakthrough.

— San Francisco Chronicle, “Top Shelf” Recommendation from Bay Area independent bookstore Copperfield’s Books (San Rafael, CA)

This Walden-esque reflection on wilderness and humanity’s relationship to it will have you shivering along with Glassley and his colleagues in their tents, and wondering at the awe-inspiring age of the rocks they study and what it teaches us about the ancient history of our planet.

— San Francisco Chronicle, “Top Shelf” Recommendation from Bay Area independent bookstore Napa Bookmine (Napa, CA)

Glassley and his fellow geologists went on six expeditions to one of the world’s most remote lands to study ancient evidence related to plate tectonics. In evocative prose, he describes their research and the startling beauty of Greenland, and speculates on the nature of perception and the wonder inspired by wilderness.

— San Francisco Chronicle, “Top Shelf” Recommendation from Bay Area independent bookstore Face in a Book (El Dorado Hills, CA)