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The Travel Trilogy #2
PrairyErth
Robert Penn Warren pronounced Heat-Moon's Blue Highways "a masterpiece." Now Heat-Moon has pulled to the side of the road and set off on foot to take readers on an exploration of time and space, landscape and history in the Flint Hills of central Kansas.
624 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
289 people are currently reading
2334 people want to read
About the author
William Least Heat-Moon
28 books424 followersFrom wikipedia:
William Least Heat-Moon, byname of William Trogdon is an American travel writer of English, Irish and Osage Nation ancestry. He is the author of a bestselling trilogy of topographical U.S. travel writing.
His pen name came from his father saying, "I call myself Heat Moon, your elder brother is Little Heat Moon. You, coming last, therefore, are Least." Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Heat-Moon attended the University of Missouri where he earned bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in English, as well as a bachelor's degree in photojournalism. He also served as a professor of English at the university.
William Least Heat-Moon, byname of William Trogdon is an American travel writer of English, Irish and Osage Nation ancestry. He is the author of a bestselling trilogy of topographical U.S. travel writing.
His pen name came from his father saying, "I call myself Heat Moon, your elder brother is Little Heat Moon. You, coming last, therefore, are Least." Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Heat-Moon attended the University of Missouri where he earned bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in English, as well as a bachelor's degree in photojournalism. He also served as a professor of English at the university.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
March 7, 2011
I spent 2-1/2 years reading this amazing book because I didn't want it to end. For an author to devote time over several years visiting and researching every corner of a single Kansas county, walking it, talking to the locals, and writing 622 pages about its landscape, history, and people was an elegant labor of love. His affection for the tallgrass prairie of the Flint Hills, what he calls the "most easterly piece of the American Far West," permeates every page. Some readers may not like the depth, may not want to spend a whole chapter on Osage orange trees, or wood rats, or the 1931 crash of Knute Rockne's plane, or the betrayal and exile by our government of the Kansa tribe. With Heat-Moon as guide, however, the intricate is seductive; in a prose style that can soar like the hawks and harriers he describes, he shows us that the details matter. All the more so for me because I grew up within 100 miles of the county he illuminates.
He is also skilled, when the people he meets tell their stories, in getting down the cadences of their speech just right. I could effortlessly slip back to being a child, listening to old folks at family reunions spinning yarns about the past. The book answered some lingering questions I hadn't even known I had, as well as being soothing and educational. The lack of an index is a serious handicap, though, to being able to go back and reacquaint oneself with specific topics and people.
PrairyErth is a celebration of the ordinary; I found it a comfort to know that someone cares so much about an area often considered just "flyover country." If more of us slowed down and paid close attention to the ordinary, we would have a calmer, happier society.
He is also skilled, when the people he meets tell their stories, in getting down the cadences of their speech just right. I could effortlessly slip back to being a child, listening to old folks at family reunions spinning yarns about the past. The book answered some lingering questions I hadn't even known I had, as well as being soothing and educational. The lack of an index is a serious handicap, though, to being able to go back and reacquaint oneself with specific topics and people.
PrairyErth is a celebration of the ordinary; I found it a comfort to know that someone cares so much about an area often considered just "flyover country." If more of us slowed down and paid close attention to the ordinary, we would have a calmer, happier society.
May 25, 2024
You wouldn't think that 800 pages about a flat, essentially empty county in the middle of "flyover country" could keep you engaged, would you? Least Heat Moon did a remarkable job, doing a deep dive into one small section of the prairie state of Kansas, creating sort of a literary map and collage of history, ecology, politics, social commentary. He even spends one day in his car planning to capture any activity on the Main Street of one small hamlet, and ends up counting something like 5 pickup trucks, 3 cars and 8 dogs. And yet it's so interesting and well written that you keep going to find out what he's going to talk about next.
He carves the county up into 12 roughly equal rectangular sections, and wanders the territory geographically, not chronologically.
As we wander around with him, he covers a variety of issues and topics. For instance, the history of the Kansa indigenous people and injustices against them, reminders about slave and free soil territorial issues before statehood, absent landowners, loss of native prairie and natural habitat, tornados.... but whatever he's talking about, there will be little gems sprinkled in.
I wish we’d learn to love ourselves less and our children’s future more.
I believe Indians fear loss of meaning—that is, memory—beyond all other losses, because without it one can love nothing. After all, love proceeds from memory, and survival depends absolutely upon memory.
