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Hard Scrabble: Observations on a Patch of Land
Book by Graves, John
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
December 17, 2017
"There is for us nothing new on the farm. We know it all intimately-the long hours, the sweaty, stinking, heavy underwear, the debt and the mortgage, the way it feels to drag in at twilight after a day in the field and to sit on the doorstep and pull from our aching feet our brogan shoes before we eat the coarse evening meal. That is the common heritage of the majority of American people." (The Great Plains 1931).
In everyone's ancestry, if you go far enough back, working the land is where we all came from and to understand that way of life is to understand yourself more deeply. As a Texas native, I'd double down on this as the land and work and quietness is almost woven into the fabric of Texas society. You cannot understand Texas without first understanding its people's relationship with these things. John Graves (the Faulkner of Texas?) doesn't attempt to explain this as boldly.
He instead shows us what Hard Scrabble, the name given to his corner of West Texas hill country, means to him. Graves writes about the follies of cattle, the sounds of birds chirping, the work of hired illegal Mexican immigrants, the history of the natives that used to roam, the diseconomy of owning land, the terrible trouble it is to put up a fence, and his fiction of the people that came before him-but, his real objective is belonging. And when you understand this deep sense of belonging, you begin to understand not only the whole of Texas, but the whole of America.
There are many loud misconceptions about the people of Texas (and the South in general), but I prefer to imagine them all as quietly content as John Graves. I learned to work on the ranches of my grandparents. Then, there wasn't music to listen to or other problems to be consumed with, it was just a fence that needed to be built and all day to do it. I'd work with Gramps or Grandpa from sunrise (or before) to sunset (or later) and for the most part we were silent. That quietness is what I naively imagine the South still is and I do believe it still exists in pockets. Somewhere outside the suburbs of Dallas and the cafes of Austin is that quietness that seems more like a truth than anything else. Somewhere outside the city you can find the essence of Texas-even if it seems to be fading quick.
If you've found it before and are starting to forget, then let John Graves refresh your mind. He won't try and change your mind or tell you how it should be done, he'll guide you along what his piece of land means to him. You don't read this book-you listen to it. He has stories to tell not just about the land, but about the people who died beside him in the war and the former friends who's letters he no longer answers. This isn't fiction or non-fiction and Graves isn't a conservative or a liberal, he and this book just exist and I hope everybody can find it one day.
In everyone's ancestry, if you go far enough back, working the land is where we all came from and to understand that way of life is to understand yourself more deeply. As a Texas native, I'd double down on this as the land and work and quietness is almost woven into the fabric of Texas society. You cannot understand Texas without first understanding its people's relationship with these things. John Graves (the Faulkner of Texas?) doesn't attempt to explain this as boldly.
He instead shows us what Hard Scrabble, the name given to his corner of West Texas hill country, means to him. Graves writes about the follies of cattle, the sounds of birds chirping, the work of hired illegal Mexican immigrants, the history of the natives that used to roam, the diseconomy of owning land, the terrible trouble it is to put up a fence, and his fiction of the people that came before him-but, his real objective is belonging. And when you understand this deep sense of belonging, you begin to understand not only the whole of Texas, but the whole of America.
There are many loud misconceptions about the people of Texas (and the South in general), but I prefer to imagine them all as quietly content as John Graves. I learned to work on the ranches of my grandparents. Then, there wasn't music to listen to or other problems to be consumed with, it was just a fence that needed to be built and all day to do it. I'd work with Gramps or Grandpa from sunrise (or before) to sunset (or later) and for the most part we were silent. That quietness is what I naively imagine the South still is and I do believe it still exists in pockets. Somewhere outside the suburbs of Dallas and the cafes of Austin is that quietness that seems more like a truth than anything else. Somewhere outside the city you can find the essence of Texas-even if it seems to be fading quick.
If you've found it before and are starting to forget, then let John Graves refresh your mind. He won't try and change your mind or tell you how it should be done, he'll guide you along what his piece of land means to him. You don't read this book-you listen to it. He has stories to tell not just about the land, but about the people who died beside him in the war and the former friends who's letters he no longer answers. This isn't fiction or non-fiction and Graves isn't a conservative or a liberal, he and this book just exist and I hope everybody can find it one day.
March 16, 2025
This book is like sitting down with your grandpa over a cup of coffee. It meanders all over the place - stories of people long gone; schools of thought around what types of grasses and animals need to be on specific types of land; the right way to build a fence; adages like ‘goats are always looking for a place to get out, a sheep’s just looking for a place to die’.
