Three months on the New York Times bestseller list, PrairyErth is now in paperback. Robert Penn Warren pronounced Heat-Moon's Blue Highways "a mas...
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reviews
Jul 07, 2010
Mike
rated it: 
Maybe this is as close to landscape architecture as a writer can get - a "deep map" of Chase County, Kansas that touches on nearly every aspect of the terrain there: the people, the history, the vegetation, the infrastructure, and even a map detailing the watershed of the area. I need to read it several more times before I can determine if it is a five-star book. I enjoyed his "Blue Highways" book more, but I think this book might be more monumental. My favorite chapters were
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Oct 23, 2007
Mary
rated it: 
I took a rest from this one in June, noting then
that it's "several inches thick but curiously enjoyable at a leisurely pace."
I went back to it in October and browsed in it
for a couple of weeks, soaking up the liveliest
mix of geography and history I've ever read, and
it was all about one county in Kansas! Fabulous
combination of archival research, personal inter-
views, and a walking acquaintance with the land.
Nice finding out how his
that it's "several inches thick but curiously enjoyable at a leisurely pace."
I went back to it in October and browsed in it
for a couple of weeks, soaking up the liveliest
mix of geography and history I've ever read, and
it was all about one county in Kansas! Fabulous
combination of archival research, personal inter-
views, and a walking acquaintance with the land.
Nice finding out how his
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May 19, 2007
Lee
rated it:
An amazing insight into a small rural county. I had the pleasure of visiting Chase County for a few days in 2006, and asked "how true" the book was. I was told that while it has its inaccuracies, the general trend was accurate (of course, the book is now about 20 years old, so things have clearly changed). If you make it to Chase County, be sure to stop by the Emma Chase Cafe in Strong City.
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Nov 01, 2007
Jennie
rated it:
One of my favorite books of all time. This book greatly aided me in my transition to living in the vast middle of the United States, and helped me appreciate its beauty and storied history. I visited the region described in this book a number of times during my 5 years in the Midwest, and it was amazing to go there after reading this book. I have read and reread it.
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May 17, 2010
What the hell is it? Travel? Environmental writing? Sociology? If I had to guess, I would say that Least Heat-Moon's response would be that it's all of the above and none of them, that all of these are unnecessary categories imposed on lived experience. And he would be correct. It's so fully integrated and freewheeling that the only thing that unifies it is its profound sense of place. Which happens, weirdly, to be a place I'm very familiar with-- Chase County, Kansas, where I spent some
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Dec 16, 2009
catherine
rated it:
I assigned this as a class text to students when I was teaching in Kansas, it was a way to help them understand that their landscape wasn't empty nothingness but had a character and history all its own. I really enjoyed this, must dig it out and read it again.
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May 14, 2009
Ned
rated it:
Finally got a copy of this again after having lost the original given to me by a friend. Funny story that. I had lent that first copy to a co-worker. She put in on her refrigerator, out of the way, for safe-keeping. Never got around to reading it I guess. Wasn't too long after, her house burned down and everything in it. She kinda wanted to blame that on her boyfriend at the time. She lived out in the country then. Prairy Fire.
Years later I ran into the boyfriend. He was the new c More...
Years later I ran into the boyfriend. He was the new c More...
Jan 10, 2009
Kansas to most people is Kansas as the Avett Brothers describe: as nowhere as I can be. To Least Heat-Moon Kansas is an ancient sea, a prairie sea, the great prairie desert, rivers, county lines, fire, home of the Kaw southwind people, and home of the frontier settlers. The tall prairie plains are a seldom acknowledged part of our history and ecosystem. For most people, me included, Kansas is something to get through, but Least Heat-Moon takes the time to dissect, interject, and inspect what
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Mar 07, 2011
Kate
rated it:
I spent 2-1/2 years reading this amazing book because I didn't want it to end. For an author to devote time over several years visiting and researching every corner of a single Kansas county, walking it, talking to the locals, and writing 622 pages about its landscape, history, and people was an elegant labor of love. His affection for the tallgrass prairie of the Flint Hills, what he calls the "most easterly piece of the American Far West," permeates every page. Some readers may not
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Aug 04, 2011
Paul
rated it:
A deep and lasting impression of a prairie county halfway along Highway 50, where the west begins, where the author senses a pervading Americana. I love William Least Heat Moon's books, and I took my time with this one - dipping in and out over months. It is so rich and varied - it has everything. Solid and absorbing, he builds a vivid picture of the characters who live in a place like Chase, Kansas, lived there, built it, worked it, farmed it, hunted it, sold it, crashed in it, and just about
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Jul 27, 2009
Mrobison
rated it:
This is an excellent, articulate book about Chase County in central Kansas. Least Heat-Moon takes his time, observing and reporting on every facet of the natural and cultural environment. The best thing I can say about PrairyErth is that, as soon as I finished it, I wanted to visit Chase County. And, someday, I will.