Holsteins, humans - we’re all made of the same twenty amino acids and the same four nucleic-acid bases. We all had one origin. The major consideration here is not to put any chemical into the environment that our tissues have no evolutionary experience with. We must regard any new synthetic chemical as guilty until proven innocent.
Such concepts as karma and circular time are taken for granted by almost all American Indian traditions; time as space and death as becoming are implicit in the earth-view of the Hopi, who avoid all linear constructions, knowing as well as any Buddhist that Everything is Right Here.
Straightness is a Caucasian’s illusion. Einstein may have said that space is curved, but Indians already knew it. Your lovely grid is a great bending.
A slow and thoughtful peregrination I really enjoyed.
He carves the county up into 12 roughly equal rectangular sections, and wanders the territory geographically, not chronologically.
As we wander around with him, he covers a variety of issues and topics. For instance, the history of the Kansa indigenous people and injustices against them, reminders about slave and free soil territorial issues before statehood, absent landowners, loss of native prairie and natural habitat, tornados.... but whatever he's talking about, there will be little gems sprinkled in.
I wish we’d learn to love ourselves less and our children’s future more.
I believe Indians fear loss of meaning—that is, memory—beyond all other losses, because without it one can love nothing. After all, love proceeds from memory, and survival depends absolutely upon memory.
Holsteins, humans - we’re all made of the same twenty amino acids and the same four nucleic-acid bases. We all had one origin. The major consideration here is not to put any chemical into the environment that our tissues have no evolutionary experience with. We must regard any new synthetic chemical as guilty until proven innocent.
Such concepts as karma and circular time are taken for granted by almost all American Indian traditions; time as space and death as becoming are implicit in the earth-view of the Hopi, who avoid all linear constructions, knowing as well as any Buddhist that Everything is Right Here.
Straightness is a Caucasian’s illusion. Einstein may have said that space is curved, but Indians already knew it. Your lovely grid is a great bending.
A slow and thoughtful peregrination I really enjoyed.
August 23, 2012
Non so perché, circa tre anni fa iniziai improvvisamente a leggere questo libro. Immaginai, sfogliandolo e trovando tra le sue pagine alcune mappe, e quelli che sembravano gli aneddoti di un esploratore, che si trattasse di un libro di viaggio - un genere di narrativa a me molto caro; la presenza delle mappe, poi, alimentava la mia curiosità, infantile quanto basta per lasciarmi attrarre dai disegni, dai colori della copertina, dalle parole in lingue sconosciute. Bene, questo è un libro di viaggio, ma molto singolare: William Least Heat-Moon sceglie una contea del Kansas, la Chase County, di forma pressappoco rettangolare; la suddivide in dodici zone disegnando un semplice reticolo sulla mappa, e si propone di esplorarla, un riquadro per volta. Il suo progetto lo terrà impegnato per sei anni. Ora, questo non mi avrebbe sorpreso se si fosse trattato di un territorio più vasto o dalle caratteristiche più invitanti, più adatto a divenire la materia di un narratore; ma la Chase County è vuota. La sua superficie, di estensione paragonabile a quella di una provincia italiana, è pressoché pianeggiante; ospita un solo vero centro abitato, più alcuni paesini moribondi (all'epoca della stesura del libro, gli ultimi anni '80: a questo punto dovrebbero essere abbandonati), poche strade e una ferrovia, che l'attraversano da parte a parte, come chi va di fretta. Dopotutto, a parte l'erba, non c'è niente da vedere. Tra i ranch e i paesini si contano in tutto 3300 anime. Nessun monumento, nessun museo, nessun rilievo da scalare, pochi edifici storici.
L'autore si propone di dimostrare che questo territorio non è affatto vuoto come potrebbe sembrare a uno sguardo mediocre come il mio; e ci riesce pienamente. Il sottotitolo - "Una mappa in profondità" - esprime in modo perfettamente conciso il suo metodo: viene rintracciata l'origine e la storia di tutto quel che si può trovare in quel mare d'erba: le piante e gli animali, e gli usi che ne fecero i nativi ormai quasi estinti; le pietre che servirono per costruire il palazzo di giustizia di Cottonwood Falls; i sentieri percorsi dai Kaw, sepolti dalla vegetazione; le ferrovie a cui lavorarono gli immigrati messicani; le strade e i nascondigli degli schiavi fuggiaschi, e l'enorme fatica dei neri per veder riconosciuta non solo la loro libertà, ma anche l'uguaglianza; la sorgente che dava ristoro ai pionieri sulla via dell'ovest; i ricordi di antichi omicidi e di incidenti aerei; vecchi mulini e strade abbandonate.
