In the 1950s, a series of dams was proposed along the Brazos River in north-central Texas. For John Graves, this project meant that if the stream’s regimen was thus changed, the beautiful and sometimes brutal surrounding countryside would also change, as would the lives of the people whose rugged ancestors had eked out an existence there. Graves therefore decided to visit that stretch of the river, which he had known intimately as a youth.Goodbye to a Riveris his a...

John Graves Simcoe (1752 - 1806) was a British Army general and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791until 1796 in southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. He founded York (now Toronto) and wasinstrumental in introducing institutions such as courts of law, trial by jury, English common law, and freehold landtenure, and also in the abolition of slavery in Canada.His long-term goal was the developme...

The two-time National Book Award finalist and author of Goodbye to a River ruminates over what an "unmagnificent" Texas homestead has meant to him."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, The New York Times Book Review"His subje...

“Another fine, reflective, anecdotal look at rural Texas.” —New Yorker“Graves writes eloquently about a countryman’s concerns. There's not a false note in the book.” —Boston Globe“Like the unmortared stone fences of Graves’s native hill country, From a Limestone Ledge is constructed of bits and pieces never designed to fit together, yet made to achieve a unity that is more enduring than the sum of its individual parts by the hands of a master craf...

Writing especially for people who've tuned out the environmental debate, Rob Jackson persuasively argues that we're at a crucial turning point in environmental history, where choices we make now will determine the quality of life into the unforeseeable future. Laying out the scientific facts in plain language and with flashes of humor, he shows how the escalation of population growth and resource consumption in the twentieth century caused problems from ozone depletion to global warming, h...

"Blue and Some Other Dogs" is a brilliant memoir about Graves' Basque-Australian sheep dog. "Guns of a Lifetime" tells the stories related to the guns this octogenarian Texan has owned, beginning with a "rusted and cylinderless" revolver. "So here are the stories," Graves writes. "They are not all nice’ tales in contemporary terms. Political correctness, as presently defined, may be perpetrated here and there, though I hope no parts will seem like the maunderings of a Deep South redneck. ...

I have consumed nations. I have destroyed peoples.I am Ozymandias.The previous 20 years had been - The horror. The horror! Jake still remembers the screams. The retched coughing. The blood and feces and vomit covering the beds, the floors, the streets. Everywhere, blood and liquifying humanity.Tracker had done her work brilliantly, of course. She who had never failed in a military mission. She who would rule this dying world - except for Jake. Except for his despera...

“One is tempted to say that wherever there was a frontier in America there was a counterfrontier and that the main purpose of this counterfrontier was not only to help man grow or dig or catch or kill his livng but also to put this man in communication with the traditions of his kind and thereby secure to his descendants the benefits of the free mind.” —Harry Huntt RansomThe reflections of Harry Huntt Ransom (1908–1976) in The Other Texas Frontier present an alternative to...

In Myself and Strangers, John Graves, the highly regarded author of Goodbye to a River and other classic works, recalls the decade-long apprenticeship in which he found his voice as a writer. He recounts his wanderings from Texas to Mexico, New York, and Spain, where, like Hemingway, he hoped to find the material with which to write books that mattered. With characteristic honesty, Graves admits the false starts and dead ends that dogged much of his writing, along with th...

Today's wind turbinesKill millions of birds worldwide: raptors are threatened with extinctionRequire significant amounts of CO2 to manufactureDeliver electricity intermittently, at bestRequire enormous back up coal and gas fired power plants creating yet more CO2Can be unhealthy or harmful to local residentsAre deadly - to core component manufacturers and maintenance person...

In the 1950s, a series of dams was proposed along the Brazos River in north-central Texas. For John Graves, this project meant that if the stream’s regimen was thus changed, the beautiful and sometimes brutal surrounding countryside would also change, as would the lives of the people whose rugged ancestors had eked out an existence there. Graves therefore decided to visit that stretch of the river, which he had known intimately as a youth.Goodbye to a River is his account of that f...

The Houston Chronicle once observed, "John Graves' provenance is about as Texas as a writer can get." In this fascinating memoir, one of the Lone Star State's literary icons reflects on the European travels that shaped him as a writer. "Graves is a master of visual detail, and his journey unfolds with the picturesque clarity of a film."-Publishers Weekly