In this Book
- The Tallgrass Prairie Reader
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: University of Iowa Press
- Series: Bur Oak Books
summary
The tallgrass prairie of the early 1800s, a beautiful and seemingly endless landscape of wildflowers and grasses, is now a tiny remnant of its former expanse. As a literary landscape, with much of the American environmental imagination focused on a mainstream notion of more spectacular examples of wild beauty, tallgrass is even more neglected. Prairie author and advocate John T. Price wondered what it would take to restore tallgrass prairie to its rightful place at the center of our collective identity.
The answer to that question is his Tallgrass Prairie Reader, a first-of-its-kind collection of literature from and about the tallgrass bioregion. Focusing on autobiographical nonfiction in a wide variety of forms, voices, and approaches—including adventure narrative, spiritual reflection, childhood memoir, Native American perspectives, literary natural history, humor, travel writing and reportage—he honors the ecological diversity of tallgrass itself and provides a range of models for nature writers and students.
The chronological arrangement allows readers to experience tallgrass through the eyes and imaginations of forty-two authors from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Writings by very early explorers are followed by works of nineteenth-century authors that reflect the fear, awe, reverence, and thrill of adventure rampant at the time. After 1900, following the destruction of the majority of tallgrass, much of the writing became nostalgic, elegiac, and mythic. A new environmental consciousness asserted itself midcentury, as personal responses to tallgrass were increasingly influenced by larger ecological perspectives. Preservation and restoration—informed by hard science—emerged as major themes. Early twenty-first-century writings demonstrate an awareness of tallgrass environmental history and the need for citizens, including writers, to remember and to help save our once magnificent prairies.
The answer to that question is his Tallgrass Prairie Reader, a first-of-its-kind collection of literature from and about the tallgrass bioregion. Focusing on autobiographical nonfiction in a wide variety of forms, voices, and approaches—including adventure narrative, spiritual reflection, childhood memoir, Native American perspectives, literary natural history, humor, travel writing and reportage—he honors the ecological diversity of tallgrass itself and provides a range of models for nature writers and students.
The chronological arrangement allows readers to experience tallgrass through the eyes and imaginations of forty-two authors from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Writings by very early explorers are followed by works of nineteenth-century authors that reflect the fear, awe, reverence, and thrill of adventure rampant at the time. After 1900, following the destruction of the majority of tallgrass, much of the writing became nostalgic, elegiac, and mythic. A new environmental consciousness asserted itself midcentury, as personal responses to tallgrass were increasingly influenced by larger ecological perspectives. Preservation and restoration—informed by hard science—emerged as major themes. Early twenty-first-century writings demonstrate an awareness of tallgrass environmental history and the need for citizens, including writers, to remember and to help save our once magnificent prairies.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Introduction
- pp. xi-xxxi
- The Nineteenth Century
- Prairie Mirage
- pp. 15-18
- Life on the Prairies
- pp. 19-23
- Prairie Burning
- pp. 24-30
- Spring around Prairie Lodge
- pp. 42-46
- Jumping Off
- pp. 47-53
- Phil and the Lost Boy
- pp. 54-64
- America’s Characteristic Landscape
- pp. 65-70
- A Blizzard
- pp. 71-77
- My Uncle’s Farm
- pp. 78-82
- The Twentieth Century
- The Passing of the Prairies
- pp. 94-101
- The Prairie
- pp. 102-113
- A New World
- pp. 114-121
- The Homestead on the Knoll
- pp. 122-127
- The Great Spirit
- pp. 128-131
- The Plant Tribes
- pp. 132-137
- Planting Moon
- pp. 147-155
- Prairie Birthday
- pp. 156-160
- Three Worlds
- pp. 168-183
- The Running Country
- pp. 184-202
- Horizontal Grandeur
- pp. 203-207
- Under Old Nell’s Skirt
- pp. 208-213
- Habits of the Grass
- pp. 214-224
- Playing God on the Lawns of the Lord
- pp. 231-237
- What the Prairie Teaches Us
- pp. 238-240
- The Grasshopper Year
- pp. 247-257
- Tallgrass Dream
- pp. 258-268
- The Twenty-First Century
- Far Brought
- pp. 283-296
- Pulling Weeds: Community
- pp. 297-302
- Finding Devonian
- pp. 303-310
- Man Killed by Pheasant
- pp. 311-318
- Getting to Know Your Neighbors
- pp. 319-329
- Platanthera praeclara
- pp. 330-332
- Constellation
- pp. 333-346
- Permissions
- pp. 347-350
Additional Information
ISBN
9781609383107
Related ISBN(s)
9781609382469
MARC Record
OCLC
880877886
Pages
384
Launched on MUSE
2014-07-08
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2014