Le conversazioni dell'autore con gli abitanti aiutano a comprendere la vita di un luogo che sembra particolarmente inospitale (un villaggio è, o era, periodicamente sommerso dalle inondazioni, e nonostante questo i pochi abitanti resistevano nelle loro case, pronti a tutto) e soprattutto privo di prospettive future. I ragazzi delle scuole, i contadini, gli allevatori di bestiame, i pochi proprietari di bar e negozi raccontano a malincuore di una terra che amano, ma che saranno costretti a lasciare per poter vivere. I documenti, gli aneddoti, le mappe e gli articoli tratti dai quotidiani locali contengono ulteriori tracce, preziosissime, per comprendere la strana e assurda evoluzione di una distesa d'erba che, apparentemente così vuota, è stata testimone di quasi tutta la storia degli Stati Uniti; dallo sterminio degli indigeni fino alle guerre e all'avvento delle macchine e dei metodi più moderni di sfruttamento del territorio - che, di fatto, lo danneggiano.
È importante sottolineare che queste quasi settecento pagine esistono e sono così belle grazie al talento narrativo dell'autore: questa non è semplicemente un'impresa giornalistica, non si tratta di un documentario. La prosa di William Least Heat-Moon è varia e attenta allo stile, a volte addirittura coraggiosa e sperimentale nel riversare sulla carta appunti, idee e impressioni con grande libertà espressiva, trascurando l'ordine e la punteggiatura. Sono presenti numerosi riferimenti e riflessioni di carattere storico, politico, filosofico; ognuna delle tredici parti del volume inizia con una serie di citazioni che introducono gli argomenti principali; alla fine del libro, inoltre, si trova un graditissimo omaggio a "Tristram Shandy" di Sterne. La qualità di questo libro è davvero notevole, per molti motivi, e considerarlo un semplice racconto di viaggio sarebbe un errore - anche perché, in effetti, l'autore si muove pochissimo; la sua esplorazione avviene, come dice lui stesso, in profondità: attraverso il suolo e il tempo. "Prateria" è stato per me un amico irrinunciabile in questi anni, e quando l'ho terminato mi sono sentito un po' orfano. (Ne ho comprato subito un altro, "Nikawa": non voglio restare orfano troppo a lungo.)
L'autore si propone di dimostrare che questo territorio non è affatto vuoto come potrebbe sembrare a uno sguardo mediocre come il mio; e ci riesce pienamente. Il sottotitolo - "Una mappa in profondità" - esprime in modo perfettamente conciso il suo metodo: viene rintracciata l'origine e la storia di tutto quel che si può trovare in quel mare d'erba: le piante e gli animali, e gli usi che ne fecero i nativi ormai quasi estinti; le pietre che servirono per costruire il palazzo di giustizia di Cottonwood Falls; i sentieri percorsi dai Kaw, sepolti dalla vegetazione; le ferrovie a cui lavorarono gli immigrati messicani; le strade e i nascondigli degli schiavi fuggiaschi, e l'enorme fatica dei neri per veder riconosciuta non solo la loro libertà, ma anche l'uguaglianza; la sorgente che dava ristoro ai pionieri sulla via dell'ovest; i ricordi di antichi omicidi e di incidenti aerei; vecchi mulini e strade abbandonate.
Le conversazioni dell'autore con gli abitanti aiutano a comprendere la vita di un luogo che sembra particolarmente inospitale (un villaggio è, o era, periodicamente sommerso dalle inondazioni, e nonostante questo i pochi abitanti resistevano nelle loro case, pronti a tutto) e soprattutto privo di prospettive future. I ragazzi delle scuole, i contadini, gli allevatori di bestiame, i pochi proprietari di bar e negozi raccontano a malincuore di una terra che amano, ma che saranno costretti a lasciare per poter vivere. I documenti, gli aneddoti, le mappe e gli articoli tratti dai quotidiani locali contengono ulteriori tracce, preziosissime, per comprendere la strana e assurda evoluzione di una distesa d'erba che, apparentemente così vuota, è stata testimone di quasi tutta la storia degli Stati Uniti; dallo sterminio degli indigeni fino alle guerre e all'avvento delle macchine e dei metodi più moderni di sfruttamento del territorio - che, di fatto, lo danneggiano.
