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PrairyErth: (a Deep Map) is a 1991 book about
William Least Heat-Moon (born William Trogdon) was the acclaimed writer of the bestseller ''Blue Highways'' (1982) when he began to write ''PrairyErth''. ''Blue Highways'' had been a book about his wanderings along America's little-travelled byways, and while ''PrairyErth'' is similarly about the undiscovered heart of the United States, it focuses much more narrowly on a particular place.
Chase County is a county in the southeastern quarter of Kansas with a population of about 3,000. Least Heat-Moon estimates that he interviewed about 10% of the county's population in the course of researching the book. The county's geography is dominated by the Flint Hills, and it contains much of the remaining Tallgrass prairie, prairie that now exists in the Great Plains. It is about halfway between Wichita, Kansas, Wichita and Topeka, Kansas, Topeka.
At the time that Least Heat-Moon was writing, there was political debate in Chase County about the possibility of a national park being created to preserve the prairie's ecosystems. In the book, there is extensive discussion of the tension between area ranchers and urban environmentalists over the issue of the park's creation, though many locals also desired the possibility of increased tourism that would come with the park. A few years after the book was published, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was created in a public-private partnership over 70,000 acres of Chase County.
At the start of ''PrairyErth'', Least Heat-Moon writes that if a traveler was driving U.S. Route 50, US 50 from Maryland to San Francisco, the place where "she will exclaim from behind her windshield that she has at last arrived in the American West" is in "Kansas in the Flint Hills in Chase County". It was there that the treelessness of the prairie would mean that the "world changes in a few miles from green to blue, from shadows to nearly unbroken sunlight, from intermittent breezes to a wind blowing steadily as if out of the lungs of the universe."
The book is made up of twelve sections, each corresponding to rectangular divisions of Chase County as set out in U.S. Geological Survey maps. That twelve-fold distinction is marked with a distinctive lined icon that recurs throughout the book. Every section contains six chapters. In general, ''PrairyErth'' is arranged geographically rather than chronologically, with the individual stories told in each chapter standing in no particular order. They stand as "a kind of collage, an object made of other, randomly arranged objects, a complex composite image revealing past, present, and future all at once in any one piece."
The sections are as follows:
# Saffordville, Kansas, Saffordville
# Gladstone, Kansas, Gladstone
# Thrall-Northwest
# Fox Creek
# Bazaar, Kansas, Bazaar
# Matfield Green, Kansas, Matfield Green
# Hymer, Kansas, Hymer
# Elmdale, Kansas, Elmdale
# Homestead Township, Chase County, Kansas, Homestead
# Elk, Kansas, Elk
# Cedar Point, Kansas, Cedar Point
# Wonsevu, Kansas, Wonsevu
Least Heat-Moon discusses many diverse topics including a complete inventory of a Covered wagon, prairie schooner with more than 200 items, lists of different local terms of animals and plants, many newspaper reports, and a complete chapter on the etymology and spelling of Kansas. Each chapter begins with a collection of quotes, with William Allen White, Walt Whitman and Carl L. Becker, Carl Becker appearing particularly frequently. ''PrairyErth'' also discusses at length the county's ecology, geography, and geology, including a chapter on the ancient Nemaha Ridge, Nemaha Mountains, now deep below the surface. He recounts a joke from a geologist that state highways in Kansas should put up a sign saying "MOUNTAIN BURIAL PROJECT NOW COMPLETE". There are also many portraits of the people that have lived and made their mark on the county, including Fidel Ybarra, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Santa Fe railway worker, Linda Thurston, local feminist, Arthur Stillwell, Arthur Edward Stillwell, railway tycoon, and football star Knute Rockne who died in a 1931 Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 crash, 1931 plane crash in the county.
2010 documentary by John O'Hara
English-language non-fiction books 1991 non-fiction books
Chase County, Kansas
Chase County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and most populous city is Cottonwood Falls. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 2,572. The county was named for Salmon Chase, a U.S. Senator from ...
by American author William Least Heat-Moon
William Least Heat-Moon (born William Lewis Trogdon, August 27, 1939) is an American travel writer and historian. He describes his heritage as English, Irish, and Osage. He is the author of several books which chronicle unusual journeys throu ...
. The author termed it a deep map
A deep map is a map with greater information than a two-dimensional image of places, names, and topography.
One such kind of intensive exploration of place was popularised by author William Least Heat-Moon with his book ''PrairyErth: A Deep Ma ...
, popularizing that term for an intensive look at a particular place that included discussion of geography, history, and ecology. The book featured in the bestsellers list of both Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
and The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
.
Background
William Least Heat-Moon (born William Trogdon) was the acclaimed writer of the bestseller ''Blue Highways'' (1982) when he began to write ''PrairyErth''. ''Blue Highways'' had been a book about his wanderings along America's little-travelled byways, and while ''PrairyErth'' is similarly about the undiscovered heart of the United States, it focuses much more narrowly on a particular place.
Chase County is a county in the southeastern quarter of Kansas with a population of about 3,000. Least Heat-Moon estimates that he interviewed about 10% of the county's population in the course of researching the book. The county's geography is dominated by the Flint Hills, and it contains much of the remaining Tallgrass prairie, prairie that now exists in the Great Plains. It is about halfway between Wichita, Kansas, Wichita and Topeka, Kansas, Topeka.
At the time that Least Heat-Moon was writing, there was political debate in Chase County about the possibility of a national park being created to preserve the prairie's ecosystems. In the book, there is extensive discussion of the tension between area ranchers and urban environmentalists over the issue of the park's creation, though many locals also desired the possibility of increased tourism that would come with the park. A few years after the book was published, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was created in a public-private partnership over 70,000 acres of Chase County.