Sep 05, 2009
Steve
rated it:
600 pages about Chase county, Kansas--one county in Kansas; what a challenge to find just one thing interesting about this area; but the author did that and more; I still remember the chapter just about the 16 foot wild grasses that once covered the area---such a great read
Aug 14, 2008
Boreal Elizabeth
rated it:
This was the first Heat Moon book I read and loved it! If you are into minute details of land and maps and people and history and society and have the patience to walk in that landscape one step at a time and can feel the wind move and know it's moving something deep inside without you really wanting it to or knowing what the result may be then this one's for you. HM takes some pretty dry material and enfuses it with deep meaning beyond the surface facts. The steady accretion of details builds t
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Dec 29, 2009
David
rated it: 
Perhaps I am lazy. Perhaps I am weak. But after 500-odd pages of this book (625 total) I really had to drop it and move-on. I need to say that I really enjoyed Blue Highways - I must have read it over a decade ago. And I have to give credit where it is due - the author's writing and style are commendable in this book. The prose is, at times, most beautiful and engaging. It was at times challenging too with a vocabulary that had me reaching for the dictionary at regular intervals. But this micros
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Jun 14, 2009
Karen
rated it:
I found this very difficult reading. It was huge and detailed. My kids gave it to me because my family is from Kansas and it was fun to read names and things my father had told stories about. It was informative and interesting but made for a very specific audience.
Aug 20, 2009
Travis
rated it: 
He's not kidding with the "deep map" & "epic history" part of the title. The author takes a non-linear, immersive journalist approach to the prairielands of Kansas.
May bore the pants off of many readers but I enjoyed his curiosity and critical humanity.
May bore the pants off of many readers but I enjoyed his curiosity and critical humanity.
Aug 11, 2009
Chris
rated it:
I read this twice. First 1992 when I first moved to the Midwest and second time 2009 when I was doing a roundtrip of the west by amtrak with my family.
Oct 14, 2011
Phenomenal!!! I lived in the county right next to the one Heat-Moon details. He pays attention and sees a lot going on where I saw nothing going on.
May 21, 2009
Hancock
rated it:
Outstanding! Its the best thing this guy has written. In his other books he tends to be whiny but this is excellent.
May 18, 2011
Hope
rated it:
A long book, a long time in the writing, a long time in the reading. Only a few times did I wish Heat-Moon would get on with it. Mostly, I wanted him to go even deeper into the land he was traveling, wanted to know more about the settlers and current denizens of Chase County Kansas. And, perhaps most importantly, this book made me want to actual travel to Kansas, not just through it, as I have before. And it makes me want to go to Nebraska and explore my maternal ancestral home on the prairie. T
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Aug 03, 2011
Ian
rated it:
Paints a very different picture of Kansas than the general view, I think.
Oct 01, 2008
Tags
rated it:
I think this book is amazing. It's dense and slow and definitely takes dedication to get through -- the plot is abstract and esoteric with many loosely tied threads. But William Least Heat Moon's approach, the deep map of this county in Kansas, is so well executed and unusual, it makes for a fascinating portrait of a place, that travels through time and facts and people to create some very profound thoughts on what makes a community or environment or lines on a map.
Dec 24, 2008
I bought PrairyErth, the second of William Least-Heat Moon's American travel trilogy, in 1993, and never read it. I don't know why. Maybe it seemed daunting because of its size, 624 pages. Who knows? I loved "Blue Highways," and liked "Riverhorse," the third in the series. Today I finished Peter Beagle's "I see by my outfit," and thought again of my fondness for "Blue Highways," and decided that now it was time to tackle PrairyErth.
Aug 22, 2008
Charlotte
rated it:
I get the feeling I wouldn't want to be friends with the author, and the book dragged in quite a few places, but it gets four stars because I've recalled it many times over the years. Also learned a lot about the Midwest, history and geography. After you read it you should listen to Kate MacLeod's really good song that is also entitled "PrairyErth" (on the album "Trying to Get It Right"), inspired by the book.
Feb 07, 2012
Probably I'd call it a four-star book. I did read a fair bit of it I just don't have the patience for the whole thing right now, and I have to cull because we're moving. I will say I'd rather not have had so many other writers' quotes - a good annotated bibliography would have been sufficient imo. I did skip ahead and read the last bit, Circlings, and that was cool.