While they are a bit disjointed individually, collectively you can pull out the ethos of an old-timer. I really identified with Graves’ idea of ownership:
‘I have only scant understanding of the quirk that has made me need to find out so many things in life the hardest way, by doing them or being done to by them, myself alone. […] It is only through intimacy that you can own a thing. Because ownership dwells not in courthouse files but inside the stubborn, hard-way human head’.
Hard Scrabble motivates me to get out and ‘own’ things of a more useful, elemental nature. I doubt my grandkids will get much out of me describing the best way to set up a wifi router.
While they are a bit disjointed individually, collectively you can pull out the ethos of an old-timer. I really identified with Graves’ idea of ownership:
‘I have only scant understanding of the quirk that has made me need to find out so many things in life the hardest way, by doing them or being done to by them, myself alone. […] It is only through intimacy that you can own a thing. Because ownership dwells not in courthouse files but inside the stubborn, hard-way human head’.
Hard Scrabble motivates me to get out and ‘own’ things of a more useful, elemental nature. I doubt my grandkids will get much out of me describing the best way to set up a wifi router.
September 6, 2013
This book was my introduction to John Graves, many years ago. Reading it always feels like going home. When people think of Texas as people with overblown egos, they are thinking of the wrong thing. This is the Texas that I know. Hard Scrabble.
January 23, 2025
This is a 267 page experience of sitting down with a wise, educated, and solemn Texan man. Many of us don’t get that experience or, if we do, it lasts about a couple of hours at a time musing about nothing and then is done.
I mean look, it even has me trying to match his tone and voice in my review.
The way this is all written out, from the topics and order, is just great. It’s not a fast read, but that’s intentional.
It should be enjoyed the same way that he enjoyed his time on his plot of land.
When you pick this up you shouldn’t set out to read it as quickly as possible, but only as quickly as you could to soak it in. Again, treat this how you would the experience of drinking a beer with an old fart on his back porch at sunset.
That’s what will cement this with the 5 stars it deserves.
I mean look, it even has me trying to match his tone and voice in my review.
The way this is all written out, from the topics and order, is just great. It’s not a fast read, but that’s intentional.
It should be enjoyed the same way that he enjoyed his time on his plot of land.
When you pick this up you shouldn’t set out to read it as quickly as possible, but only as quickly as you could to soak it in. Again, treat this how you would the experience of drinking a beer with an old fart on his back porch at sunset.
That’s what will cement this with the 5 stars it deserves.
February 12, 2013
John Graves' main claim to fame is Goodbye to a River, his observations of the Brazos River (Rio de los Brazos de Dios). Hard Scrabble is the name he gave to his ranch near Glen Rose, in Somervell County, Texas. It's in the northern part of the Hill Country. He describes the country and its history of Indians and cotton farmers in a colorful, relaxed, conversational tone, as if the reader was sitting with him at a fire. His compassion comes through on every page. It is not a gripping adventure story. It's a love story - his love of the wilderness. I heartily recommend it.
"As for whether it is really worth owning, this stuff that I have in my head, God knows. Clearly enough, I think it is. Clearly enough too, many other people don't . They show up now and then, some of them good friends, and look about with alien curiosity, and go away fortified with relief that they aren't stuck in such a place, and that their own metaphors for eternity, whatever they are, are less arduous ones than mine. Because unless we have gone dead before our bodies, eternity is what we look for, one and all."
John Graves
"As for whether it is really worth owning, this stuff that I have in my head, God knows. Clearly enough, I think it is. Clearly enough too, many other people don't . They show up now and then, some of them good friends, and look about with alien curiosity, and go away fortified with relief that they aren't stuck in such a place, and that their own metaphors for eternity, whatever they are, are less arduous ones than mine. Because unless we have gone dead before our bodies, eternity is what we look for, one and all."
John Graves
August 3, 2017
This book was personally recommended to me by Ryan Holiday, as I transitioned from 500 square feet to 5 acres. I read the first half of this book on the subway and the second half on my property. The chapters of this book are a modest description of the various types of work Graves completed as a property owner. He describes "Ownership Syndrome" as a gradual internalization of the land one owns. He also discusses "the Way," or, Earth's relentless march through time, against which man poses a paltry but respectable blip. This book helped me to understand the work ethic of a rural property owner, and it contains several unforgettable lessons on what it means to restore a piece of land. Four stars, because I remember feeling some disconnectedness in one of his ending sermons on environmentalism; in some ways, this might have been like hitting a patch of hard scrabble while tilling a rich field. Most of this book is excellent.
