Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20240622

Little bit more see my friend. People think where do i go . I go into a hole. Went Hunting Research i really kind of disappear. So im happy to reemerge and see my friends, see my family. Thats the immediate project. Okay, i think thats a nice note to end on so thank you very much. [applause] thank you all for coming. The book is available in the gift shop right up there and she has graciously agreed to sign the book so feel free to come up if you have a book already. Every weekend, booktv offers programming focus on nonfiction authors and books. Keep watching for more here on cspan2 and watch any of our past programs online at booktv. Org. During booktvs recent visit to omaha, nebraska, we visited john price who argues that the tall Grass Prairie deserves to be protected much like the forests and mountain ranges in the tallGrass Prairie reader. The prairie hasnt had as many sort of literary accounts in literature unfortunately because part of that is the prairie, the tall Grass Prairie was destroyed the majority, 90 was destroyed so quickly between 18301900. So it didnt give authors an nature writers a chance really to appreciate it and to write about it in the same sense that john muir out in a serial mouse had a chance to appreciate and write about that wilderness. Temporary wilderness was pretty much gone by the turnofthecentury. It does still exist in the imagination of people and that was, i should say in the very earliest sort of treatments literary treatments of this region and exploration literature, it was very much a presence like in the journals of lewis and clark describes this area, filled with wildlife in beauty and diversity. And also George Kaplan was an artist and export came to this region, painted in this area wrote about it. His descriptions of prairie fires were immensely popular in the early and mid19th century. s as a place of adventure yeah it was in the early literature it could be found and appreciated. But most of the literature after the official about the conquering of the prairie. Willa cathers books are really about the transformation of wild prairie into cropland. So oftentimes youll hear this region referred to as prairie but theyre not talking about actual prairie. They are talking about grazing grasses, talking about cropland. So part of the motivation for this book is to correct that inaccuracy. So what happened i think essentially was that, there are a number of reasons why the prairie was destroyed. Most importantly the utilitarian value of it as cropland as a place to grow food. The first people look at this place and is on the trees and they thought it cant be fertile so they skipped over it and went west. But then they discovered these dark soils created by the prairies were immensely fertile. Thats when the great followup begin in the mid19th century all the way up to now. With the introduction of the steel plow in the mid19th century, that hastened the destruction of his prairie, went very quickly. I grew up in iowa ma and like a lot of i think young people here, i knew nothing about the prairie. It was pretty much gone, and if i saw a postage stamp prairie i wouldnt be able to identify. I really had no emotional connection to that to my home landscape. And were i wish where i was from, loss of cornfields and bean fields, very agriculture area in North Central iowa. In 1993 when i was writing at the university of iowa finishing my graduate studies and my wife and i were living in a small iowa town of belle plaine, and the great flood occurred during that summer. And the fields were left unplowed unknown, and there was this eruption of strange flowers and grasses that were eight feet high. I had never seen him before appreciated them and i was blown away by the beauty of these things. As im going to run the ditches with my identification guide and my neighbors thought i was nuts but i kind of fell in love with these prairie plants. And then the floods went away, even though i was glad to human destruction was over, i found myself in a kind of morning and longing to understand and connect to that last lost landscaper i went out on a journey, traveled across the region reconnected with some precise. It became clear to me it would take more than just knowledge of the prairie to maintain this new commitment and conviction as a writer to this place. I needed also accounts for an emotional connection, even maybe a spiritual connection. And for that i turn to nature writing, american nature writing, and found that just like the prairie in reality is in danger, as illiterate landscape it is endangered. Most of the major books do not include are very few examples of writings about the tall Grass Prairie for all the reasons i mentioned earlier. So i had no model for how to write about it, how to connect with the. And because the prairies were gone, the wild prairies, the wilderness area, i had no way to understand what that looked like, what do you look like. That began my search for the literature. Literature. So it began with back in the 90s and then has finally come to fruition in this anthology. Thats what i think literature has a role to play. That this isnt traditional Natural Beauty right . As americans we like our mountains, our forests, our deserts, our oceans it wouldve lots of literature on on the, lots of poetry dedicated to it art. This can be kind of an acquired taste, and i think when people first see a prairie especially here in spring when its short and still not in its full glory they dont appreciate the intricate beauty of it. And so there are lots of examples in your of writers who are speaking to the beauty, both in kind of a grand scale when they first encountered it as a wilderness area back in 1800 earlier, the little postage stamp prairie like this one where theres still, even though its definitely small and contained, there is still a great deal of beauty. But you have to stay. You have to look at it up close walk among the grasses and flowers to truly appreciate it. Walt whitman in this book describes the prairies as americas characteristic landscape he felt more than any of the landscape in this country, the prairie represented its unique character. It was unlike anything else in the world, and he was blown away when he came after and visited an experienced it. You hear that again and again. Once you experience the prairie directly, come back in the summer, please do and it sticks with you. Its the way the grass ma the way it weighs like oceans but it was described as oceans that have that profound impact on people. Telecom the diversity from the wildlife. The literature for those who havent visited the prairie, cant visit the prairie and get people case of that and hopefully inspire them to care. For more information on booktvs recent visit to to omaha and to many of the cities visited by our local content vehicles our local content vehicles, go to cspan. Org localcontent. Including protections for freedom of speech, privacy and spectrum availability. Host and on you