More Scenes from Rural Life

Description

Verlyn Klinkenborg's regular column, The Rural Life , is one of the most read and beloved in the New York Times. Since 1997, he has written eloquently on every aspect, large and small, of life on his upstate New York farm, including his animals, the weather and landscape, and the trials and rewards of physical labor, as well as broader issues about agriculture and land use behind farming today. Klinkenborg's pieces are admired as much for their poetic writing as for their insight: peonies are the sheepdog of flowers," dry snow "tumbles offthe angled end of the plow-blade as if each crystal were completely independent, almost charged with static electricity," and land is most valuable "for its silence, its freedom from language." Klinkenborg writes with a grace and understanding that makes us more aware of the world around us, whether we live on a farm or in the middle of a city. More Scenes from the Rural Life gathers together 150 of his best pieces since his last collection, The Rural Life , was published a decade ago. For anybody with an appreciation of nature, language, or both, this book is certain to delight."

Verlyn Klinkenborg's work has appeared in many magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, National Geographic, The New Republic, Audubon, GQ and The New York Times Magazine. He has taught literature and creative writing at Fordham University, St Olaf College, Bennington College and Harvard University and is the recipient of the 1991 Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

It's graceful, poetic, sharp--and rewards both a straight-through reading and dipping into dates according to season. - Shelf-Awareness