Hard Scrabble

Observations on a Patch of Land

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Nature
Cover of the book Hard Scrabble by John Graves, University of Texas Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: John Graves ISBN: 9781477309605
Publisher: University of Texas Press Publication: February 9, 2016
Imprint: University of Texas Press Language: English
Author: John Graves
ISBN: 9781477309605
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication: February 9, 2016
Imprint: University of Texas Press
Language: English

"A kind of homemade book—imperfect like a handmade thing, a prize. It's a galloping, spontaneous book, on occasion within whooping distance of that greatest and sweetest of country books, Ivan Turgenev's A Sportsman's Notebook." —Edward Hoagland, New York Times Book Review"His subjects are trees and brush, hired help, fences, soil, armadillos and other wildlife, flood and drought, local history, sheep and goats . . . and they come to us reshaped and reenlivened by his agreeably individual (and sometimes cranky) notions." —New Yorker"If Goodbye to a River was in some sense Graves's Odyssey, this book is his [version of Hesiod's] Works and Days. It is partly a book about work, partly a book about nature, but mostly a book about belonging. In the end John Graves has learned to belong to his patch of land so thoroughly that at moments he can sense in himself a unity with medieval peasants and Sumerian farmers, working with their fields by the Tigris." —Larry McMurtry, Washington Post Book World"Hard Scrabble is hard pastoral of the kind we have learned to recognize in Wordsworth, Frost, Hemingway, and Faulkner. It celebrates life in accommodation with a piece of the 'given' creation, a recalcitrant four hundred or so acres of Texas cedar brake, old field, and creek bottom, which will require of any genuine resident all the character he can muster." —Southwest Review

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"A kind of homemade book—imperfect like a handmade thing, a prize. It's a galloping, spontaneous book, on occasion within whooping distance of that greatest and sweetest of country books, Ivan Turgenev's A Sportsman's Notebook." —Edward Hoagland, New York Times Book Review"His subjects are trees and brush, hired help, fences, soil, armadillos and other wildlife, flood and drought, local history, sheep and goats . . . and they come to us reshaped and reenlivened by his agreeably individual (and sometimes cranky) notions." —New Yorker"If Goodbye to a River was in some sense Graves's Odyssey, this book is his [version of Hesiod's] Works and Days. It is partly a book about work, partly a book about nature, but mostly a book about belonging. In the end John Graves has learned to belong to his patch of land so thoroughly that at moments he can sense in himself a unity with medieval peasants and Sumerian farmers, working with their fields by the Tigris." —Larry McMurtry, Washington Post Book World"Hard Scrabble is hard pastoral of the kind we have learned to recognize in Wordsworth, Frost, Hemingway, and Faulkner. It celebrates life in accommodation with a piece of the 'given' creation, a recalcitrant four hundred or so acres of Texas cedar brake, old field, and creek bottom, which will require of any genuine resident all the character he can muster." —Southwest Review

More books from University of Texas Press

Cover of the book The Laws of Slavery in Texas by John Graves
Cover of the book Demosthenes, Speeches 1–17 by John Graves
Cover of the book A Perfectly Good Guitar by John Graves
Cover of the book The Struggle for Peace by John Graves
Cover of the book To Alcatraz, Death Row, and Back by John Graves
Cover of the book The Viceregency of Antonio María Bucareli in New Spain, 1771–1779 by John Graves
Cover of the book Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine by John Graves
Cover of the book The Princes of Naranja by John Graves
Cover of the book Urban Latin America by John Graves
Cover of the book Butterflies, Moths, and Other Invertebrates of Costa Rica by John Graves
Cover of the book Let me tell you what I've learned by John Graves
Cover of the book Analyzing World Fiction by John Graves
Cover of the book Not Your Average Zombie by John Graves
Cover of the book Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate by John Graves
Cover of the book Stirring It Up with Molly Ivins by John Graves
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy