The Tallgrass Prairie Reader

Download or read book The Tallgrass Prairie Reader written by John Price and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2014-06 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a collection of literature from and about the tallgrass bioregion. It focuses on autobiographical nonfiction including adventure narrative, spiritual reflection, childhood memoir, Native American perspectives, literary natural history, humor, travel writing and reportage. Writings by early explorers are followed by works of nineteenth-century authors that reflect the fear, awe, reverence, and thrill of adventure of the time. After 1900, following the destruction of the majority of tallgrass, much of the writing became nostalgic, elegiac, and mythic. A new environmental consciousness asserted itself midcentury, as personal responses to tallgrass were increasingly influenced by larger ecological perspectives. Preservation and restoration emerged as major themes. Early twenty-first-century writings demonstrate an awareness of tallgrass environmental history and the need for citizens, including writers, to remember and to help save our once magnificent prairies.