In the true stories, essays, and poems of Leaning into the Wind we meet the real women of the High Plains today. Included are reflections on cowboys, tractor-driving lessons, outhouses, ranch marriages, and family legacies.

Leaning Into The Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West

Biographies & Memoirs

Hasselstrom, Linda M.

Curtis, Nancy

Collier, Gaydell

Arts & Literature

Harper-perennial

In Feels Like Far, award-winning author Linda Hasselstrom paints an intimate portrait of family, love, work, nature, and survival against the backdrop of the far-flung South Dakota prairie. Sixteen linked stories tell of the joy of training a first horse, the heartbreak of finding a fatally injured cow, the beauty of cavorting nighthawks, the stubbornness of her father, a rigid old rancher who bucks at old age, the deep, almost spiritual bond she shares with a friend who is diagnosed with AIDS. "In deliciously direct and unsentimental style" (Kathleen Norris), Hasselstrom maps the landscape of her life, demarcating the same beauties and brutalities that intermingle on the Great Plains she calls home.

Feels Like Far: A Rancher's Life on the Great Plains

Community & Culture

Harper Paperbacks

The grassroots publishing sensation continues with WOVEN ON THE WIND, the second volume of women's writing from the heart of the American West compiled by the editors and ranchers Linda Hasselstrom, Nancy Curtis, and Gaydell Collier. They called on women in sixteen states and provinces to write about their friendships with other women in the West, a subject that they discovered has all too often been overlooked or underplayed. The result is WOVEN ON THE WIND, a unique and exhilarating collection, "a beautiful, intricate mosaic of women as mothers as well as friends" (Fencepost). In a region where time and space are large and solitude is a fact of life, these women tell of the beauties, ironies, rigors, heartbreak, and humor of life and how it is uniquely enriched by friendships past and present. The voices in this volume -- unsentimental, unflinching, and utterly unforgettable -- take readers into the fields, kitchens, barns, and souls of nearly 150 women and reveal a vital part of the real western American story. "Here is the essence of the West -- not the myth, but the truth."

Woven on the Wind: Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West

Literature & Fiction

United States

Acclaimed nature writer Linda M. Hasselstrom sees herself as a rancher who writes-a self-definition that shapes the tone and content of her writing. Now owner of the cattle ranch where she grew up in western South Dakota, she lives in daily intimate contact with the natural world. As she says, "Nature is to me both home and office. Nature is my boss, manager of the branch office-or ranch office-where I toil to convert native grass into meat. . . .If I want to keep my job as well as my home, I pay attention not only to Nature's orders, but to her moods and whims." The essays in this book reflect Hasselstrom's close attention to her homeplace and the depth of her sympathy with the world around her. She writes knowingly of the rancher's toil and of the intelligence and dignity of the animals she tends, especially the much-maligned cow, as well as of the wild creatures-the owls and antelope and coyotes and others---that share the prairie grassland she calls home. Hasselstrom's voice rings with the ardent common sense of one who knows and loves the land, who appreciates the concerns of environmental activists but also knows the role that responsible ranchers can play in nurturing a healthy rural ecosystem. 
This book is by no means an apologia for ranching but rather a lively picture of a specific part of the world, a world of which Hasselstrom writes with candor, love, and the clear sight of one who knows it well. The essays are rich in closely observed details of the natural world, in humor and pathos and wry commentary on the scope of human folly and the even vaster potential of humans for community and empathy. "Only people who live in the country," she writes, "could form a relationship with nature so intimate that they feel concern for one lonely duck. People who live in cities . . . only glimpse nature from high windows or speeding vehicles. Even wilderness lovers who probe deeply are only passing through. We who live on the land truly live within the land, each of our lives only one among the other inhabitants of the place." These are essays to read with wonder and delight, to relish and ponder.

Between Grass And Sky: Where I Live And Work (Environmental Arts and Humanities)

University of Nevada Press

A collection of personal essays from one of the most widely published American environmental writers addresses the concerns about the effects of ranching on the environment.

History

Suitable for those who are curious about the state of contemporary West, this book offers a report from the front, where nature and human aspirations are often at odds, and where the concepts of community and mutual responsibility are being redefined.

No Place Like Home: Notes from a Western Life

Historical

In No Place Like Home, Linda Hasselstrom ponders the changing nature of community in the modern West, where old family ranches are being turned into subdivisions and historic towns are evolving into mean, congested cities. Her scrutiny, like her life, moves back and forth between her ranch on the South Dakota prairie and her house in an old neighborhood at the edge of downtown Cheyenne, Wyoming. The vignettes that form the foundation of her consideration are drawn from the communities she has known during her life in the West, reflecting on how they have grown, thrived, failed, and changed, and highlighting the people and decisions that shaped them. Hasselstrom’s ruminations are both intensely personal and universal. She laments the disappearance of the old prairie ranches and the rural sense of community and mutual responsibility that sustained them, but she also discovers that a spirit of community can be found in unlikely places and among unlikely people. The book defines her idea of how a true community should work, and the kind of place she wants to live in. Her voice is unique and honest, both compassionate and cranky, full of love for the harsh, hauntingly beautiful short-grass prairie that is her home, and rich in understanding of the intricacies of the natural world around her and the infinite potentials of human commitment, hope, and greed. For anyone curious about the state of the contemporary West, Hasselstrom offers a report from the front, where nature and human aspirations are often at odds, and where the concepts of community and mutual responsibility are being redefined.

Dividing the state into four distinctive geographical regions Eastern South Dakota; the Missouri River and Great Lakes; Western South Dakota; and the Black Hills and Badlands this book follows highway routes, engagingly recounting the history of the Indians (primarily Lakota) and the early white settlers, geographical features, past and present South Dakotan life and culture, and innumerable other fascinating aspects of the state. Includes numerous maps, illustrations, and historical photographs. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Roadside History of South Dakota (Roadside History Series)

Travel

Food, Lodging & Transportation

Mountain Pr

Reading Roadside History of South Dakota is like having a friend guide you through the state's rich past and wide-open spaces, from its homespun beginnings to its endurance as one of the nation's most rural states.

Americas

Write Now, Here's How is a collection of forty essays that lead the reader through six decades of writing challenges. Hasselstrom, like all good teachers, knows how to encourage, invite, instruct and entertain. She finds inspiration everywhere--in a daily walk, in a claw-foot tub, and in the daily news. Reading this book is like attending one of her writing retreats.

Write Now, Here's How: Insights From Six Decades of Writing

Reference

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Lame Johnny Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hasselstrom, Linda M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hasselstrom, Linda M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hasselstrom, Linda M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Leaning Into The Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West

Feels Like Far: A Rancher's Life on the Great Plains

Woven on the Wind: Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West

Between Grass And Sky: Where I Live And Work (Environmental Arts and Humanities)

Between Grass And Sky: Where I Live And Work (Environmental Arts and Humanities)

No Place Like Home: Notes from a Western Life

No Place Like Home: Notes from a Western Life

Roadside History of South Dakota (Roadside History Series)

Roadside History of South Dakota (Roadside History Series)

Write Now, Here's How: Insights From Six Decades of Writing