October 17, 2024
Wonderful storytelling and philosophical perspective about living on about 400 acres of land in Texas in the 1970s - 1980s. I took this book slow enjoying a chapter (written as essays) or two every once in a while to savor his lessons learned and ‘words of wisdom’. Very relatable for me as I begin to reexamine my roots and try living on farmland in Texas.
A book I will reread and recommend. Definitely a book to gain a perspective and a bit of history of what use to be a vast rural life in Texas (and still found woven in the remaining rural areas).
Hard Scrabble is a wonderful description.
A book I will reread and recommend. Definitely a book to gain a perspective and a bit of history of what use to be a vast rural life in Texas (and still found woven in the remaining rural areas).
Hard Scrabble is a wonderful description.
August 31, 2019
Sometimes when current news starts to resemble fiction books you need one like this. "Cannibal Queen" By Stephen Coonts was special after Sept. 11. This one for 2019 in general. So if Tired, of Murder, Maham, and War pick-up "Hard Scrabble" Mr. Graves says if bored skip the bugs, grass, etc. but really read it all the humor is sudtle and dry but I found it entertaining, the wife found it not understandable so maybe this book not for everybody.
May 8, 2020
A pretty great book, especially if you have any interest at all in the land. Unlike his Goodbye to a River, it rambles a bit, kinda like his rough and rocky piece of Texas. But his writing generally shines, reminding me of Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, and oddly, Hunter S. Thompson. Also some wonderful pages about growing older and losing friends and getting on with things. (I read a 2016 University of Texas edition without the Rick Bass introduction.)
July 2, 2021
This land that Graves writes about is just north of my property and is so familiar! I find myself wandering out on my property and identifying plants, trees, and critters he speaks about. I love the history of the peoples and geography. I love his idea of Ownership Syndrome. He writes in pithy tales, descriptions that capture the humor and wonder in what he’s describing!! Not so great are the many derogatory and slang words and descriptions of peoples. This hit tiresome and very offensive.
January 17, 2020
Excellent read for those happy to spend hard years working to rebuild what used to be productive land but through rapacious and shortsighted agricultural practices has in fact turned to 'hard scrabble.' There are insights gleaned within that can only be put to words by resigning oneself to stay put and know deeply one patch of land, which does in fact cost something in real terms.
December 1, 2020
Loved the writing style and attitude towards land stewardship. Some other sentiments were not as agreeable but still interesting.
January 14, 2024
Fantastic point of view from someone who's watched the world and just wants to exist in his place.
His history of his part of Texas and the work to rebuild is detailed and entertaining.
His history of his part of Texas and the work to rebuild is detailed and entertaining.
February 3, 2024
More great naturalist writing from Graves. Loved it, but got a touch boring at times
April 18, 2012
In 1960, at the age of 40 and after many years wondering the globe, Texas-born writer John Graves bought a worn-out patch of land in the hills south of Fort Worth. It began as something of a retreat and became a life-long attachment. This book, published in 1974, is a humorously thoughtful description of how this new landowner becomes equally owned by the land he has settled on.
Not a long book, it reads at a leisurely pace, as Graves traces the history of the land, once fertile and grass-covered. He tells what he knows of the numerous tribes of Native Americans who once lived on it, including the fierce Comanches. Then he characterizes the first settlers, who knew next to nothing about land stewardship and cared less, exhausting it with poor farming techniques, overgrazing, and a single-crop economy--cotton. We learn of the toll taken in depleted soil, diminished flood control, and the spread of cedar and scrub brush across former prairie. And we learn of the descendants of these early settlers, diminished by reduced circumstances, some of them making a living by cutting down cedar brakes into fence posts.
Having established the history of the land, Graves takes us on a tour of his farm, which he calls Hard Scrabble, describing in turn the fields and streams, the plant and animal life, the weather. Then he describes the long, slow process of reclaiming what he can of his 400 acres, clearing the land, building a house, barn, and other outbuildings, learning stone masonry and carpentry as he goes. In connection with this subject, there is a discourse on the industriousness and workmanship of Mexican laborers, all of them illegal, who help him with building, fencing, and fighting back the growth of unwanted brush and cedar. On the subject of animal husbandry, he tells of raising cattle and goats. And in the investment of himself in all of these he ruminates on how they transform him and root this former world-traveler more firmly into a rural frame of mind.