È importante sottolineare che queste quasi settecento pagine esistono e sono così belle grazie al talento narrativo dell'autore: questa non è semplicemente un'impresa giornalistica, non si tratta di un documentario. La prosa di William Least Heat-Moon è varia e attenta allo stile, a volte addirittura coraggiosa e sperimentale nel riversare sulla carta appunti, idee e impressioni con grande libertà espressiva, trascurando l'ordine e la punteggiatura. Sono presenti numerosi riferimenti e riflessioni di carattere storico, politico, filosofico; ognuna delle tredici parti del volume inizia con una serie di citazioni che introducono gli argomenti principali; alla fine del libro, inoltre, si trova un graditissimo omaggio a "Tristram Shandy" di Sterne. La qualità di questo libro è davvero notevole, per molti motivi, e considerarlo un semplice racconto di viaggio sarebbe un errore - anche perché, in effetti, l'autore si muove pochissimo; la sua esplorazione avviene, come dice lui stesso, in profondità: attraverso il suolo e il tempo. "Prateria" è stato per me un amico irrinunciabile in questi anni, e quando l'ho terminato mi sono sentito un po' orfano. (Ne ho comprato subito un altro, "Nikawa": non voglio restare orfano troppo a lungo.)
December 29, 2009
Perhaps I am lazy. Perhaps I am weak. But after 500-odd pages of this book (625 total) I really had to drop it and move-on. I need to say that I really enjoyed Blue Highways - I must have read it over a decade ago. And I have to give credit where it is due - the author's writing and style are commendable in this book. The prose is, at times, most beautiful and engaging. It was at times challenging too with a vocabulary that had me reaching for the dictionary at regular intervals. But this microscopic perusal of a single county in Kansas is simply not, for me at least, inviting enough to entice me to finish the book. It is a shame as there is definitely something to like here. But there are too many books and too little time left me for reading.
July 8, 2010
Maybe this is as close to landscape architecture as a writer can get - a "deep map" of Chase County, Kansas that touches on nearly every aspect of the terrain there: the people, the history, the vegetation, the infrastructure, and even a map detailing the watershed of the area. I need to read it several more times before I can determine if it is a five-star book. I enjoyed his "Blue Highways" book more, but I think this book might be more monumental. My favorite chapters were the ones on Osage Orange trees, his interview of Wes Jackson from the Land Institute, his attempt to sit still and just observe one section for 12 hours, and his final walk that concludes the book. I also liked how he began each section with a list of quotations that set the table for what the section would contain - this definitely added to the richness of the book. There were some chapters that were a bit frustrating - one in which he just sort of copied his notebook without editing or just quoted historical texts to make the bulk of his writing. But I can only think of two chapters where that occurred so it's forgivable given that there are 76 chapters total.
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May 18, 2010What the hell is it? Travel? Environmental writing? Sociology? If I had to guess, I would say that Least Heat-Moon's response would be that it's all of the above and none of them, that all of these are unnecessary categories imposed on lived experience. And he would be correct. It's so fully integrated and freewheeling that the only thing that unifies it is its profound sense of place. Which happens, weirdly, to be a place I'm very familiar with-- Chase County, Kansas, where I spent some small section of my youth rambling about, poking around abandoned railcars and prairie hilltops. I can't say whether or not the book is "accurate" to the place simply because my memories of the place are all antique and besides, it's irrelevant whether or not his experience matches anyone else's. Which is another reason why it evades classification.
July 3, 2015
One long term side effect from reading this book: you won't be able to just blow through all those small, half-deserted remnants of towns on your road trips, annoyed that you have to slow down for a few seconds before getting back to 55. Now you will wondering, Who ran these stores? Who shopped here? Why a town here? You may find yourself circling back through town again, putting your travel schedule in peril.
November 2, 2007
One of my favorite books of all time. This book greatly aided me in my transition to living in the vast middle of the United States, and helped me appreciate its beauty and storied history. I visited the region described in this book a number of times during my 5 years in the Midwest, and it was amazing to go there after reading this book. I have read and reread it.
May 20, 2007
An amazing insight into a small rural county. I had the pleasure of visiting Chase County for a few days in 2006, and asked "how true" the book was. I was told that while it has its inaccuracies, the general trend was accurate (of course, the book is now about 20 years old, so things have clearly changed). If you make it to Chase County, be sure to stop by the Emma Chase Cafe in Strong City.
November 17, 2012
I read this a long time ago but the phrase "a deep map" stuck with me. This is a really great book that clued me into the fact that there is beauty in the natural and cultural history of any landscape.
