Not just any land
Subtitle: a personal and literary journey into the American grasslands
By: John Price.
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Lincoln
Language: eng
Number of pages: 225
Subjects: Price, John, 1966- -- Homes and haunts -- Great Plains.; Heat Moon, William Least -- Interviews.; O'Brien, Dan, 1947- -- Interviews.; Hasselstrom, Linda M. -- Interviews.; Swander, Mary -- Interviews.; American prose literature -- Great Plains -- History and criticism.; Authors, American -- Homes and haunts -- Great Plains.; Grasslands -- West (U.S.); Great Plains -- Biography -- History and criticism.; Great Plains -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.; Great Plains -- Description and travel.
Genres: Interviews.
Description: "Though he'd lived in Iowa all his life, the allure of the prairie had somehow eluded John Price - until, after a catastrophic flood, a brief glimpse of native wildlife suddenly brought his surroundings home to him. Not Just Any Land is a memoir of Price's rediscovery of his place in the American landscape and of his search for a new relationship to the life of the prairie - that once immense and beautiful wilderness of grass now so depleted and damaged as to test even the deepest faith."

"Price's journey toward a conscious commitment to place takes him to some of America's largest remaining grasslands and brings him face to face with a troubling, but also hopeful personal and environmental legacy. It also leads him through the region's literature and into conversations with contemporary nature writers - Linda Hasselstrom, Dan O'Brien William Least Heat-Moon, and Mary Swander - who have devoted themselves to living in, writing about, and restoring the grasslands. Among these authors Price observes how a commitment to the land can spring from diverse sources, for instance, the generational weight of a family ranch, the rites of wildlife preservation, the "deep maps" of ancestral, memory, and the imperatives of a body inflicted with environmental illness.

The resulting narrative is an innovative blend of memoir, nature writing, and literary criticism that bears witness to the essential bonds between spirit, art, and earth."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-225) and index.