This Death by Drowning

by William Kloefkorn

The first volume in William Kloefkorn's four-part memoir which, when completed, will cover the four water, fire, earth, and air.

 

This Death by Drowning is a memoir with a difference—an artfully assembled collection of reminiscences, each having something to do with water. The book's epigraph, from Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It , proclaims, "I am haunted by waters." So—and in most rewarding ways—is William Kloefkorn.

 

The first chapter recalls the time when, at age six, the author "came within one gulp of drowning" in a Kansas cow-pasture pond, only to be saved by his father. A later chapter recounts Kloefkorn's younger brother's near death by drowning a few years later; still another envisions the cycle of drought and torrential rains on his grandparents' Kansas farm. There are fanciful memories of the Loup and other Nebraska rivers, interlaced with Mark Twain's renderings of the Mississippi and John Neihardt's poetic descriptions of the Missouri. And there are stories of more recent times—a winter spent in a cabin on the Platte River, and an often amusing Caribbean cruise that Kloefkorn took with his wife.

 

Throughout, Kloefkorn takes his memories for a walk, following each recollection into unexpected, fruitful byways. Along the way he pauses at larger themes—of nature, death, family, and renewal—that gradually gather irresistible force and authority.

Genres: Fiction

155 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

William "Bill" Kloefkorn was a Nebraska poet and educator based in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was the author of twelve collections of poetry, two short story collections, a collection of children's Christmas stories, and four memoirs. Additionally Kloefkorn is professor emeritus of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University.

Kloefkorn, who was born in Attica, Kansas, obtained Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, and did additional graduate work at the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Prior to teaching at Nebraska Wesleyan, Kloefkorn taught at Wichita State University and at Ellinwood High School in Ellinwood, Kansas.

In 1982, Kloefkorn was appointed State Poet of Nebraska, a position roughly equivalent to Poet Laureate. (In 1921, the Nebraska Legislature permanently bestowed the title of Poet Laureate of Nebraska to John Neihardt, who is still recognized as holding this title.) Kloefkorn died in Lincoln, Nebraska.

In addition to his literary honors, Kloefkorn boasted that he won first place in the 1978 Nebraska Hog-Calling Championship.

An elementary school in Lincoln is named after Kloefkorn

Reviews

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memoir through essays. Prose that often reads like poetry. Nebraska, the plains, rivers, rural life, childhood, family. Good stuff.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who has lived and loved this land as Kloefkorn has will feel a kinship with him and the words he uses to tell of his life on the plains. The stories he relates - some funny, some sad, some earthly, some spiritual - are well chosen and carefully woven into a flowing narrative of the prairie.

[Ben]

Hb 1997 1st ed. Like new. Protected jacket.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Water, water everywhere. Her beauty, her creation, her hazards and dangers. She is life sustaining. She is recreation. She is a quest.
Stories to follow a story. Each interesting scene leading to another. Remminding the reader of one's own life. How it parallels with he author's.
If you are writing your own journal you will soon beleive your own stories can be told with description and intrigue. He can make a chapter about a chip of ice interesting and smooth.
Recently moving to Nebraska helped me to understand the beauty of the land and rivers through out Central USA. I finished the book early morning of July 4th. On a PBS channel I was half listening to a program about the beginning and the growth of "The Mormon Tabernacle Choir". In unison with the song, I read the last few pages of this book. In a timely manner The Choir sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." My eyes swelled with "teary water". I was proud to be in Nebraska. This book brought out what is great about Nebraska. Where the land is still pioneer territory. A frontier as it was. We still see the pictures "as it was." Land! Land! No buildings interupt our view. God blessed this land of ours. The USA.
Good reading to open your mind and love the land of America.
This quote from the book.
"When I need to walk
I can walk with the river,
And when I need to talk
I can talk to the river..."

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the '70's at the U of NE there were three young, talented poets - Kooser, Kuzma and Kloefkorn. Kloefkorn was a big bear of a guy, and I am sure he surprised an awful lot of people when he told them he was a poet.

He is not the greatest writer to ever live, but I wish he would get more attention - he is more than just a "regional" poet as well.

This memoir is built around water in his life, rather than a straight forward chronological story of his life. I like it best when he is just telling the stories (time in a cabin on the Platte, a boat trip with friends on the Loup, how his brother almost died, his grandmother's love for him) rather than waxing poetic and trying to add meaning and depth to his observations. OTOH, I do like that he quotes other poets and writers throughout the text. They are always excellent choices, and fit well.

You will not be "blown away" by this book, but hopefully you will enjoy it, as I imagine he did writing it (he must have -he wrote 3 more short volumes of "memoirs"). I really wish I could have sat down him some Saturday afternoon, at his farm's kitchen table or workshop, and just shot the shit with him and drained a few beers. He comes across as insightful, well read - and a great story teller.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of memoir-like essays by Nebraska poet William Kloefkorn, all of them related in one way or another with water - from a near-drowning at the age of four to accounts of river rafting on central Nebraska's Loup River. There is also a baptism in a creek near a small Kansas town where the author grew up. Perhaps most absorbing is the description of life on a hard-scrabble homestead, as lived by Koefkorn's grandparents, without electricity or plumbing, though not without "running water" as provided by runoff from the roof into an underground cistern.

Memories of his young years as a schoolboy include the sinking of ships at Pearl Harbor and drownings at sea during WWII. Granting himself a degree of poetic license, the author weaves together multiple narrative threads and vividly remembered images and epiphanies so that the result is a kind of awed stream of consciousness, laced at points with irony and humor best described as "midwestern". Not a far cry from Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, and fans of that show should enjoy this book.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kloefkorn is Nebraska's state poet, and This Death by Drowning is his memior. Well, part of his memior anyway... These are all stories of his life that are centered, in some way around water. I believe he has two other memiors written and is writing a fourth, so when he's finished, he will have centered on all four elements: water, fire, earth and air.
Perhaps not riveting, it was at least an interesting read. Some of it covers his childhood in Kansas and some of his adult life in Nebraska. Restoring the Burnt Child is the next part, and is the 2008 One Book, One Nebraska pick, so I will probably read it. After reading Kloefkorn, I will probably seek out more Nebraska authors such as Mari Sandoz and read some more stories by Willa Cather.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Kloefkorn is one of my favorite authors. His language is lyrical and thought provoking.

[Avis Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has some good passages, but the author is an absolutely scatterbrained writer. He bounces around way too much.