January 23, 2011
A deep and lasting impression of a prairie county halfway along Highway 50, where the west begins, where the author senses a pervading Americana. I love William Least Heat Moon's books, and I took my time with this one - dipping in and out over months. It is so rich and varied - it has everything. Solid and absorbing, he builds a vivid picture of the characters who live in a place like Chase, Kansas, lived there, built it, worked it, farmed it, hunted it, sold it, crashed in it, and just about every aspect you could imagine. It truly is a 'deep map'. His writing on nature and the living earth is beautiful. The chapter nearer the end on the last full-blood Kaws was extremely moving and full of sadness. This book is rich with quirky interludes and oddities. I feel like I was there with him in every corner of the place. I loved it, and it has a perfect ending. But why so few photographs?
December 12, 2007
This is the kind of book that you have to take in chunks. It is a phenomenal work or research and experience on a specific chunk of land in Kansas. It is an astounding book but I found that I had to read 100 pags and put it down for a week then pick it back up. I loved it.
October 17, 2012
Kansas to most people is Kansas as the Avett Brothers describe: as nowhere as I can be. To Least Heat-Moon Kansas is an ancient sea, a prairie sea, the great prairie desert, rivers, county lines, fire, home of the Kaw southwind people, and home of the frontier settlers. The tall prairie plains are a seldom acknowledged part of our history and ecosystem. For most people, me included, Kansas is something to get through, but Least Heat-Moon takes the time to dissect, interject, and inspect what has been left derelict. He gets down and dirty to really know a place.
"...I'd come into the prairie out of some dim urge to encounter the alien- it's easier to comprehend where someplace else is than where you are- and I had begun to encounter it as I moved among the quoins, ledgers, pickled brains, winds, creek, meanders, gravestones, stone-age circles. I was coming to see that facts carry a traveler only so far: at last he must penetrate the land by a different means, for to know a place in any real and lasting way is sooner or later to dream it. That's how we come to belong to it in the deepest sense."
My one problem with this book is that it was a little too self-aware of it's own existence as a book. I understand stepping out of the narrative to reflect and interject commentary, but Billy Least Heat did it a few too many times.
I am grateful for the Osage Orange/Hedge Apple tree education which has come in surprisingly handy.
"...I'd come into the prairie out of some dim urge to encounter the alien- it's easier to comprehend where someplace else is than where you are- and I had begun to encounter it as I moved among the quoins, ledgers, pickled brains, winds, creek, meanders, gravestones, stone-age circles. I was coming to see that facts carry a traveler only so far: at last he must penetrate the land by a different means, for to know a place in any real and lasting way is sooner or later to dream it. That's how we come to belong to it in the deepest sense."
My one problem with this book is that it was a little too self-aware of it's own existence as a book. I understand stepping out of the narrative to reflect and interject commentary, but Billy Least Heat did it a few too many times.
I am grateful for the Osage Orange/Hedge Apple tree education which has come in surprisingly handy.
August 15, 2008
This was the first Heat Moon book I read and loved it! If you are into minute details of land and maps and people and history and society and have the patience to walk in that landscape one step at a time and can feel the wind move and know it's moving something deep inside without you really wanting it to or knowing what the result may be then this one's for you. HM takes some pretty dry material and enfuses it with deep meaning beyond the surface facts. The steady accretion of details builds to the most subtle tension and full knowing that is sort of unexplainable. I took about a year to read it bit by bit and then waited another year before I read the last chapter. I didn't intend to read it like that but I did and it seemed the exact right way for me...
June 1, 2012
What a great way to follow up Blue Highways. I didn't know what to expect going into this "tome" dedicated to a single county in the lackadaisical southeastern Kansas. WLHM grids up the county, and cuts into each piece like it is it's own delicacy. Looking at the history, the geology, local newspapers, animals, plants, roads, railroads, tall tales, stories, buildings...you name it. On top of all, WLHM's witty sarcasm makes it feel less like homework, and more like a journey you take with him. Highly recommend, if you can fathom reading 620 pages about a single county in Kansas, which I may previously have considered in the top 2 of the most boring states.
February 24, 2013
I dislike Kansas and that's being kind, on the other hand to thoroughly enjoy a book about a county in Kansas shows the brilliant writing ability of Least Heat-Moon. As I read on had my own fantasies of having and endless life with every county in the USA having an equally sized book by this same writer. He is gripping in a way that few are.
April 23, 2013
Forse troppo lungo il brodo
Sicuramente il libro apre la mente alla conoscenza degli USA "profondi", e della poesia del nulla che caratterizza il midwest.
