PrairyErth: (a Deep Map)Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999 - 624 pages NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. By the author of Blue Highways, PrairyErth is "a majestic survey of land and time and people in a single county of the Kansas plains" (Hungry Mind Review). William Least Heat-Moon travels by car and on foot into the core of our continent, focusing on the landscape and history of Chase County--a sparsely populated tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills of central Kansas--exploring its land, plants, animals, and people until this small place feels as large as the universe. Called a "modern-day Walden" by the Chicago Sun-Times, PrairyErth is a journey through place, through time, and into the human mind from the acclaimed author of Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road. "A sense of the American grain that will give [PrairyErth] a permanent place in the literature of our country."--Paul Theroux, New York Times |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 81
Page 3
... Grass " ( 1875 ) It was probably necessary that we develop an American name system , for many of our native soils are unique and should bear their own identities . In a stroke of scientific shorthand , the soils of our central ...
... Grass " ( 1875 ) It was probably necessary that we develop an American name system , for many of our native soils are unique and should bear their own identities . In a stroke of scientific shorthand , the soils of our central ...
Page 5
... grass , with occasional groups of trees . [ Captain John ] Frémont prefers this to every other landscape . To me it is as if someone would prefer a book with blank pages to a good story . - Charles Preuss , Exploring with Frémont ( 1842 ) ...
... grass , with occasional groups of trees . [ Captain John ] Frémont prefers this to every other landscape . To me it is as if someone would prefer a book with blank pages to a good story . - Charles Preuss , Exploring with Frémont ( 1842 ) ...
Page 6
... grass first turns to green upon them , they smile saltily and sardonically . But , as spring turns to summer , they grow sullen again and hopeless . Death is no stranger to them . For there nature struggles always to survive . - Jay E ...
... grass first turns to green upon them , they smile saltily and sardonically . But , as spring turns to summer , they grow sullen again and hopeless . Death is no stranger to them . For there nature struggles always to survive . - Jay E ...
Page 12
... grass prairie , they are now nearly all of it . The grasses can grow to ten feet , high enough that red men once stood atop their horses to see twenty yards ahead ; that wasn't common , but it oc- curred , and , even today in moist ...
... grass prairie , they are now nearly all of it . The grasses can grow to ten feet , high enough that red men once stood atop their horses to see twenty yards ahead ; that wasn't common , but it oc- curred , and , even today in moist ...
Page 17
... ( grass ) , a gun club ( Friday night shoots ) , a movie house ( piano still down front ) , a nursing home . And so on . Before the last world war there was more of almost everything except abandoned farmhouses and collapsing windmills ...
... ( grass ) , a gun club ( Friday night shoots ) , a movie house ( piano still down front ) , a nursing home . And so on . Before the last world war there was more of almost everything except abandoned farmhouses and collapsing windmills ...
Contents
IV | 19 |
V | 21 |
VI | 27 |
VII | 31 |
VIII | 40 |
IX | 46 |
X | 49 |
XI | 57 |
XLIX | 272 |
L | 279 |
LI | 288 |
LII | 295 |
LIII | 301 |
LIV | 303 |
LV | 309 |
LVI | 317 |
XII | 59 |
XIII | 66 |
XIV | 71 |
XV | 76 |
XVI | 81 |
XVII | 85 |
XVIII | 91 |
XIX | 93 |
XX | 100 |
XXI | 106 |
XXII | 113 |
XXIII | 118 |
XXIV | 123 |
XXV | 131 |
XXVI | 133 |
XXVII | 142 |
XXVIII | 147 |
XXIX | 156 |
XXX | 162 |
XXXI | 167 |
XXXII | 173 |
XXXIII | 175 |
XXXIV | 181 |
XXXV | 187 |
XXXVI | 194 |
XXXVII | 202 |
XXXVIII | 207 |
XXXIX | 213 |
XL | 215 |
XLI | 222 |
XLII | 230 |
XLIII | 237 |
XLIV | 244 |
XLV | 253 |
XLVI | 257 |
XLVII | 259 |
XLVIII | 265 |
LVII | 326 |
LVIII | 334 |
LIX | 346 |
LX | 351 |
LXI | 353 |
LXII | 363 |
LXIII | 371 |
LXIV | 381 |
LXV | 386 |
LXVI | 400 |
LXVII | 413 |
LXVIII | 415 |
LXIX | 421 |
LXX | 430 |
LXXI | 439 |
LXXII | 446 |
LXXIII | 465 |
LXXIV | 475 |
LXXV | 477 |
LXXVI | 484 |
LXXVII | 493 |
LXXVIII | 505 |
LXXIX | 513 |
LXXX | 531 |
LXXXI | 537 |
LXXXII | 539 |
LXXXIII | 547 |
LXXXIV | 561 |
LXXXV | 583 |
LXXXVI | 592 |
LXXXVII | 597 |
LXXXVIII | 601 |
LXXXIX | 603 |
XC | 608 |
XCI | 623 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acres American asked Bazaar began bird bison Brandley building café called cattle Cedar Point Chase County Cottonwood Falls Cottonwood River Council Grove countians couple courthouse coyote Creek dark Diamond Spring dream Elmdale Emporia farm farmers feet fence fire Flint Hills gone grass highway horse hundred Indian John James Ingalls Kansas land later live look Matfield Matfield Green miles Missouri morning moved native nearly never night once Osage Hill Osage orange pasture plant prairie pulled quadrangle railroad ranch river road rock Saffordville Sam Wood Santa Fe Santa Fe Trail says seemed settlers soil stone story Strong City talk tallgrass things tion told took town Trail travelers tree tribe turn uplands village wagon walk watch wind woman Wood