The Ancient Memory and Other Stories by John G. Neihardt, and: The Giving Earth: A John G. Neihardt Reader ed. by Hilda Neihardt Petri, and: Life’s Lure by John G. Neihardt, and: Man-Song by John G. Neihardt (review)

Essay Reviews The Ancient Memory and Other Stories. By John G. Neihardt. Edited by Hilda Neihardt Petri. (Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 1991. 230 pages, $19.95.) The Giving Earth: A John G. Neihardt Reader. Edited and with an introduction by Hilda Neihardt Petri. (Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 1991. 300 pages, $25.00.) Life’s Lure. Byjohn G. Neihardt. (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1914; Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 1991. 277 pages, $45.00. Edition limited to 279 copies.) Man-Song. Byjohn G. Neihardt. (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1909; Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 1991. 117 pages, $35.00. Edition limited to 315 copies.) “But what is taste now?”Neihardt asks. “The past was then the standard for the present; but now, to most, there seems only the loud moment, enormously prolific of contending whims—a bewildering spectacle!” {GivingEarth 289). The University of Nebraska Press celebrated its golden anniversary with a number of special publication events, including re-issues of all of John G. Neihardt’s major works. This event is, I think, an opportunity for us to set aside the “prolific,” “loud,” and “contending whims” of literary criticism; here is Neihardt in naked verse and unabashed prose, offering his art for judgment. Some of these works date back past 1910, yet Neihardt’s undeniably dynamic persona speaks from each piece. A number of publishers, including Alan Swallow and Gibbs Smith, have said that they enjoy getting a chance to publish a deserving book, even ifthere is no possible profit involved. It’s the contribution to art that they like, not the money. In this case, the University of Nebraska Press has done western Ameri­ can literary art a notable service. Not all of Neihardt’s works match the taste of today’s readers, but the aficionado of literature as art will agree that these volumes deserve publication if only to show a unique American artist at work. The Giving Earth is an introduction to the variety and scope of Neihardt’s life work. Most of us know Black Elk Speaks and various parts of A Cycleofthe West; representative selections of those are here, but here also are fifteen of Neihardt’s early lyric poems, two of his early short stories, a chapter of TheRiver 230 Western American Literature and I, three parts from When the TreeFlowered, and an eight-piece miscellany of essays. The introduction by Hilda Neihardt Petri matches intimate biographical insights with evaluations of his literary contribution, chronicling her father’s artistic progress from genre to genre: “The short stories, the lyrics, the articles— all were preparing my father for some great work. Casting about for a subject, he considered writing about the French Revolution and began researching it” (xv). But Neihardt’s wife, Mona, turned him again toward his love for the American frontier, with the result that Neihardt spent the next twenty-nine years perfect­ ing A Cycle ofthe West. Ifall you know of Neihardt is the Black Elk story and parts of Cycle, you need to look into The Giving Earth, not only for the introduction, but also for the surprises, such as the excerpt from All is But a Beginning, a memoir which Neihardt began when he was ninety. Or the essay on the art of swearing, “blasphemology, in either its old creative or modern mimetic forms. . . . ” You will find young Neihardt experimenting with a short story about a fugitive (called the “Alien” in the title) who becomes the human mate of a wolf bitch in a story much in the Jack London vein. I have always liked the Homeric ring of Neihardt’s “Song ofThree Friends,” which is included in this volume; but until I read his youthful account of a river trip in “Through the Region of Weir” I had not realized how early in life Neihardt’s sense of the epic had begun. We see it in his nature essay as he and his comrades drift between the Missouri’s cliffs above Eagle Rapids: “It was all like the visible dream of a master architect gone mad. Gaunt, sinister ruins of medieval castles sprawled down the slopes of unassailable summits. Grim brown towers, haughtily crenelated...