Out Home

Contents

Contents Introductio n to the Second Coming of Out Home vii Introduction ix Part I a Out Home Going Out More 3 An Outdoor Ledger 11 Dallas Morgan and the Lion 15 Palace in the Popple 31 The Secret Life of the Cottontail Deer 33 The Bum Husband 41 The Passing of Little Sam 43 Pheasants Beyond Autumn 45 Part II a Under the Sun, by the Side of the Wind Message from a Desert Island 57 Requiem for a Small River 67 The Running Country 73 The Prairie Blizzard 93 Where the River Fits the Song 103 The High Beyond 123                        Part III a Old Friends Giants in the Cliffs 127 The Dance on Monkey Mountain 139 Day of the Crane 155 North Again 159 Part IV a The Horizons of Home A Letter to a Young Trapper 179 Poor Cousins 185 The Dragons Are Bigger Today 191 Something for the Kids 199 Introductiontothe SecondComingofOutHome Sometimes it seems as if the farther we go, the closer we are to where we started. Out Home was my first book. That was twenty-six books ago. And after forty years of living in other states, I find myself back in Iowa, less than an hour from where I was born and about an hour and a half from where John was born. The landscape is different from what we once knew, but the good parts are still here. I don’t know what to say about John Madson that I haven’t already said. He was my hero as a writer and still is. He was a consummate storyteller who could have you in stitches or tears and sometimes both at once. We were close friends for the last twenty years of his life, and I miss him. I could tell you endless stories about the time we spent together in Arkansas and Missouri and Montana and some other places—but better you hear them from him. For now, I will simply offer thanks to John’s wife, Dycie, for her help and unending support. And to Holly Carver of the University of Iowa Press for her appreciation of the finest voice that ever spoke of the wonders to be found out home. Michael McIntosh, The Cornfields, Marion County, Iowa, 2008 ...