Forse, però, le stesse cose avrebbero potuto essere dette con qualche centinaio di pagine in meno.
Sicuramente il libro apre la mente alla conoscenza degli USA "profondi", e della poesia del nulla che caratterizza il midwest.
Forse, però, le stesse cose avrebbero potuto essere dette con qualche centinaio di pagine in meno.
November 7, 2007
Absolutely beautiful book... pure poetry.
November 19, 2025
do you ever read something that makes you appreciate just how vast the world is?
January 4, 2014
Least Heat-Moon is a magician. How anybody could take a county in Kansas and turn it into a fascinating, edifying, educating read is beyond me. But he did. You don't have to look far to get the feel that this book is a work of art. The cover itself is gorgeous. I remember reading the book gingerly because to damage the binding by opening it too wide would be tantamount to desecrating high art.
There's really no way to classify this book. It is part travelogue. Part interviews. Part anthology (collecting the views of other authors and public figures). Part United States history lesson. But wholly fascinating.
Least Heat-Moon lets you in on his personal journey as well. Here he struggles with a prolonged bout of writer's block:
"A couple of weeks ago, I was having even more trouble writing another chapter. Then the July heat broke and I opened the windows, a cool northwesterly blew through, ruffling my paper, and I was sitting before the unmarked, lined page, and two hours disappeared in staring and listening to the singing birds; invigorated by the coolness, now I couldn't blame my trouble on the weather. Among the several different bird voices, I became aware that one came from a red-tailed hawk. I couldn't see it but for some time heard its high rasping. It was circling close. During the next hour the blank page began to fill, words being called up, lured out, duped into revealing themselves: I, starving, hovered and dropped onto them as they were plump voles"
And the other writers and figures he quotes are just as elegant. From the short quote:
"Phenomena intersect; to see but one is to see nothing." --Victor Hugo
To the long:
The coyote is a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton, with a gray wolfskin stretched over it, a tolerably bushy tail that forever sags down with a despairing expression of forsakenness and misery, a furtive and evil eye, and a long, sharp face, with slightly lifted lip and exposed teeth. He has a general slinking expression all over. The coyote is a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry. He is always poor, out of luck, and friendless. The meanest creatures despise him, and even the fleas would desert him for a velocipede. He is so spiritless and cowardly that even while his exposed teeth are pretending a threat, the rest of his face is apologizing for it. And he is so homely!--so scrawny, and ribby, and coarse-haired, and pitiful. When he sees you he lifts his lip and lets a flash of his teeth out, and then turns a little out of the course he was pursuing, depresses his head a bit, and strikes a long, soft-footed trot through the sagebrush, glancing over his shoulder at you from time to time, till he is about out of easy pistol range, and then he stops and takes a deliberate survey of you; he will trot fifty yards and stop again--another fifty and stop again; and finally the gray of his gliding body blends with the gray of the sagebrush, and he disappears. All this is when you make no demonstration against him; but if you do, he develops a livelier interest in his journey, and instantly electrifies his heels and puts such a deal of real estate between himself and your weapon that by the time you have raised the hammer you see that you need a rifle, and by the time you have got him in line you need a rifled cannon, and by the time you have "drawn a bead" on him you see well enough that nothing but an unusually long-winded streak of lightning could reach him where he is now." --Mark Twain
PrairyErth is a big book, not in vogue with today's hurried lifestyles. To really savor it, you'll have to take your time reading it. Maybe that's the idea. And maybe that's how Least Heat-Moon wrote it and intended it to be read. He writes:
"What I cherish I've come to slowly, usually blindly, not seeing it for some time..."
His book is proof that he cherishes this patch of PrairyErth in Kansas.
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June 29, 2025This was fascinating—local and national history, a bit of memoir, geography and geology lessons (the Flint Hills and the prairie are main characters), a fair amount of environmental warnings, and biographical sketches of prominent and not-so-prominent Chase county residents. It’s not a summer beach read, but it’s an examination that’s worth the effort. It’s also a great reminder of what we can learn when we really pay attention.
November 23, 2013
Started reading this about 5 days ago. This is a huge departure from my usual read. Virtually all of my reads are Novels, Short Stories, and the occasional poetry. The Non-Fiction I read usually is related to my Non-Literary interests, such as Cartoons, Music, and the occasional, but currently infrequent Graphic Novel.
What inspired me to read this? Well, I had heard it mentioned favorably, along with Blue Highways (which I will have to probably get). I saw it at a thrift store for $2:00. I browsed it and writing looked good. So, no surprise here, I bought it.
