The Solace of Open Spaces (with an introduction by Amy Liptrot) - Softcover

Gretel Ehrlich

Softcover

ISBN 10: 191154733X ISBN 13: 9781911547334

Publisher: Daunt Books, 2019

Synopsis

'I suspect that my original motive for coming here was to 'lose myself' in new and unpopulated territory. Instead of producing the numbness I thought I wanted, life on the sheep ranch woke me up.'

In 1976, Gretel Ehrlich travelled from her home in New York to Wyoming to shoot a film on sheep herders. While she was away, her partner died. Although she had never planned to stay, Ehrlich found herself unable to leave. What started out as a work trip became the beginning of a new life, as well as a long and deep attachment to place.

Writing of sheep herding alone across Wyoming badlands, her experience of being struck by lightning, the true meaning of cowboys, and taking her new husband to the rodeo for their honeymoon, as well as the changing seasons, extreme winters and the wind, Ehrlich draws us into her personal relationship with this 'planet of Wyoming' she has come to call home.

As tough as it is tender, The Solace of Open Spaces is travel memoir that is embedded in place, and nature writing with an unexpected bite. It is a bold testimony to how the landscape we live in affects who we are.

About this title

Review:

'Vivid, tough and funny. Wyoming has found its Whitman.' --Annie Dillard

'Ehrlich tossed out her city clothes, cut off her hair, learned to ride and rope and punch cattle, to help deliver lambs and calves and to survive Wyoming's 30-below-zero winters... She brings the long vistas into focus with the poise of an Ansel Adams.' --New York Times

'Full of vivid details and gnarly anecdote. There are wild animals and lightning strikes, snake bites and broken bones. But, like the sheepherders Ehrlich portrays, there is delicacy as well as a toughness to her writing. The Solace of Open Spaces is a book I will give as a gift. It is slim, yet vast.' --Amy Liptrot, From the Introduction

About the Author:

Gretel Ehrlich was born and raised in California. Among her many books are A Match to the Heart, This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland, The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold, and Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami. She lives in Wyoming.

About this edition

• Publisher: Daunt Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 191154733X
• ISBN 13: 9781911547334
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192