Rating: 
Summary: A deep, thorough mapping indeed!
Review: In the heart of the Flint Hills of east-central Kansas lies Chase County, where the green grass waves across all horizons, and where a natural and human history of unbelievable richness belies the wide-open remoteness of the landscape. This history, except for one nationally noteworthy event (Kunute Rockne's demise in a plane crash), had become largely obscured by time and scattered to the prairie winds until reassembled masterfully by the author (WHLM).A voluminous beast of a book at over 600 pages, PrairyErth is a true "deep map" as advertised, but much less imposing than its cumulative immensity would threaten. It is best read in no particular order, easily compartmentalized by chapters that have distinct identities. One easily can read the section on Bazaar, then Cottonwood Falls, then Matfield, and so forth, irrespective of their relative positions either in the book or on the map. WLHM fittingly divides this rectangular county into quadrangles, adeptly mixing autobiographical sketches of his sojourns by road and trail with all manner of compelling tales of the area's people and structures, from native tribes through European settlement to the early 1990s (press time). A historical treasure chest erupts from every chunk of PrairyErth, pouring forth tales of family feuds, western outlaws, railroad and cattle barons, Civil War partisans, raging prairie fires both natural and deliberate, governmental skullduggery and intrigue, the Rockne crash, buildings built and buildings burned, changes in flora and fauna over the centuries, and even the cherty limestone itself which gives the area its name. I read this book after several trips through Chase County, and the attention to detail of WLHM was captivating. He described tallgrass and sky scenes just as I had photographed, and even found some of the same graffiti-laden stone fenceposts I had perused off of Highway 177. It makes one wonder what will be lost forever without similar "deep mapping" of any and every other county across the American plains, each of which must have a similarly complex and flavorful story. The only detraction or annoyance -- a minor one -- was WLHM's unabashed leftist slant to his occasional political commentary; but this will bother only a small fraction of readers. I recommend PrairyErth enthusiastically to anyone interested in the American prairie or Western history.
Rating: 
Summary: Chase County Almanac
Review: Moon has written a lot of words about a deserted county in the center of the country. It is a surprisingly good read, yet something is missing. Perhaps I was expecting the touch of angst that he had in Blue Highways. In any event, he has used an interesting approach to describe an area in depth. Put this one next to Sand County Almanac.
Rating:
Summary: Chase Count y Saga
Review: Open the book. Chase County, Kansas has U.S. Route 50 and the Kansas Turnpike running through it. The Flint Hills are the last remaining grand expanse of tall grass in America. The population of Chase County is 3,013. This is clearly William Least Heat-Moon's masterpiece. The closest reading experience I can summon is that of Barry Lopez's ARCTIC DREAMS. Chase County, Kansas is an empty area in relative terms. The arrangement of the book is to follow a sort of geographical grid. The author introduces new concerns with a series of paragraphs and quotations from other works. Individual stories are inserted for interest and historical verisimilitude. For example, Gabriel Jacobs was a Dunkard preacher from Indiana. He and his wife arrived in Chase County in 1856. The book is filled with maps. Cottonwood Falls, State Lake, Spring Creek, Den Creek, Rock Creek, Cottonwood River, Sharp Creek, Roniger Hill, Landon Rocks and Bazaar are shown on the map of the Bazaar Quadrangle. Chase County is tall grass country and beef is the major pursuit. It absolutely depends upon grass. The work of Chase is to turn soil and cellulose into humaly digestible carbohydrates and protein. Tribal people took their health from prairie plants. Antelope are returning to the Flint Hills through a restocking program. The author observes that the land in Chase County is like a good library, it lets a fellow extend himself. Common Chase properties of the land are the vales and uplands through which the author enjoyed traveling. A review by me cannot do justice to this book. The work is as multi-dimensional as EXECUTIONER'S SONG by Norman Mailer. Vachel Lindsay traveled down the Cottonwood Valley. A student going to high school in Chase County thinks there is no privacy, no opportunity to be one's self. A grade school teacher told the author she hoped that pople in Chase County could learn to love themselves less and the children more. The largest cottonwood in Kansas has a trunk 27 feet around. The Timber Culture Act of 1873 gave 160 acres of land to the settler who would plant ten of these acreas in trees. In 1931 a Fokker plane carrying the famous football coach Knute Rockne crashed in Chase County near Bazaar. People ariving in Chase County after 1862, the Homestead Act, were limited to taking a quarter section, 160 acres. Most county bottom land had been claimed by 1870. Absentee land ownership has been a fact of life in Chase County since the 19th century when the English aristocracy and the railroads owned large tracts. The author says that for him writing is not a search for explanations, but a ramble. He believes that Chase County is the ideal place to develop a prototype of a new agricultural community. The book began when the author arrived at Roniger Hill with an image of a topographical grid in his head. Of the dozen settlements in Chase County, three or four can still be called villages and two are towns. The significance of praryerth is that Chase County lies among it. "The Praryerths and Blackerths are deep soils, lightly granular, relatively nonacid, unleached, with full stores of humus and minerals."