Most books progress form A to B. This book kind of Moseys throughout the county. Perhaps that is not accurate, as there is a definite pattern to his 'mosey', but one chapter, within each part, does not necessarily follow the last, they could be shuffled somewhat.
Generally what I read for is story. This book is full of stories. Again, not the type I usually read, but stories galore!
What is this book about?
Short Answer: Chase County Kansas.
Long Answer: Chase County Kansas people, floods, tornadoes, fires, history, and geography. That's for starts, I'm not 1/4 of the book yet. Generally, this is not a subject that would fascinate me, but the writing is outstanding. I will have to backtrack and read Blue Highways, then maybe also hunt down River Horse.
I've about 1/3 of the way through. It is a constantly beautiful, but sporadically fascinating book. Let me Clarify that.
He has a wonderful gift of language. But my problem, is I find myself reading about digestion in steers, or something like that. I read it, but can't wait for a more interesting subject to follow in the next chapter. The up side, is that one usually does follow in the next chapter. In the long run though, I think that about 1/4 - 1/3 of this book could be abridged and I personally would be OK with it. All that being said though, this is a wonderful book, and I would still recommend it to people.
Got about 150 or so [ages left. It's still take your breath away beautiful writing through most of the book. I am rather proud of my self, I suppose, for sticking with this, as it is so far out of my comfort zone. But the writing is still wonderful.
This is still, at 50 pages till the end, a beautiful book. Like I said though, I kind of want to get back to my "comfort zone" of novels, short stories, etc. I THINK "Narrative of A Gordon Pym" is next up, as I want "belated Halloween book" or two.
At the end of the day (as we say now) I cannot over recommend this book to you, if the subject matter appeals to you, it is masterfully written.
What inspired me to read this? Well, I had heard it mentioned favorably, along with Blue Highways (which I will have to probably get). I saw it at a thrift store for $2:00. I browsed it and writing looked good. So, no surprise here, I bought it.
Most books progress form A to B. This book kind of Moseys throughout the county. Perhaps that is not accurate, as there is a definite pattern to his 'mosey', but one chapter, within each part, does not necessarily follow the last, they could be shuffled somewhat.
Generally what I read for is story. This book is full of stories. Again, not the type I usually read, but stories galore!
What is this book about?
Short Answer: Chase County Kansas.
Long Answer: Chase County Kansas people, floods, tornadoes, fires, history, and geography. That's for starts, I'm not 1/4 of the book yet. Generally, this is not a subject that would fascinate me, but the writing is outstanding. I will have to backtrack and read Blue Highways, then maybe also hunt down River Horse.
I've about 1/3 of the way through. It is a constantly beautiful, but sporadically fascinating book. Let me Clarify that.
He has a wonderful gift of language. But my problem, is I find myself reading about digestion in steers, or something like that. I read it, but can't wait for a more interesting subject to follow in the next chapter. The up side, is that one usually does follow in the next chapter. In the long run though, I think that about 1/4 - 1/3 of this book could be abridged and I personally would be OK with it. All that being said though, this is a wonderful book, and I would still recommend it to people.
Got about 150 or so [ages left. It's still take your breath away beautiful writing through most of the book. I am rather proud of my self, I suppose, for sticking with this, as it is so far out of my comfort zone. But the writing is still wonderful.
This is still, at 50 pages till the end, a beautiful book. Like I said though, I kind of want to get back to my "comfort zone" of novels, short stories, etc. I THINK "Narrative of A Gordon Pym" is next up, as I want "belated Halloween book" or two.
At the end of the day (as we say now) I cannot over recommend this book to you, if the subject matter appeals to you, it is masterfully written.
November 7, 2017
My 1991 hardcover edition of PrairyErth is 622 pages in length, and I'm on my third reading in seven years. If I had the guts, I'd let that sentence stand as my entire review.
Least Heat-Moon is my non-fiction non-pareil; only he could write a book of this length and breadth that, instead of putting me back to sleep in the sleepless middle of the night, keeps me awake like a good friend telling midnight stories. His spirit is at once generous and cynical, humorous and profound, learned and common. There's much of the same tart and sweet a younger me found spellbinding in his brilliant, genre-defining Blue Highways. Here, the seasoning of time and experience broaden, deepen, and more smoothly blend those two flavors.
One doesn't read a book like this as much as wander it, much as Least Heat-Moon does the storied Kansas hills, muttering spells that evoke the essence of the land, it's people, it's history. There has never been a writer who so lovingly, unflinchingly, and completely captures the essence of a place.