Of the many things I enjoyed in this book, I especially liked his capturing of the way his country neighbors talk. Their points of view and temperaments are captured in quirky turns of phrase and syntax. An episode involving local fox hunters is a joy to read. Graves is in many ways a Texas version of E. B. White, transplanted from city to country and not only seeing this remote environment with fresh eyes but engaging physically with it, befriending the long-time inhabitants, and discovering a way of life only dimly understood by city-dwellers. Although Graves' writing style is more given to verbal flourishes, his wry humor and literary allusions remind one of White's collection of essays on living in Maine, "One Man's Meat."
I recommend this book to anyone interested in country life, Texas, subsistence farming, and natural history. As companions to "Hard Scrabble," I would recommend books by three other rancher/farmer writers: "Windbreak," by South Dakota writer Linda Hasselstrom, "A Collection of Cowboy Logic" by North Dakota writer Ryan Taylor, and "Sketches From the Ranch" by Montana writer Dan Aadland.
Not a long book, it reads at a leisurely pace, as Graves traces the history of the land, once fertile and grass-covered. He tells what he knows of the numerous tribes of Native Americans who once lived on it, including the fierce Comanches. Then he characterizes the first settlers, who knew next to nothing about land stewardship and cared less, exhausting it with poor farming techniques, overgrazing, and a single-crop economy--cotton. We learn of the toll taken in depleted soil, diminished flood control, and the spread of cedar and scrub brush across former prairie. And we learn of the descendants of these early settlers, diminished by reduced circumstances, some of them making a living by cutting down cedar brakes into fence posts.
Having established the history of the land, Graves takes us on a tour of his farm, which he calls Hard Scrabble, describing in turn the fields and streams, the plant and animal life, the weather. Then he describes the long, slow process of reclaiming what he can of his 400 acres, clearing the land, building a house, barn, and other outbuildings, learning stone masonry and carpentry as he goes. In connection with this subject, there is a discourse on the industriousness and workmanship of Mexican laborers, all of them illegal, who help him with building, fencing, and fighting back the growth of unwanted brush and cedar. On the subject of animal husbandry, he tells of raising cattle and goats. And in the investment of himself in all of these he ruminates on how they transform him and root this former world-traveler more firmly into a rural frame of mind.
Of the many things I enjoyed in this book, I especially liked his capturing of the way his country neighbors talk. Their points of view and temperaments are captured in quirky turns of phrase and syntax. An episode involving local fox hunters is a joy to read. Graves is in many ways a Texas version of E. B. White, transplanted from city to country and not only seeing this remote environment with fresh eyes but engaging physically with it, befriending the long-time inhabitants, and discovering a way of life only dimly understood by city-dwellers. Although Graves' writing style is more given to verbal flourishes, his wry humor and literary allusions remind one of White's collection of essays on living in Maine, "One Man's Meat."
I recommend this book to anyone interested in country life, Texas, subsistence farming, and natural history. As companions to "Hard Scrabble," I would recommend books by three other rancher/farmer writers: "Windbreak," by South Dakota writer Linda Hasselstrom, "A Collection of Cowboy Logic" by North Dakota writer Ryan Taylor, and "Sketches From the Ranch" by Montana writer Dan Aadland.
August 11, 2013
There is no writer in American letters like John Graves, and he will be sorely missed, a week hence from his soul's ascent from this world into the great Beyond. This collection of ruminations on a gorgeous piece of hilly, scrubby north-central Texas property lovingly and fittingly given the appellation Hard Scrabble is as much a work of Walden philosophy that can remind the most urban-bound city kid that an appreciation for and an understanding of the natural rhythms of what Graves lovingly calls "the Way" have much to teach us now as they have all humanity for millenia prior, and millenia hence.
A few choice quotes from the reflective closing chapter, entitled "Reality as Viewed through Old Snuff-Bottle Shards":
Rest in peace, Mr. Graves, for your your words and your thoughts; your presence is already missed on this earth, ere though it shall never be forgotten.
A few choice quotes from the reflective closing chapter, entitled "Reality as Viewed through Old Snuff-Bottle Shards":
"I have moved about a good bit in the world, if in an uncontemporary sort of way. And while finding much that seemed sorrowful and wrong and reaching stout disaccord with some main forces of the age, I have been barred always from glumness by the rather ridiculous fact that I've liked so many people I've known and have always been so bloody glad to be alive. The only truly philosophical question, as Camus noted, being suicide. . . ."
"At any rate, life at Hard Scrabble is providing them with some time to build up strength, some responsibility for living things, some awareness of biological and natural truth--and perhaps wrongly, I suspect that these are among the more meaningful things you can furnish a child in any era."
