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Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-57131-318-8
Pages: 160
Publish Date: Dec, 2009
Genre: Nonfiction
Journal of a Prairie Year
BY Paul Gruchow
Standing at the northeastern edge of the million-square-mile expanse, Paul Gruchow looks beyond the vast expression of flatness and fertility to plumb what is less often perceived there: a definitively taciturn landscape that has as much to teach us about our own minds as it does about the natural world.
"The essential feature of the prairie is the horizon, which you can neither walk to, or touch."
Both a phenology and a philosophy, Journal of a Prairie Year charts one cycle of seasons, but reveals countless cycles of thought. The silence of winter snow juxtaposes our inability to hear its song; the fecundity of spring uncovers the trouble of naming; the tenacity of a prairie plant in summer’s heat calls to question the definition of a weed; the morality of fall asks why we can’t resist driving the remains of this landscape toward extinction.
Originally published twenty-three years ago, Journal of a Prairie Year remains one of the finest depictions of the prairie ever written, an essential reintroduction to a threatened world.
OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR:
Grass Roots
Eloquent essays about living with the land and reinvigorating the values of community.
Read more ›
Boundary Waters
Organized by the seasons of the year, Boundary Waters explores the natural and soul-sustaining beauty of the 2.5 million acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that straddles the United States-Can
Read more ›
Boundary Waters
Organized by the seasons of the year, Boundary Waters explores the natural and soul-sustaining beauty of the 2.5 million acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that straddles the United States-Can
Read more ›
"Gruchow writes of the glare of moonlight on snow; of the impulse to name and possess things in the natural world; of prairie phlox, garter snakes, and the dust in the air that turns the sunlight crimson . . . an alertness permeates this enduring book."
—Los Angeles Times"As much as Journal of a Prairie Year is about the magnificence of the Midwest grasslands, Gruchow’s book is also an invitation to learn about the self and how we, as individuals, fit into a much larger schematic of the world."
—Cerise Press
