MAGPIE RISING.

Gilfillan, Merrill.

ISBN 10: 0871087464 / ISBN 13: 9780871087461

Published by PRUETT., BOULDER, 1988

About this Item

First edition. Fine in near fine dust jacket. (3 short nicks at head of spine on jacket. ) Sketches from the Great plains. Author's first book of prose.

Seller Inventory # 27046

Bibliographic Details

• Title: MAGPIE RISING.
• Publisher: PRUETT., BOULDER
• Publication Date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0871087464
• ISBN 13: 9780871087461
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition; First Printing.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

The rolling, billowing, delicate landscape of Nebraskaâ s Sandhills; the tombstone of Billy the Kidâ stolen so often that it must be caged and shackledâ in Fort Sumner, New Mexico; an intercontinental ballistic missile trundling down a highway under heavy guard in Weld County, Colorado; cottonwoods and cranes, faded hotels and abandoned trailers painted aqua and purple; the ghosts of Pawnees, Cheyennes, and Kiowas and generations of settlers whose descendants now grouse in a cafà in Heimdahl, North Dakota, or roar off to a bikers convention in Sturgis, South Dakota. These are some of the things that catch Merrill Gilfillanâ s eye and ear in this radiant collection of essays.

Â

Written with a poetic economy that often attains grandeur, Magpie Rising is an exhilarating tour of the Great Plainsâ its geography, wildlife, history, mythology, and food, its vast spaces and weirdly synchronous time. This is nature writing at its most evocative and insightful.

Reviews

The author has crisscrossed the backbone of the North American continent from Texas to Alberta, driving, camping, hiking, observing land and life forms. Poet Gilfallen presents impressionistic, kaleidoscopic images of the landscape interwoven with threads of its past, both natural and human history. His writing ranges from lyrical to earthy as he travels the minor roads, small towns and river valleys of the Great Plains. Gilfallen celebrates this region as Edward Abbey and Gary Nabhan have the desert West, and John McPhee in the mountain West. The book will have immense local interest, and may kindle a desire among Western buffs to explore the Great Plains.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.