Rest in peace, Mr. Graves, for your your words and your thoughts; your presence is already missed on this earth, ere though it shall never be forgotten.
October 7, 2016
A wonderful book from a masterful writer.
Yes, I took a long time finishing it. First, I have limited time these days for reading hardcopy. Secondly, this is the kind of book you read slowly and savor and absorb one chapter before moving on to the next. And thirdly, some of Graves' sentences are Faulknerian in length and structure, and I wound up re-reading some of them two or three times to get the full meaning.
Above all, though, I commend this book to anyone who has ever waxed philosophical about the relation of man to the land, the questions of exploitation versus stewardship, and the relative merits of urban and country life. While the specific tract of land is west of Ft. Worth (Somervell County, near Glen Rose) and the makeup of Hard Scrabble is limestone rock and scrub juniper, the notion of taking land that has been exploited and abused for decades by those whose attitude toward land was to use it up and move on to fresh ground and restoring it to usefulness and productivity knows no geographical boundaries.
You don't have to be a Texan to appreciate Graves' work, but as a Texan, I'm ashamed of myself for not having read Graves until now. While his Goodbye to a River is the first title mentioned when his name comes up, I appreciated Hard Scrabble even more. I'm moving on to From a Limestone Ledge. So far, the take-your-time-and-savor-his-prose approach seems to be right for that one too.
Yes, I took a long time finishing it. First, I have limited time these days for reading hardcopy. Secondly, this is the kind of book you read slowly and savor and absorb one chapter before moving on to the next. And thirdly, some of Graves' sentences are Faulknerian in length and structure, and I wound up re-reading some of them two or three times to get the full meaning.
Above all, though, I commend this book to anyone who has ever waxed philosophical about the relation of man to the land, the questions of exploitation versus stewardship, and the relative merits of urban and country life. While the specific tract of land is west of Ft. Worth (Somervell County, near Glen Rose) and the makeup of Hard Scrabble is limestone rock and scrub juniper, the notion of taking land that has been exploited and abused for decades by those whose attitude toward land was to use it up and move on to fresh ground and restoring it to usefulness and productivity knows no geographical boundaries.
You don't have to be a Texan to appreciate Graves' work, but as a Texan, I'm ashamed of myself for not having read Graves until now. While his Goodbye to a River is the first title mentioned when his name comes up, I appreciated Hard Scrabble even more. I'm moving on to From a Limestone Ledge. So far, the take-your-time-and-savor-his-prose approach seems to be right for that one too.
September 18, 2017
I absolutely loved this book. It has been instantly propelled to one of my favorites. I bought a paperback copy of this book in the gift shop of Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, Texas. This book is written largely about a piece of property that the author lived a good chunk of his life on, less than a few miles away from that tiny gift shop. I bought it on a whim because in the picture on the front, an elderly Graves looks an awful lot like my dad (It is pretty much just that picture - Graves and my father did not really resemble each other that much).
I love that Graves writes directly at you, and has the power to make you laugh out loud, then sucker punch you in the gut just a few paragraphs later. He's like a Texan Vonnegut.
I got to poking around and realized my friend Jay at Good Books In the Woods (y'all really should check out his store online - it's especially great for collectors) had a signed first edition of this book. Just a few days ago, I went to pick it up and Jay informed me that the inscription was made to Stanley Marsh III, he of the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. Score!
I love that Graves writes directly at you, and has the power to make you laugh out loud, then sucker punch you in the gut just a few paragraphs later. He's like a Texan Vonnegut.
I got to poking around and realized my friend Jay at Good Books In the Woods (y'all really should check out his store online - it's especially great for collectors) had a signed first edition of this book. Just a few days ago, I went to pick it up and Jay informed me that the inscription was made to Stanley Marsh III, he of the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. Score!
March 28, 2016
This is Graves at his best. Wonderful prose. I love how he weaves a story throughout the book, telling a complete story with thematic characters (I.e O.F. The nation, etc.) across the entire book. The last chapter in particular is a wonderful example of Graves' style and some of his philosophy. He stirs in my long forgotten emotions about country life and land and agriculture. I will continue my readings of his work based upon my experience with Have d Scrabble. Next is From a Limestone Ledge.
January 5, 2010
It has been a while, but I really liked this book when I was in college. I think I might even read it again. I remember thinking it is better than goodbye to a river.
April 2, 2012
Real insight on the changing landscape of the Texas Hill Country, which I call home.
Want to read
March 26, 2009Daniel liked this one a lot.
Want to read
January 23, 2017Recommended via Ryan Holiday's list. "The Thoreau of Texas."
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