Magpie Rising: Sketches from the Great Plains

The rolling, billowing, delicate landscape of Nebraska's Sandhills; the tombstone of Billy the Kid-stolen so often that it must be caged and shackled-in Fort Sumner, New Mexico; an intercontinental ballistic missile trundling down a highway under heavy guard in Weld County, Colorado; cottonwoods and cranes, faded hotels and abandoned trailers painted aqua and purple; the ghosts of Pawnees, Cheyennes, and Kiowas and generations of settlers whose descendants now grouse in a café in Heimdahl, North Dakota, or roar off to a bikers convention in Sturgis, South Dakota. These are some of the things that catch Merrill Gilfillan's eye and ear in this radiant collection of essays. Written with a poetic economy that often attains grandeur, Magpie Rising is an exhilarating tour of the Great Plains-its geography, wildlife, history, mythology, and food, its vast spaces and weirdly synchronous time. This is nature writing at its most evocative and insightful. Merrill Gilfillan is the author of a collection of essays titled Chokecherry Places: Essays from the High Plains in addition to two books of short stories and seven books of poetry.

Author: Merrill Gilfillan
Publisher: Bison
Published: 03/01/2003
Pages: 194
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.49lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.38w x 0.43d
ISBN13: 9780803271074
ISBN10: 0803271077
BISAC Categories:
- Travel | Essays & Travelogues
- Nature | Essays
- History | United States | State & Local | General

About the Author
Merrill Gilfillan is the author of a collection of essays titled Chokecherry Places: Essays from the High Plains in addition to two books of short stories and seven books of poetry.

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