Man Killed by Pheasant
and Other Kinships
Copyright © 2008
by John T Price
Da Capo/Perseus P
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Grounded in place, in the great grasslands of the Midwest, John Price’s large-hearted memoir is nevertheless a story that knows no boundaries.
Kinship is the thread that runs throughout, with creatures in his back yard and in the wild, with Swedish ancestors, with neighbors, with the Midwestern prairies,
and with his wife and children. Often smiling at the earthy absurdities of ordinary life, and at other moments resonant with both joy and sorrow,
Man Killed by Pheasant bears poignant witness to the bonds that link us all. — from the publisher
[John Price] softly reveals the humor and uncertainty of youth and parenthood; the clarity of his nature writing exhibits the strength he finds in the ancient
patterns of migratory birds and the flexibility of the Missouri River. Beyond his elegantly styled memoir, Price achieves a rich biographical portrait of the
rural Midwest — its cultural and natural terrain — creating a character from the profound flatness of the region with as much life as he finds in his
grandparents and children. — Booklist, starred review
Whether he is writing about fatherhood, or marriage, or gardening, or snow geese, readers will be captivated by his honest and funny search for meaning, for
belonging, for home. — The Boston Globe
John Price writes with exceptional lucidity, humor and wisdom about his unexceptional — and exemplary — American life. I spent my own youth in this very
region, and I don’t know a better or more charming prose distillation of its sweet, homely beauty and melancholy. Man Killed by Pheasant…is a perfect
non-fiction companion to the stories of Garrison Keillor and the movies of Alexander Payne. — Kurt Andersen, author of Heyday and host of NPR’s
Studio 360.
Price's memoir will resonate not only with those of us who have Midwestern roots but with anyone who relishes a walk in the woods or a witty turn of phrase.
Savor this book, it’s a delight. — Lisa Renstrom, former President, Sierra Club
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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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What the Critics Say
Bibliography
