In early October, 1949, Random House published the First Edition, First Printing of George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides. Since that day, October 7, 1949, Stewart’s novel has never been out of print, and the impact of the work on society and culture has been substantial. See this article for a summary of the book, its themes, and its influence.
Recently republished by Mariner Books, with a fine new Introduction by Kim Stanley Robinson, the novel continues to inspire its readers with page-turning prose and provocative ideas. If you’ve never read it, this would be a good time – as the nights lengthen and the weather encourages evenings sitting by the fire with a good book at hand – to read the new edition. If you’re a fan of the novel, this would be a good time to read it again, seated in the easy chair by the fireplace.
A package arrived last week carrying copies of the new printing of Earth Abides, with its splendid “Introduction” by Kim Stanley Robinson. Even if you have a copy of EA, this very affordable printing is worth buying for Robinson’s Introduction to the novel. (Buy from the non-profit Bookshop.org and a percentage of the sales will go to support independent bookstores.)
I consider the cover of this printing one of the three best EA covers. (And there have been many covers)
The original cover, by H. Lawrence Hoffman, is a fine piece of art depicting a ruined city after the fall – a city which looks to be San Francisco.
But as wonderful as Hoffman’s cover is, images of ruined cities speak of loss. My other favorites, which include the one on this new printing’s cover, focus on the Hammer of Ish — a powerful symbol of rebuilding, and thus hope. One of them is the cover of this new printing, with the Hammer centered over what appears to be a view of Earth from above the clouds. That overview encourages readers to keep a Whole Earth in mind as they read the gripping, encouraging story set during a pandemic not unlike the one Stewart describes.
My third favorite is by Alan Ligda, a hero of Earth Abides.
When Random House decided to stop publishing the book, Ligda acquired the rights from Stewart. His edition is a beautiful work printed by Hermes Press, his family’s small fine quality press.
Ligda centered the Hammer of Ish on the cover, juxtaposed over an open book. The cover makes an important point: LIke the Hammer, books are tools — for such as Stewart, Ligda, and all writers and readers.
(Sadly, as heroes often do, Alan Ligda died young.)
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My order of the new Earth Abides was shipped on the publication date. October 13. On October 14th, by coincidence (or Jungian synchronicity?) I shared lunch and conversation about things Stewartian with Ed, George and Ted (Theodosia) Stewart’s grandson and the current keeper of the family rights. We hadn’t seen each other since his grandmother’s memorial service, about 30 years ago, so we spent some time catching up.Then we turned to matters of the GRS Legacy that he manages. No need to go into great detail, but thanks to his request for advice about book contracts and followup suggestions from my agent, Sally van Haitsma, it looks as if Ed and the Legacy are about to get an excellent agent. (The agent’s in Berkeley where most of Earth Abides takes place. He once managed a legendary bookstore, Cody’s. And he’s looking for clients.) The agent is also familiar with film options and contracts. Since there’s now interest in filming another of GRS’s other books should be a marriage made in heaven (as they say)..
All-in-all, the middle of October 2020 has been a milestone time for the Legacy of George R. Stewart, and Earth Abides.
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It’s been 6 decades since a kind, wise librarian walked into the stacks, pulled out a book, and said “Here. I think you’ll like this book.” The trail from there has been like that of Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow: winding, up and down and back and forth, often through the dense fogs of life. But the winding path has always been lit by the lessons George R. Stewart teaches in Earth Abides. Learning that Kim Stanley Robinson generously mentioned the GRS biography in his Introduction to the new printing of EA, brings this life arc almost full circle – from reading the book as a 12-year old to finding myself in the book. It is a pleasant summiting. Lunch with Ed while we chewed over things Stewartian were gifts of the summiting, after that decades-long wandering saunter.
Seeing Ish’s Hammer beautifully displayed on the book’s cover makes my spirit sing. During those many years, the Hammer of Ish has been an encouraging (if symbolic) companion. Like a lantern or a grail, it has been a life-gift. As has Earth Abides.
