The Earth Is Enough: Growing Up in a World of Flyfishing, Trout & Old Men

by Harry Middleton, Russell Chatham (Foreword by)

Overview

In this touching memoir of his boyhood on a farm in the Ozark foothills, Harry Middleton joins the front rank of nature writers alongside Edward Hoagland and Annie Dillard.

It is the year 1965, a year rife with change in the world---and in the life of a boy whose tragic loss of innocence leads him to the healing landscape of the Ozarks. Haunted by indescribable longing, twelve-year-old Harry is turned over to two enigmatic guardians, men as old as the hills they farm and as elusive and beautiful as the trout they fish for---with religious devotion. Seeking strength and purpose from life, Harry learns from his uncle, grandfather, and their crazy Sioux neighbor, Elias Wonder, that the pulse of life beats from within the deep constancy of the earth, and from one’s devotion to it. Amidst the rhythm of an ancient cadence, Harry discovers his home: a farm, a mountain stream, and the eye of a trout rising.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871089656
Publisher:	WestWinds Press
Publication date:	02/01/1996
Series:	The Pruett Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	228
File size:	416 KB

About the Author

Harry Middleton is a critically acclaimed author whose books include The Earth is Enough, The Bright Country and Rivers of Memory. He is the recipient of the Friends of American Writers Award, the Outdoor Writers Association of American Best Book Award, and the Southeastern Outdoor Press Best Book Award. He passed away unexpectedly in 1993 at the age of 43.

Editorial Reviews

At the age of 14, as the country drifted into war in Vietnam, the author was sent to live with his great uncle and his grandfather on a farm in the Ozarks. In a world far removed from global events, these kind old men, content with solitude and a meager subsistence scraped from the land, occupied their time reading, trout fishing and steadfastly refusing to make concessions to modern technology. They measured the success of their resistance to change by the amount of disapproval they elicited from their God-fearing neighbors, the local preacher and the state agricultural agent, all of whom failed to indoctrinate the pair in the paths of righteousness and profitable farming. Middleton, outdoors columnist for Southern Living magazine, writes with humor and compassion of these witty and articulate eccentrics who changed his life and taught him to love and respect the earth and its creatures. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

As the United States got involved in the Vietman war, Middleton's military father sent 14-year-old Harry to live with his grandfather in rural Arkansas. There Middleton, now outdoors columnist for Southern Living magazine, discovered the wonders of living a life close to nature. His grandfather shared a farm with two other men, and the trio strove to protect the farm from the 20th century. They taught Middleton the value of a simple life, yet also instilled in him a yearning for knowledge and a love of good books. He recalls hours spent in the woods and fishing for trout in the stream that flowed through the farm. Using the trout as a metaphor for all things wild, Middleton manages to weave together his boyhood memories with a profound respect for the natural world. An understated, evocative work. Recommended.-- Randy Dykhuis, OCLC, Dublin, Ohio

Library Journal

"It is a grand true story and its wonderful old men are classic American characters."

Annie Dillard

"An extraordinary account of the sustaining powers of landscape, of the stewardship of private places, and of those rare people in life who, by their refusal to teach, become our most enligtening teachers. A haunting book, beautiful and funny and sad, written with enormous warmth and grace."

Ted Leeson