Rating:
Summary: William Least Heat-Moon has it right. A wonderful read.
Review: PrairyErth entered my library because Blue Highways was there. I had read Blue Highways four times when I discovered PrairyErth and bought it. At first I was bitterly disappointed that it wasn't much like Blue Highways. And it had all those quotations at the beginning of each chapter. But as I forced myself to pick up the book and read it, over time, I realized I had to force myself to set it back down again. I lived with the author during every one of his encounters with the locals and found in my memories someone almost like each one of them. His search for Og paralleled my own search for a farm where I lived for only two years while I was seven and eight years old--a place that provided me with a beginning, a young boy's paradise. When I finally found the farm it had been turned into a gravel pit, a super highway and it was so reduced in size it amounted to little more that what remained of William Least Heat-Moon's Og. And it was just as difficult to find. Any author that can bring a reader into his story and share his thoughts with him has accomplished what he set out to do. I lived with William Least Heat-Moon every step he took while walking over the prairie in Kansas. And I shared with him the joys of discovery. Truly a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Eye opening
Review: The book has an entire chapter about staring down a well. I read it hungrily. This a book that will change the way you look at the world. It is written in a calm, paced style, without losing any of the passion for the subject. Who could write a whole book about a little county in Kansas? William Least Heat Moon. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you for this book...
Review: This is a wonderful, amazing, brilliant book. Upon first picking it up, I thought hmmm... it's quite thick for such a "small topic." I couldn't put it down and have gone back to it again and again. This is a gift to world. A classic. A blessing to us all.
Rating:
Summary: Toto, we are definitely in Kansas.
Review: Where Blue Highways sprawled across the continental United States in a macro-view of America, William Least Heat-Moon reverses the lens and concentrates on (mostly) walking and (sometimes) driving a tiny subsection of the USA: Chase County, in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas. The people he meets--the old timers who've seen the river rise and fall and mined the quarries, the feminist restauranteur, the female ranchers determined to succeed in the face of declining small-farm agriculture and chauvinism--are people who might make unlikely subjects for straight fiction, but Least Heat-Moon's gift is to make us care about their personal stories and worries anyway. The ecological, social, and political sides of Chase--and the personal issues and flights of fancy of the author's psyche--come into sharp focus under Least Heat-Moon's eye, which misses little; and his writing is clear enough to make you forget that you're reading something fascinating about something commonplace. The kind of book to make you wish the author was just a little more prolific
Rating:
Summary: Senior Seminar turned me on to my favorite book
Review: While a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I had to take a Senior Seminar to complete my BA in English. We studied PrairyErth for several weeks and it was well worth the time spent. Least Heat-Moon is a gifted writer, and PrairyErth has been my favorite book for 6 years now. I have recommended this book to several people who were able to appreciate its detail. One must savor this book, and take it slow. It is so rich and beautiful, with such a sense of place, that I will always equate this work with those sunny, dreamy days in college...
Rating:
Summary: Senior Seminar turned me on to my favorite book
Review: While a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I had to take a Senior Seminar to complete my BA in English. We studied PrairyErth for several weeks and it was well worth the time spent. Least Heat-Moon is a gifted writer, and PrairyErth has been my favorite book for 6 years now. I have recommended this book to several people who were able to appreciate its detail. One must savor this book, and take it slow. It is so rich and beautiful, with such a sense of place, that I will always equate this work with those sunny, dreamy days in college...
Rating:
Summary: Insignificant gorgeousness
Review: You couldn't believe how much a book on an insignificant Kansas county can be so haunting...
|