If that's your jam, buy it and never look back.
Least Heat-Moon is my non-fiction non-pareil; only he could write a book of this length and breadth that, instead of putting me back to sleep in the sleepless middle of the night, keeps me awake like a good friend telling midnight stories. His spirit is at once generous and cynical, humorous and profound, learned and common. There's much of the same tart and sweet a younger me found spellbinding in his brilliant, genre-defining Blue Highways. Here, the seasoning of time and experience broaden, deepen, and more smoothly blend those two flavors.
One doesn't read a book like this as much as wander it, much as Least Heat-Moon does the storied Kansas hills, muttering spells that evoke the essence of the land, it's people, it's history. There has never been a writer who so lovingly, unflinchingly, and completely captures the essence of a place.
If that's your jam, buy it and never look back.
February 1, 2015
In recent years there has been a growing interest in what I would call psychogeography or perhaps you could call it travel with meaning. Yet so many years ago the epitome of this work appeared and subsequently disappeared with so little fanfare. After writers like Sebald, PrairyErth distinguishes itself as a unique analysis of a small part of Kansas, like a geophysical survey of the history and phenomenology of place. It can be said that would make it a seriously difficult work to approach, but William Least Heat-Moon travels across this landscape with almost a casual depth analysis, which reveals something more of the plains than recent books have even come near.
It is recommended to not go so fast through this book.It is not a novel nor is it a history, it is a wander, through time, space and limitless depth of the geography of time.
It is recommended to not go so fast through this book.It is not a novel nor is it a history, it is a wander, through time, space and limitless depth of the geography of time.
January 10, 2022
this book is an anatomy(in the robert burton sense) about chase county, kansas, a small, obscure and not particular noteworthy place you probably haven't heard of. like all anatomies there is such a focus on a singular topic that the book ends up becoming about everything - various topics, such as american history, prairie ecology, the displacement of native american peoples, geology, and others, are all seen through the prism of this seemingly uninteresting place. as you'd expect an anatomy there are also digressions, quotes from other sources, ramblings and different chapters written in different styles and techniques depending on the subject matter. it really does feel like a travel book that has collided with the techniques of the 60s/70s american postmodernists, with excellent results!
May 4, 2014
A great treatise on living in a small place, and clarifies many nasty aspects of American culture, from cruelty to native Americans and African-Americans, to general closed-mindedness and suspicion of anything different or new, to greed and self-centered psyches, to abuse of everything from religion to the environment. Not that these attributes are solely the province of the praries, but seeing them on a small, isolated scale illuminates one universal truth after another. This is why I live William's writing. He has the always fascinating ability to zoom in on minutia that are metaphors for a transcendental appreciation of the universe.
July 24, 2012
At around page 250 I was ready to stop reading the book--the prose seemed to plod along and I figured there was no shame in putting the book down; however, I kept reading and was rewarded later with some wonderful insights. After finishing the book, I can say that it was worth the earlier effort--the later sections deal with memory and dreams and really open up some interesting ways of thinking about place and our connection to it. This book is worth the time and will reward the persistent reader.
October 24, 2007
I took a rest from this one in June, noting then
that it's "several inches thick but curiously enjoyable at a leisurely pace."
I went back to it in October and browsed in it
for a couple of weeks, soaking up the liveliest
mix of geography and history I've ever read, and
it was all about one county in Kansas! Fabulous
combination of archival research, personal inter-
views, and a walking acquaintance with the land.
Nice finding out how his "Blue Highways" came
about, too.
that it's "several inches thick but curiously enjoyable at a leisurely pace."
I went back to it in October and browsed in it
for a couple of weeks, soaking up the liveliest
mix of geography and history I've ever read, and
it was all about one county in Kansas! Fabulous
combination of archival research, personal inter-
views, and a walking acquaintance with the land.
Nice finding out how his "Blue Highways" came
about, too.
October 30, 2019
This book is like nothing you have ever read. It deep-dissects a Kansas county. It grows on you, grows on you, and then grows on you so much that you are actually afraid of finishing it. That's the stage I am in. It transports you, standard fare for great travel books. But then this is not a travel book, this can be more appropriately termed a 'Place Book'. A boring, nondescript Kansas county happens to be the place described. And Heat-Moon produces great travel-lit out of it. :)
February 26, 2008
I had just started leading bicycling trips when I read this book. The descriptions of Chase County, Kansas completely changed the way I looked at all the landscapes and little towns i was traveling through.
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