Ish’s Hammer
….By gifted artist, schoolmate of Lennon and McCartney, and playing an important role in the story of George R. Stewart and Earth Abides, Steve Williams (AKA The Pilgrim).
Want to buy a print of the painting? Here’s Steve’s website; contact information is near the bottom:
If you’ve been waiting to buy the “glorious” 2020 Mariner Press edition of Earth Abides, with an Introduction by distinguished author Kim Stanley Robinson, this is the week. The new printing of Earth Abides will be released on October 13th. (But not necessarily shipped; Amazon sent a notice that they would alert buyers when pre-orders ship. Other places to buy the book include your local bookstore. Or Bookshop, which helps support local bookstores.)
Even if you have a copy, you may want to purchase this new edition — published 71 years after George R. Stewart predicted a major pandemic which would affect the entire human race. This is the novel that inspired Stephen King to write The Stand, and poet/novelist James Sallis to write a poetic review of the power and glory of Stewart’s novel.
Sallis writes, in part,
…This is a book, mind you, that I’d place not only among the greatest science fiction, but among our very best novels.
Each time I read it, I’m profoundly affected, affected in a way only the greatest art — Ulysses, Matisse or Beethoven symphonies, say — affects me. Epic in sweep, centering on the person of Isherwood Williams, Earth Abides proves a kind of antihistory, relating the story of humankind backwards, from ever-more-abstract civilization to stone-age primitivism.
Everything passes — everything. Writers’ reputations. The ripe experience of a book in which we find ourselves immersed. Star systems, worlds, states, individual lives. Humankind.
Few of us get to read our own eulogies, but here is mankind’s. Making Earth Abides a novel for which words like elegiac and transcendent come easily to mind, a novel bearing, in critic Adam-Troy Castro’s words, “a great dark beauty.”
In his first great work, Ordeal By Hunger, he told the story from an ecological (or Ranger’s) point of view. But he began with the Astronaut’s point of view from Low Earth Orbit. Not bad for a book published in 1936. (It’s still the best book about the Donner Party).
As he prepared for the publication of his ecological novel Firehe sent a letter to a Book-of-the-Month club publicist that prophetically explained:
“I consider the main theme … to be the problem of the relationship of man to his environment. I really think of myself, in most of my books, as what might be called an ecologist. ” (From a letter in the Bancroft Library’s George Rippey Stewart Papers. Published here by permission of the Stewart family.)
In the Third Book of The Years of the City, Stewart predicted how societies fade away, in a novel with disturbing parallels for today.
And in his classic work, Earth Abides, he predicted the end of the Anthropocene – the human era – through a disease that spreads rapidly throughout society, decimating most of the human race.
His interest in the idea came from his own experience. After graduation from Princeton University in the Class of 1917 (one of his classmates was F. Scott Fitzgerald), Stewart, like many of his classmates wrapped in patriotic passion by the US’s entry into WW I, enlisted. Like other army soldiers – young healthy men expected to be the most resistant to disease – he contracted the Spanish Flu. It nearly killed him; and it would interfere with his health for decades – eventually leading him to have one lung removed.
The flu infected ONE THIRD of the human population of the Earth. It may have killed as many as 50,000,000 people. And, like other recent epidemics, it became deadly when some component of a virus jumped from animal populations into a strain of human flu. This is exactly what caused the launch of coronavirus – almost certainly from a live animal market in China. Read about the 1918 epidemic. It killed perhaps 50,000,000.
(An excellent article about the Spanish Flu epidemic, In Flew Enza, focuses on the effects at UC Berkeley — discussing Stewart’s experience, and Earth Abides.)
So far COVID has killed about 6000, and has a 95% cure rate. This is not meant to discourage prudence but to point out that we are far from the 1918 pandemic.
Be prudent. Don’t panic.
