“Great Plains strikes me as a signal event in the history of American publishing, a true event where the authors and the simply fabulous photographer, Michael Forsberg, are a perfectly graceful mix.”
— Jim Harrison, American poet
Great Plains
America’s Lingering Wild
by Michael Forsberg
Project designed, packaged, and placed by Lisa Lytton
University of Chicago Press and The Nature Conservancy
With a Foreword by Ted Kooser, Chapter Introductions by David Wishart, and Essays by Dan O’Brien
The Great Plains were once among the greatest grasslands on the planet. But as the United States and Canada grew westward, the Plains were plowed up, fenced in, overgrazed, and otherwise degraded. Today, this fragmented landscape is the most endangered and least protected ecosystem in North America. But all is not lost on the prairie. Through lyrical photographs, essays, historical images, and maps, this beautifully illustrated book gets beneath the surface of the Plains, revealing the lingering wild that still survives and whose diverse natural communities, native creatures, migratory traditions, and natural systems together create one vast and extraordinary whole.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Great Plains Studies:
Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize
The Nebraska Center for the Book: Nebraska Book Award
Association of American Publishers: PROSE Book Award