Contents
At the start of ''PrairyErth'', Least Heat-Moon writes that if a traveler was driving U.S. Route 50, US 50 from Maryland to San Francisco, the place where "she will exclaim from behind her windshield that she has at last arrived in the American West" is in "Kansas in the Flint Hills in Chase County". It was there that the treelessness of the prairie would mean that the "world changes in a few miles from green to blue, from shadows to nearly unbroken sunlight, from intermittent breezes to a wind blowing steadily as if out of the lungs of the universe."
The book is made up of twelve sections, each corresponding to rectangular divisions of Chase County as set out in U.S. Geological Survey maps. That twelve-fold distinction is marked with a distinctive lined icon that recurs throughout the book. Every section contains six chapters. In general, ''PrairyErth'' is arranged geographically rather than chronologically, with the individual stories told in each chapter standing in no particular order. They stand as "a kind of collage, an object made of other, randomly arranged objects, a complex composite image revealing past, present, and future all at once in any one piece."
The sections are as follows:
# Saffordville, Kansas, Saffordville
# Gladstone, Kansas, Gladstone
# Thrall-Northwest
# Fox Creek
# Bazaar, Kansas, Bazaar
# Matfield Green, Kansas, Matfield Green
# Hymer, Kansas, Hymer
# Elmdale, Kansas, Elmdale
# Homestead Township, Chase County, Kansas, Homestead
# Elk, Kansas, Elk
# Cedar Point, Kansas, Cedar Point
# Wonsevu, Kansas, Wonsevu
Least Heat-Moon discusses many diverse topics including a complete inventory of a Covered wagon, prairie schooner with more than 200 items, lists of different local terms of animals and plants, many newspaper reports, and a complete chapter on the etymology and spelling of Kansas. Each chapter begins with a collection of quotes, with William Allen White, Walt Whitman and Carl L. Becker, Carl Becker appearing particularly frequently. ''PrairyErth'' also discusses at length the county's ecology, geography, and geology, including a chapter on the ancient Nemaha Ridge, Nemaha Mountains, now deep below the surface. He recounts a joke from a geologist that state highways in Kansas should put up a sign saying "MOUNTAIN BURIAL PROJECT NOW COMPLETE". There are also many portraits of the people that have lived and made their mark on the county, including Fidel Ybarra, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Santa Fe railway worker, Linda Thurston, local feminist, Arthur Stillwell, Arthur Edward Stillwell, railway tycoon, and football star Knute Rockne who died in a 1931 Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 crash, 1931 plane crash in the county.
Reception
Paul Theroux wrote inThe New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
that the book was a "wonderful and welcome book [that] has the distinct virtue of being completely unexpected" and that it was, at heart, a "good-hearted book about the heart of the country." He also noted the book's length and its lack of discussion politics or the world beyond Chase County. Verlyn Klinkenborg wrote in Los Angeles Times, LA Times that it was a "rich and revealing book". He goes on to say that the book is "full of problems", stating that when "he listens, Chase County, Kansas, comes to life, and the air is full of the sound of meadowlarks. When he speaks, all the other voices--the true voices of Kansas--fall silent."
Professor O. Alan Weltzien at the University of Montana Western has argued that Least Heat-Moon "like any essayist of place, advocates an essentially religious view of landscape: one that construes the land as divine, one whose expertise is marked by humility". Bill McKibben wrote that he was "bowled over, blown away, swept off my pins by ''PrairyErth''" and compared it to ''Moby Dick''.
''PrairyErth'' spent eleven weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list.
Since its publication, it has been the subject of a 2010 documentary by John O'Hara, charting the impact of the book on the county and how it has changed since the research conducted in the 1980s.
See also
*Chase County, Kansas
Chase County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and most populous city is Cottonwood Falls. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 2,572. The county was named for Salmon Chase, a U.S. Senator from ...
* Psychogeography
References
{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news, last1=Tanner, first1=Beccy, date=4 April 2010, title=Back to the Flint Hills: Writer returns for documentary film, work=The Wichita Eagle, url=https://www.kansas.com/news/local/article1028450.html , access-date=5 July 2021 {{cite news, last1=Theroux, first1=Paul, date=27 October 1991, title=The Wizard of Kansas, work=The New York Times, url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/27/books/the-wizard-of-kansas.html, access-date=5 July 2021 {{cite news , last1=KLINKENBORG , first1=VERLYN , title=Cameos of Kansas , url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-20-bk-20-story.html , access-date=5 July 2021 , work=LA Times , date=20 October 1991 {{cite journal , last1=WELTZIEN , first1=O. ALAN , title=A TOPOGRAPHIC MAP OF WORDS: PARABLES OF CARTOGRAPHY IN WILLIAM LEAST HEAT-MOON'S "PRAIRYERTH" , journal=Great Plains Quarterly , date=1999 , volume=19 , issue=2 , pages=107–122 , url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23533130 , access-date=5 July 2021 {{cite book , last1=Least Heat-Moon , first1=William , title=PrairyErth: (A Deep Map) , date=1991 , publisher=A Peter Davison Book: Houghton Mifflin Company , location=Boston {{cite journal , last1=Walker , first1=Pamela , title=The Necessity of Narrative in William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways and Prairyerth , journal=Great Plains Quarterly , date=1994 , issue=14 , pages=284–297 , url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/802/External links
2010 documentary by John O'Hara
English-language non-fiction books 1991 non-fiction books