Paul Gruchow

These eloquent essays meditate on living with the land and reinvigorating the values of community. Combining personal reflection and memoir with a powerful look at the state of our rural towns and people, this collection postulates a society in which our lives are more than commodities and our land is more than an extension of our industries.

Organized by the seasons of the year, this book explores the natural and soul-sustaining beauty of the largest roadless area east of the Rocky Mountains. Drawing on the works of Thoreau and Wendell Berry, the author turns his naturalist’s eye on this wilderness full of wolves, moose, and loons.

Charting one cycle of seasons, this book reveals countless cycles of thought: the innumerable sounds of winter snow; the fecundity of spring; the tenacity of prairie roots in a summer drought; and the mortality of fall. The result is equal parts phenology and philosophy, a blend of natural and human history that calls us to remember a threatened world.