When Eiseley finally wrote a longer autobiography, it belonged to the same genre as his essays, it offered up nothing personal, no narrative of family life or career. Many of Eiseley’s essays about science and its implications are inspired by fragments of autobiography. His admiration for Eiseley the writer grew in later years as Eiseley began to publish his essays. As the Nebraska Guide took shape it was Eiseley that Umland assigned to write the chapters on the State’s natural setting and prehistory. Umland admired his friend and came to recognize his genius. Umland’s own curiosity and gregarious nature brought him interesting tidbits of Lincoln gossip that broadened his understanding of Eiseley’s world. Interested in Eiseley from the beginning, Umland was an acute observer of Eiseley as a man and as a writer. Umland had known Mabel Langdon, Eiseley’s future wife, since 1927, when she helped him change his registration from the College of Engineering to the School of Fine Arts. Umland knew Eiseley’s friends and teachers, had heard them talk about Eiseley, and had seen them point him out crossing the University campus, long before meeting him. In these and other conversations, Umland discovered “a sense of insecurity that puzzled me.” Eiseley had obvious gifts, but “showed little confidence in his ability to ever earn a living.”

“The WPA would end one day!” What would Umland do then? At some point, Umland told Eiseley that he himself had no intention of ever returning to the University to obtain a degree.

“I think Loren must have suffered more intensely because he didn’t seem to want to recall his experiences.” “He seemed so hesitant and vague and uncertain that we were soon talking about other matters.”Įiseley kept questioning Umland about his plans for the future. Umland thought that they might talk about the challenges of hobo life, but found that Eiseley did not want to talk about it. Umland, in turn, had read two of Eiseley’s own sketches of hobo life in the Schooner. Wimberly had passed part of the manuscript to Eiseley to select parts for publication in the Schooner. Eiseley, as a student editor at Prairie Schooner had actually read portions of Umland’s book manuscript about his experiences as a hobo from 1928-1931. The two had heard about each other for a decade. “When I met Loren in January, 1936 we had instant rapport,” Umland recalled. Eiseley, on loan from the National Youth Administration, came to work for the Writers’ Project, and fell into the habit of visiting Umland in his living quarters, a furnished room at 510 South 18th Street in Lincoln. Rudolph Umland was already working for the WPA when he met Loren Eiseley for the first time in 1936. Loren Eiseley, early 1936, on loan to the Writers’ Project from the National Youth Administration

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