If this already frightening disease, coronavirus, should mutate, Stewart’s prophesy could well become (at least partially) true. There are still isolated human populations – as many as 100 tribes, the Sentinelese being the best known – which might avoid the disaster.
Will this be the Earth Abides virus? Hopefully not. At least Stewart helped prepare us with his novel. The book is so widely-read and in so many languages that certainly many of those who are in the leading roles to battle this epidemic have likely read it, and have thus been thinking for decades about what to do if and when such an epidemic should happen. It has in fact been impressive to see how quickly they have begun to respond to it. So we shall wish them well and hope for the best.
In the meantime, you may want to re-read Earth Abide.
POSTSCRIPT, on the first day of spring 2020:
There is major economic and social disruption today – the economic weakening of a society, and the isolation of neighbors from each other when cooperation and high social capital are needed but prevented by locking down a town. A city with which I am familiar (as was George R. Stewart) has one case. They have demanded the closure of all businesses except food and drug stores and the hospital. Businesses can’t pay rent or employees; employees can’t pay rent or buy food. For ONE case in a city of more than 50,000.
And there are proposals to close the national parks – the best places for people to get the medical benefits of fresh air and exercise with the best of social distancing.
This would be a good time to consider Rudyard Kipling’s poem IF – especially the first few lines:
If
by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, …
Carl Jung is supposed to have said that there are no accidents. If an important encounter seems beyond coincidence, Jung is certain it is NOT a coincidence. Jung even coined a term to describe such encounters: “synchronicity.”
There have been many Jungian synchronicities in my George R. Stewart work. Consider today’s extraordinary encounter.
There’s a small cafe here in the care center where I’m sequestered while antibiotics are poured through the system. Today was the day I was supposed to leave, but the antibiotic infusions have been extended. Deciding to to celebrate anyway, with real coffee, I went to the cafe.
A couple came up to the counter, ordered some items to go, saying they’d been visiting a friend here but had to rush back to San Francisco.
Always neighborly, I asked where in San Francisco they might be going.
“Actually,” she said, “We’re going to Berkeley.”
“Where in Berkeley?”
“Solano Street.”
“Sure, I know Solano. Friends live there.”
On impulse I asked, “Have you read Earth Abides?” (The book is set in Berkeley up the hill from the Solano neighborhood.)
“Have I? I grew up in Berkeley, where it’s set.
“In fact, I’m Carl Sauer’s granddaughter. My mother was his daughter. GRS and Granddad were great friends.
“I saw him almost every week hen I was a child”
“Your grandfather?”
“George Stewart – he often came to visit my grandfather when I was there.”
Carl Sauer
She was a member of a family of academic royals, and it was an honor to shake her hand (and her husband’s).
Sauer was considered the greatest geographer of his time. He had a profound influence on Earth Abides, since GRS often discussed the effects of the removal of humans from the ecosystem with him — a major theme of the pioneering novel. Stewart acknowledged his debt to Sauer by mentioning him in Earth Abides.
Stewart took also Sauer on research trips to the place that was the focus of his final ecological novel, a place he called Sheep Rock.
At the end of the novel, Stewart steps out of the text to explain how he did the research:
I, George Stewart, did this work…
I have looked into the blue and green depths of the spring, and have climbed the rock, and gazed out across the desert. That first night, the grim fascination of the place rose within me, and I thought of this book.
That time I was with Charlie. I was there again— with Jack, with Selar, with Carl and Parker and Starker, with Brig and Roy. I said to myself, “I shall know more about this place than anyone knows of any place in the world.” So I took the others there, and one looked at the beaches and the hills, and another at the grass and the shrubs, and another at the stone-work among the hummocks, and so it went, until at last each had shared with me what he knew. Besides, I read the books.
But if you ask me, “What is true, and what is not? Is there really such a place?” I can only say, “It is all mingled! What does it matter? In the end, is what-is-seen any truer than what-is-imagined?” Yet, if you should look hard enough, you might find a black rock and a spring—and of the other things too, more than you might suspect.
