Not Just Any Land:
A Personal and Literary Journey
into the American Grasslands
Copyright © 2004
by John T Price
U of Nebraska P
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Though he'd lived in Iowa all his life, the allure of the prairie had somehow eluded John Price —
until, after a catastrophic flood, a brief glimpse of native wildlife suddenly brought his surroundings
home to him. Not Just Any Land is a memoir of Price's rediscovery of his place in the American landscape
and of his search for a new relationship to the life of the prairie — that once immense and beautiful
wilderness of grass now so depleted and damaged as to test even the deepest faith.
Price's journey toward a conscious commitment to place takes him to some of America's
largest remaining grasslands and brings him face to face with a troubling, but also hopeful, personal and environmental
legacy. It also leads him through the region's literature and into conversations with contemporary nature writers —
Linda
Hasselstrom, Dan O'Brien, William Least Heat-Moon, and Mary Swander — who have devoted themselves to living in, writing
about, and restoring the grasslands. Among these authors Price observes how a commitment to the land can spring from
diverse sources, for instance, the generational weight of a family ranch, the rites of wildlife preservation, the
"deep maps" of ancestral memory, and the imperatives of a body inflicted with environmental illness. The resulting
narrative is an innovative blend of memoir, nature writing, and literary criticism that bears witness to the
essential bonds between spirit, art, and earth. — from the publisher
John Price finds his way to the heart of the grasslands that our ancestors called the great inland sea. Riding and
listening and reading along with him, we learn not only about the prairie, we also learn how to be at home in our
own place. — Scott Russell Sanders, author of Hunting for Hope
Price's considerable wisdom and poetic vision spring from both the prairie and great prairie books. With nature as
his compass and literature as his map, he conducts us on a powerful journey not just in the American grasslands,
but in understanding the relationship between our identity and the places that blood and history define for us as
home. — Julene Bair, author of One Degree West: Reflections of a Plainsdaughter
What does a hot tub on a nature writer's ranch say about wildness? How does one begin to make a home in a ravaged
ecosystem? French fries or bull fries? What can the prairie awaken in writers — including the author of this
marvelous pilgrimage? These and other questions help John Price avoid the usual paeans and bromides that fill
too much contemporary nature writing. Price puts himself on the line by showing us how he is trying to understand
the place he's from — and where he wishes to live as an ecological citizen. Part of that process is visiting with
writers who have made the grasslands their home. His dispatches from these encounters — literary and
personal — can help
all of us understand failings, desires, complications. And, despite Joyce Carol Oates's declaration that nature
writers lack a sense of humor, John Price gives us moments of genuine, self-deprecating humor, which, in his hands,
is also wisdom. — Christopher Cokinos, author of Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished
Birds.
Price is a gifted writer. ... His journey leaves him transformed as
it may well transform the reader. — Booklist
Price's insightful questions and sense of humor make the book's subject highly accessible
and memorable. — Twyla Hansen, NCB Newsletter
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