Now back in print – the third volume in the acclaimed Brazos Trilogy by John Graves, who is widely acknowledged as Texas's most beloved writer. This is a collection essays and other writing about country life in Texas.
Foreword by Bill Wittliff
Preface
COPING
Notes of an Uncertain Bluecollar Man
More Than Most People Probably Want to Know About Fences
Building Fever
Meat
Vin du Pays
Trash as Treasure
Kindred Spirits
CREATURES
Nineteen Cows
A Few Words in Favor of Goats
Of Bees and Men
Blue and Some Other Dogs
Some Chickens I Have Known
PONDERINGS, PEOPLE, AND OTHER ODDMENTS
Noticing
Weather Between East and West
Coronado’s Stepchildren
Tobacco Without Smoke I: Dippers
Tobacco Without Smoke II: Chewers
One’s Own Sole Ground
A Loser
A meticulous observer of the natural world and an equally precise crafter of the written word, John Graves is renowned for his Brazos Trilogy – Goodbye to a River, Hard Scrabble, and From a Limestone Ledge. He is widely acknowledged as Texas's most beloved writer.
"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 craftsman."
– Southwestern Historical Quarterly
"The beauty of his work endures, and there is a greater pride in Texans' hearts for their home, I think, than there would be if he hadn't written the books he did."
– Rick Bass, Garden & Gun
"In describing the particulars of his surroundings, Graves often was describing the world in microcosm and the place and plight of humankind in it."
– Bryan Woolley, Dallas Morning News