So here, I write of myself, for I also was there, and I am of it….
“Carl,” of course, is Carl Sauer.
The couple had to leave. I gave them my card, silently wishing we’d met when the biography was being written – her story would have been as valuable as Baiba Strad’s or those of the Stewarts.
This is the type of encounter that makes one believe the gods – or at least Carl Jung – are at work in our lives.
There aren’t too many George R. Stewart Scholars. The pioneers include Robert C. Lyon (Founder of the Friends of George R. Stewart), Vic Moitoret (Founder of the George R. Stewart Fan Club), Steve Williams (the Pilgrim), and myself.
Now we’ve added a new one: Jason Schultz, Anaheim, California, who’s done remarkable research on the history of the Stewart family orange grove in Anaheim.
One of the rewards of posting to the George R. Stewart weblog is connecting with people like Jason, and sharing the joys of discovery. In his case, he decided to research the location of the Stewart Family Orange Grove in Anaheim. Stewart once described the location, vaguely, as about two miles west of the town on a road which is now the main route to Disneyland.
Jason Schultz was able to pin the location down. The following email exchange tells the story:
Hi Donald,
I got great information and documents from the Anaheim Heritage Center and the Orange County Archives. Be sure to credit those institutions as well!
I first heard from Jane Newell, the Anaheim city archivist.
Here’s what I was able to find at the Anaheim Heritage Center: 1) Property transaction from A. Gregory et al to Robert J. Laidlaw to George R. Stewart – Santa Ana Register, May 13, 1912 …. Property description boils down to a few portions of the southeast quarter of Section 8, Township 4 South, Range 10 West. 2) … Since I don’t see George Stewart’s name in the southeast quarter of Section 8, I believe it is the parcel still labeled “A. Gregory” and outlined in green. Per the[plat] map, the parcel is on Nutwood, just north of County Road (aka Lincoln Ave.).
—
Chris Jepsen with the OC Archives provided some more specifics:
I looked at purchases (grantees) from 1889 through 1926 and sales (grantors) from 1909 through 1929.
George R. Stewart bought a couple small parcels of land and alsobought half interest in another small parcel – all within the west half of the southeast quarter of Section 8, Township 4 South, Range 10 West, just west of Anaheim on April 23, 1912. (Deeds 211/176) This area is south of Crescent Ave., north of Lincoln Ave, and east of N. Muller St.
The sellers were Robert J. and Maggie G. Laidlaw (husband and wife). He bought more adjacent land on Oct. 9, 1914 from Peter W. and Pauline Schmidt (husband and wife). (Deeds 265/198) And on June 1, 1920, George R. and Ella W. Stewart went in with their neighbors to jointly purchase a small parcel of land for a pumping plant in that same area. (Deeds 391/328)
The Stewarts sold their Anaheim property to Bernard D. Parker, (son of C.E. Parker, president of the Orange County Title Co.), on Feb. 25, 1928.
At least part of the grove is now occupied by the Anaheim Union High School District offices, which perhaps GRS would appreciate as an educator himself.
Jason also sent a plat map of the property (and other files):
It’s interesting to note how life paths, after circling around for decades, cross again. The family Orange Grove, where Stewart worked as a young man, is not far from today’s Disneyland. Walt Disney would film two of author George R. Stewart’s novels, Fireand Storm. And Disney eventually invited GRS to work as a consultant at the Disney studio. Disney, a great fan of Stewart’s, sent the author two personal letters praising his work.
So the circle of life turns, and turns again.
Schultz’s work is invaluable scholarship. If the research had been available when I wrote the GRS biography, it would have been included.
Consider this Jason’s New Year’s gift for all of us, at the beginning of the 70th anniversary year of the publication of Earth Abides.
(By the way, I owe Jason a slight apology – this was supposed to have been posted last September; but several unexpected matters got in the way.)
