Talking to the Ground

by Douglas Preston

Overview

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Lost City of the Monkey God comes an entrancing, eloquent, and entertaining account of the author’s adventurous journey on horseback through the Southwest in the heart of Navajo desert country.

In 1992 author Douglas Preston and his wife and daughter rode horseback across 400 miles of desert in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They were retracing the route of a Navajo deity, the Slayer of Alien Gods, on his quest to restore beauty and balance to the Earth. More than a travelogue, Preston’s account of their “one tough journey, luminously remembered” (Kirkus Reviews) is a tale of two cultures meeting in a sacred land and is “like traveling across unknown territory with Lewis and Clark to the Pacific” (Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982112196
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	06/04/2019
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	297,594
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Douglas Preston is the author of more than thirty books, both fiction and nonfiction, more than twenty of which have been New York Times bestsellers. He has worked as an editor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and taught nonfiction writing at Princeton University. His first novel, Relic, coauthored with Lincoln Child, was made into a movie, and launched the famed Pendergast series of novels. His recent nonfiction book, The Monster of Florence, is also being made into a film. In addition to books, Preston writes about archaeology and paleontology for the New Yorker, National Geographic, and Smithsonian.

Place of Birth:

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Education:

B.A., Pomona College, 1978

Website:

http://www.prestonchild.com

Table of Contents

1 Durango, Colorado, April 1990 9

2 American Museum of Natural History, New York City, March 1983 19

3 Durango, Colorado, January 1992 26

4 Navajo Mountain, Rainbow City, April 27, 1992 34

5 North America, ca. 15,000 B.C to A.D. 1492 49

6 Piute Mesa, April 28, 1992 59

7 Nokai Canyon, Hoskinninni Mesa, April 29, 1992 70

8 Nokai Canyon, Hoskinninni Mesa, April 30, 1992 80

9 Monument Valley, April 30 to May 2, 1992 89

10 Monument Valley, May 2, 1992 104

11 House of Hands Cave, May 3, 1992 118

12 Agathla Peak, the Center of the World, May 4, 1992 124

13 White Point Mesa, May 4-6, 1992 136

14 Chinle Valley, Where the Mountains Descend Upon a Broad Plain, May 7 and 8, 1992 145

15 Chinle Valley, Many Farms, May 9-11, 1992 149

16 Canyon de Chelly, August and September 1849 167

17 Canyon de Chelly, May 13, 1992 176

18 Canyon del Muerto, May 14, 1992 188

19 Canyon de Chelly, the Long Walk, January 1864 to June 1868 194

20 Canyon del Muerto, Mummy Cave, May 15, 1992 204

21 Tsaile, May 16-18, 1992 209

22 Lukachukai, Los Gigantes, May 19 and 20, 1992 222

23 Lukachukai Mountains, Mexican Cry Mesa, May 21 and 22, 1992 240

24 Lost City of the Lukachukais, May 22, 1992 249

25 The Diné Bikeyah, May 23, 1992 265

A Note on Pronunciation 273

Notes 275

Acknowledgments 279

Bibliography 281

Epilogue: The Great Terror 285