Environment / American Studies / Art
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Recovering the Prairie Beautifully illustrated celebration of the prairie "Like a prairie's landscape, these essays, together with the photographs, visual art, and illustrations, present a dense and varied interconnected whole, from roots to flowers to the beings who perceive and inhabit the land." —Annick Smith, filmmaker and author of Big Bluestem: Journey into the Tall Grass "Prairie enthusiasts will be delighted to read how diverse and interesting the human meanings of the prairie have been. Recovering the Prairie is attractive, accessible, and eloquent." "I do not know of another book that brings together individuals from so many fields to meditate on the prairie landscape, its biota, and its natural and cultural prospects. This impressive and richly illustrated volume will appeal to general readers as well as to scholars interested in literature, history, American studies, art history, geography, landscape, and ecology." Americans in ever increasing numbers are rediscovering the prairie. This vast inland sea of grasses, buried for a hundred years beneath farms, cities, and suburbs, has endured not only in physical remnants but also in the memories of its settlers and their descendants, the books of prairie authors, and the work of prairie artists. As restoration ecologists and amateur prairie preservationists recover the land, this book recovers the prairie of the American imagination—past, present, and future. Beautifully illustrated with the work of sixteen contemporary prairie artists, Recovering the Prairie celebrates and examines the perspectives of artists, writers, native peoples, ecologists, and landscape architects—Willa Cather, Aldo Leopold, Jens Jensen, Alexander Gardner, and many others—who recognized the unique beauty of the prairie. And, this volume brings together people from many fields to consider the connections between aesthetics and economics, landscape and culture, politics and ethics, as illustrated by the prairie in American civilization. Contributors and artists include: Robert F. Sayre is professor of English and American literature at the University of Iowa. He is the editor of the anthology American Lives, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press, and of several other books, including Take This Exit: Re-Discovering the Iowa Landscape. Here are some recent reviews of Robert Sayre's book "All in all, this is a well-done and aesthetically delightful book that challenges the reader to reflect upon the great diversity and rich cultural meanings of prairies that remain absent from the American consciousness." "Recommended especially to anyone interested in historical and sociological attitudes toward natural landscapes..." "All and all, this is a beautiful and usable collection." "Recovering the Prairie joins The Essential Aldo Leopold as exemplary testimony to the potential of ecological and aesthetic collaboration which fosters a better understanding of how this country may recover a measure of environmental and cultural health." "...a shot in the arm for all who appreciate landscapes which, like the great prairie, have been considered unfashionable and unattractive..."
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November 1999 234 pp. 23 color illus., 61 b/w illus. 7X9 ISBN 0-299-16460-8 Cloth $37.95t SHOPPING CART OPERATIONS
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