This is a short update of a post from some time ago, about the possible filming of George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides.
Since the earlier post reporting on possible filming of the novel, information has surfaced about the team interested in filming Earth Abides. Two of the principles in the production company won Academy Awards; one was involved in the excellent (and similarly hard to film) Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and has a strong interest in filming science fiction classics.
The team plans to do the film as a mini-series. That’s a good idea, since the highly-competitive premium channels are interested in such stories – consider The Handmaiden’s Tale and HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon — and are always looking for projects to film. A mini-series would be an ideal way to bring the novel to the screen.
The project is still “under development.” That can mean a search for funding, or the talent to turn GRS’s book into a successful film. Development can take a long time – it took years for a successful version of Lord Of The Rings to be produced.
In the case of Stewart’s fine novel, any potential producer will need to work hard to convince the money men that the film can turn a profit.
Earth Abides would be a difficult work to transition to the screen. Much of it is somewhat philosophical, or technical. In a way that is distinctly different from current films, violence and sex are low-key and “off screen.” There are no major battles or graphic sex scenes or gun fights. To add such scenes would change the special nature of the book.
(The danger of a bad film translation can be found in Stewart’s own experience. Stewart’s Fire was filmed twice. The Disney TV version keeps the ecological focus of the novel. The other version, by Paramount, was changed to emphasize sex and violence, and ignored the ecological focus. It became Red Skies of Montana, and a good example of how NOT to translate a novel to the screen.)
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The news about the team is encouraging. But there’s still no word about the actual filming. So we continue to wait with bated breath.
The Bancroft Library, nestled between the Campanile and the Doe Library,
University of California, Berkeley
Photo copyright: MikkiPiperImaging.com Used with permission.
The Bancroft Library will digitize recordings of several manuscripts recorded by George R. Stewart.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, GRS decided to record his drafts. (Before this, his drafts were written with sharp pencils, so he always kept a wad of sharpened pencils near his desk). Since tape recorders were not available, we believe he used the Dictaphone or a similar system.
Over the years of researching and writing about Stewart and his works, the idea of finding those recordings and digitizing them never went away. But the big question was whether or not the Bancroft Library had the ability to digitize fragile recordings from an “ancient” format – if they existed and could be found.
Then, this week, a message came from the Bancroft Library:
I am happy to let you know that we are finally moving forward with digitizing the SoundScriber discs created (we believe) by George. The process has taken quite awhile as we switched from our original plan of having them digitized by our normal vendor to having them digitized by a somewhat new and much less invasive process.
Our normal audio vendor is set up to digitize physical audio formats, like the SoundScriber discs, by playing the disc on a machine with a stylus, much like you would listen to a record a home. The player is connected to some fancy equipment that records a digital file of the audio. The SoundScriber discs are extremely fragile and their inherent fragility means that playing them once might completely erase the audio. We were very nervous about the fragility and spent some time researching other methods of digitization that could mitigate the harm to the physical media. Luckily for us UC Berkeley is the home to Project IRENE, which is a project team that works on digitizing obsolete media using optics.
They have spent the last few years working on wax cylinders from the Phoebe Hearst Museum and the Library of Congress. We brought the possibility of the SoundScriber process to them and they were excited for a new challenge. They have now purchased new equipment to allow for their existing equipment to “play” SoundScriber discs and we plan to start digitizing the George Rippey Stewart discs soon.
As you can see from the Project IRENE website, they make as much of the material they digitize available as possible. We would like to know if you would be amenable to us making the material available to researchers in the following ways:
1. in the Reading Room at The Bancroft Library
2. on the internet at one of our collection sites and/or through the Project IRENE site (without downloading capabilities for researchers)
The material has not yet been digitized so we still do not know what is actually on the recordings. Please let me know what questions, comments, concerns you may have about making this material available to researchers.
