Terrains of the Heart: And Other Essays on Home

by Willie Morris

Overview

In this collection of essays Willie Morris explores the subject of “home” and what it means to Americans. Morris takes the reader on a chronological journey of places he lived and worked: as a student at the University of Texas in Austin, as Rhodes scholar in Oxford, England, as Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s magazine in New York City, in Bridgehampton on Long Island, in Washington, DC, where he wrote guest columns for The Washington Star in 1976, and, finally, returning to his native Mississippi in 1980. “Willie Morris in this book that is reminiscent of the rhythms of Thomas Wolfe reveals his love of a place where individuals, relationships, the link with generations gone not only matter but buttress the everyday life. Like all the fine artists who live linked to a place from which they draw nourishment and strength, Morris makes us understand his people and his land.” (Chicago Tribune Book World)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780916242237
Publisher:	Yoknapatawpha Press
Publication date:	09/01/1998
Pages:	265
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.23(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Willie Morris (1934-1999) attended the University of Texas, studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, returned to Texas as the editor of The Texas Observer, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Harper's from 1967 to 1971. From 1980-1990 he served as writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS (Chapter Titles) Coming on Back, An Old House on a Hill , Loving and Hating It, Where Does the South End? The Other Oxford, Weep No More My Lady , Christmases Gone, Vignettes of Washington, I am not Resigned, The Day the President Left Yazoo , The Lending Library of Love, Good Friends: Dogs, Sons, and Others, A Girl I Once Knew, Legacies, Different Terrains, Stingo and Bilbo in the Mansion, A Cook’s Tour, A Man for All Seasons, The Stable, The Americanization of Mississippi, The Ghosts of Ole Miss

Editorial Reviews

What American writer has command of the essay form to equal Willie Morris? He’s in a class by himself. (Southern Living)

Between our cradles and graves which often lie in the same place, we make other homes for our hearts; these terrains enlarge us as people but only clarify further the values the home instilled within us. And Willie Morris, in returning to Mississippi and collecting these essays on his native soil and all significant terrains and people in between, has given us all reason to pause and consider our roots. (Best Sellers)

A broad panorama of writing on people, politics, sports, work, study, love, family, home that is almost unvaryingly heart tugging and mind holding. (The Houston Post)

The temptation will be strong to take Terrains of the Heart in huge gulps. Resist it, for this is a book to savor, to reflect on, to return to over the years when home is nearby, or when the very idea of it seems far, far away. (Richmond News Leader)

These essays make hard claim on the reader’s heart. (Los Angeles Times)

From the Publisher