A Son of the Middle Border


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4.8 stars; 5 reviews)

In all the region of autobiography, so far as I know it, I do not know quite the like of Mr. Garland's story of his life, and I should rank it with the very greatest of that kind in literature. . . . It is the poet who sees the vast scale of human struggle with nature or the things she will withhold unless they are forced from her by man's tireless toil and mighty mechanism, and in the vision he knows a battle-joy as distinctive of this Son of the Middle Border as his fidelity to the sordid and squalid details of the campaign, or his exultation of the beauty of the West which he has so passionately hated and finally so passionately loves. As you read the story of his life you realize it the memorial of a generation, of a whole order of American experience; as you review it you perceive it an epic of such mood and make as has not been imagined before.(Introduction by William Dean Howells, New York Times review, August 26, 1917) (15 hr 31 min)

Chapters

01 - Home from the War 24:41 Read by Greg W.
02 - The McClintocks 24:12 Read by Greg W.
03 - The Home in the Coulee 31:08 Read by Greg W.
04 - Father Sells the Farm 15:22 Read by Greg W.
05 - The Last Threshing in the Coulee 18:25 Read by Greg W.
06 - David and His Violin 16:47 Read by Greg W.
07 - Winneshiek 'Woods and Prairie Lands' 22:16 Read by Greg W.
08 - We Move Again 12:54 Read by Greg W.
09 - Our First Winter on the Prairie 28:21 Read by Greg W.
10 - The Homestead on the Knoll 15:03 Read by Greg W.
11 - School Life 18:26 Read by Greg W.
12 - Chores and Almanacs 16:51 Read by Greg W.
13 - Boy Life on the Prairie 40:18 Read by Greg W.
14 - Wheat and the Harvest 34:26 Read by Greg W.
15 - Harriet Goes Away 24:03 Read by Greg W.
16 - We Move to Town 32:09 Read by Greg W.
17 - A Taste of Village Life 29:28 Read by Greg W.
18 - Back to the Farm 34:59 Read by Greg W.
19 - End of School Days 25:31 Read by Greg W.
20 - The Land of the Dakotas 27:20 Read by Greg W.
21 - The Grasshopper and the Ant 39:12 Read by Greg W.
22 - We Discover New England 24:29 Read by Greg W.
23 - Coasting Down Mt Washington 16:24 Read by Inah Derby
24 - Tramping, NY, Washington & Chicago 28:25 Read by Inah Derby
25 - The Land of the Straddle-Bug 35:17 Read by Inah Derby
26 - On to Boston 29:50 Read by Inah Derby
27 - Enter a Friend 40:17 Read by Inah Derby
28 - A Visit to the West 43:47 Read by Inah Derby
29 - I Join the Anti-Poverty Brigade 41:31 Read by Inah Derby
30 - My Mother is Stricken 26:55 Read by Inah Derby
31 - Main Travelled Roads 21:12 Read by Inah Derby
32 - The Spirit of Revolt 22:46 Read by Inah Derby
33 - The End of the Sunset Trail 13:19 Read by Inah Derby
34 - We Go to California 28:29 Read by Inah Derby
35 - The Homestead in the Valley 26:41 Read by Inah Derby

Reviews


(5 stars)

a real midcentury gem. especially for memoir lovers. not fast paced but beautifully written