MML,
Permission and Access Officer
The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
lange@berkeley.edu
The answer to the letter was a resounding “YES!” — from the GRS family and those of us sharing George R. Stewart with scholars, artists, and the general literate world.
And so it begins.
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The backstory of events that brought us to this point is full of twists and turns. It depended on the hard work of GRS Helpers, including Michael Ward, Keeper of the George R. Stewart Wikipedia pages.
I had contacted the Bancroft as a somewhat-anonymous scholar wondering about digitizing the recordings. But Stewart left strict instructions with the Bancroft: No one was to listen to those recordings without his specific written permission. When GRS passed away in 1980, permission would need to come from the family’s holder of copyright.
The Bancroft Librarians began searching for the family keeper of permissions. Discovering Mike’s excellent GRS website they contacted him, asking if he could direct them to the person who could authorize the digitization and sharing of the recordings.Mike directed the Bancroft to me.
I connected them with Ed Stewart, GRS’s grandson, who manages permissions since his father Jack Stewart’s death. Ed quickly gave his ok.
The Librarians began the process of finding the best and safest way to transfer those fragile old recordings to modern digitized form. The letter explains the next steps they’ll take to preserve those treasures of literature.
Heller Reading Room, The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library is one of the great literary repositories on Earth. Their collections include ancient papyrus texts, 49er diaries and journals (including those of the Donner Party), the Papers of the founders of the National Park Service and the Wilderness Society, and Mark Twain. (Clemens’ family insisted on the Bancroft.) And the Bancroft holds the Papers of George R. Stewart, soon, we hope, to include his recordings of several of his manuscripts.*
Of course, as the Bancroft Librarian says, we don’t yet know exactly what’s on those recordings. But there is good evidence that some of them contain GRS’s reading and verbal notes on his great epic, Earth Abides. That novel, never out of print, influenced writers like James Sallis and Stephen King (who based The Stand on Earth Abides), and composer-musicians including Phillip Aaberg and Jimi Hendrix (Hendrix was inspired to write Third Stone from the Sunby Stewart’s book). Stewart’s novel is one of the great inheritances from our time, to all time.
GRS Composer/Scholar Philip Aaberg’s new video from Montana’s HiLine, honoring the Montana Farmers’ Union.
The hope we may soon be able to hear GRS reading parts of the novel in draft form is, well, stunning. The idea that the Bancroft will share that with the world’s scholars is a credit to them and the tools of this age.
It has been a long journey, indeed full of twists and turns, aided along the way by critical helpers, as our small band of scholars seeks the holy grail: To teach the literate world and the STEAM-thinking world about George R. Stewart’s books and his ideas. Now, at a summit on the Stewart Trail, we appear to be close to receiving a boon. That boon – hearing Stewart read his manuscripts – will be shared with the world.
Whatever is on those recordings, I am infinitely grateful for the hard work of all who have brought GRS and his works to this point.
As digitizing progresses, I’ll send updates. Stay tuned.
National Park Service Ranger ready to do NPS research at the Bancroft Library
*The Bancroft uses donations to fund such special projects, and also accepts donations of exceptional items that are within the purview of their collections. You might consider sending them a donation .
According to Google, both the 70th and hundredth anniversaries are honored with platinum gifts. Since Earth Abides is closing in on the 70th anniversary of publication, George R. Stewart’s epic work is approaching platinum.
The novel was published on October 7, 1949. It immediately caught the attention of reviewers for its well-written, epic tale of humans living in a world they no longer dominate. One later reviewer went so far as to call it “a second work of Genesis.” With its title from Ecclesiastes, and the old testament rhythm of its language, it is almost biblical in its feeling.
Stewart later insisted he didn’t intend it to be a religious work. But even he admitted that there was “a certain quality there.” The language was one reason. Stewart taught himself Hebrew before he wrote the book. He wanted to translate portions of the Bible into more-modern English. He was surely influenced by the style of ancient Hebrew.
The book has had enormous influence. Stephen King based The Stand on Earth Abides, Grammy-nominated composer Philip Aaberg wrote “Earth Abides,” Jimi Hendrix was inspired to write “Third Rock From the Sun” by the novel (his favorite book), other authors and scientists honor Stewart’s works. It is published in either 20 or 27 languages, depending on who you ask. There is some talk of producing a film version of the novel.
The novel has never been out of print –no thanks to its original publisher. Random House decided to pull the novel in the early 1970s. Fortunately, Stewart and small fine press publisher Alan Ligda quickly got together and brought out a beautiful copy from Ligda’s Hermes Press.
The Hermes edition sold well. Random House quickly realized they’d made a mistake and bought the rights back.
Thanks to Alan Ligda, Earth Abides has been in print for seventy years come next October. He is a Hero of the novel. Sadly, he died young, and won’t be able to help celebrate the book’s Platinum Anniversary. So please take a minute (or more) to say a silent thanks to Alan Ligda while you celebrate the novel.
And read the novel again. (You’ll have to do a number of readings to catch up with Steve Williams, the Pilgrim, who doesn’t know how many dozens of times he’s read it.) As you read, reflect on Stewart’s role in raising our consciousness of the ecosystem. His wildly popular ecological novels, Storm, Fire, and Earth Abides, and his less-widely read “post-modernist” ecological novel, Sheep Rock, have shaped our thinking. Like most great creative works of thought, they have more power than all the armies in existence. That pen (or, in Stewart’s case, pencil) is mightier than the sword.
By the way – if you want to buy a signed first edition, Morley’s Books in Carson City just happens to have one. It comes with a custom box to protect the classic. Only $1600 – about half the price of another on offer at ABE.
The first post on this weblog was put up on December 15, 2011. It was short. The post suggested that early pioneers who’d found this George R. Stewart weblog visit Michael Ward’s fine GRS Wikipedia page. Since then, posts have grown in length and complexity, but the emphasis is still on Stewart’s fine work, and the network of people influenced by him, or interested in his life and work – like you, reading this, and all those who’ve read these pages for more than 6 years.
WordPress is a fine way to distribute a weblog. WP lets a post’s administrator review statistics in time periods from one year to all time. The number of viewers from each country is listed, with flags of their nations attached, and all of the countries viewing the site are color-coded on the world map which heads that particular set of stats.
Today, I’ve gone through the weblog’s statistics on WordPress. On this date, February 2, 2018, residents living more than half the nationson planet Earth have viewed the GRS/Earth Abides weblog: Residents of 98 nations, from a total of 195 nations. Nations which include small ones from the contintent of Africa, like Zimbabwe South Africa, and Nigeria; from the continent of Europe, like Russia, Britain, Latvia, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Germany. From Asia, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong. In North America, including Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the USA, et al. South American visitors include residents of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, et al. New Zealand and Australia. Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and others. Even tiny Bailiwick of Jersey, the small island dependency of Britain in the English Channel where some inhabitants still speak the ancient Norman language. I heartily welcome all of them, and all of you.
Here’s a portrait of our home, which we all share together
Finally, this is a thank you, to all of you, for visiting, reading, and following this post. It makes the writing seem worthwhile.
There’s more to do. 97 nations are yet to be heard from. Nor has Antarctica visited; nor the International Space Station. And with more and more to share about George R. Stewart, I’ll be writing this for another 6 years, or more.
For those who want to see all the nations who’ve sent representatives to this page, here we go:
My third favorite is by Alan Ligda, a hero of Earth Abides. 
Carl Sauer
The Bancroft Library, nestled between the Campanile and the Doe Library, 
National Park Service Ranger ready to do NPS research at the Bancroft Library
According to Google, both the 70th and hundredth anniversaries are honored with platinum gifts. Since Earth Abides is closing in on the 70th anniversary of publication, George R. Stewart’s epic work is approaching platinum.
the EARTH ABIDES project 