N. Scott Momaday’s deep, distinctive voice draws listeners into his reflections on a remembered Earth. The writer starts by sharing the memories of his grandfather, Dragonfly, a Kiowa holy man who prayed to raise the sun. What Momaday knows of his grandfather came through his father's stories. Momaday, who considers himself an Earth keeper, conveys his dreams of Dragonfly, speaking with an enunciation that might make listeners feel like they're listening to a stage performance. Momaday shares his sadness at the decline of buffalo herds, his wonder at seeing a large butterfly, and the age and wisdom he sees in a turtle's face. Listeners will be enthralled as they share his personal quest and his vision of the American West. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

09/14/2020

In a short but satisfying series of essays, Pulitzer-winning fiction writer and poet Momaday (The Death of Sitting Bear) celebrates and mourns the Earth. Using lyrical, heartfelt language, he looks back on a life lived close to nature, and on the joy that natural wonders have given him: of seeing the Northern Lights, for example, he writes that “great ribbons of dancing light unraveled on the snowy sky, and a great shiver of color enveloped the dome of the earth.” He also expresses concern about how the Earth will fare after he is gone, lamenting that “we humans have done the damage, and we must be held to account.” To address ecological degradation, and the resultant “poverty of the imagination” afflicting society, he leans into spiritual consolation rather than pragmatic solutions. In particular, he appeals to the traditions of his Indigenous people, the Kiowa, recalling a holy man’s prayer to the Sun he heard as a child: “Give us one more day, and one more, and at last one more.” At a time when bad news is in plentiful supply, readers will find Momaday’s words refreshing and comforting in their sincerity. (Nov.)

Poets and storytellers have always reminded us of our spiritual connections to the land and the world around us — passed along through dreams, stories, memories, and mythologies. Scott Momaday skillfully continues this tradition in Earth Keeper, from which we can all learn and benefit.” — Robert Redford

“Earth Keeper is a prayer for continuity in these days of uncertainty. I cannot tell you why I loved this book, I can only tell you I wept my way through it. Each page brought me closer to myself, a self I had lost in the pandemic. We need Scott Momaday's calm, clear prose and stories. Words are medicine. There is wisdom in sharing what one knows, especially at a time when we know so little. ‘Let me say my heart,’ he says.  And he does.” — Terry Tempest Williams, author of Erosion: Essays of Undoing

"Dazzling. . . . In glittering prose, Momaday recalls stories passed down through generations, illuminating the earth as a sacrosanct place of wonder and abundance. At once a celebration and a warning, Earth Keeper is an impassioned defense of all that our endangered planet stands to lose." — Esquire

"A timely meditation on the natural world — as well as what we stand to lose as the climate changes." — New York Times

“Wonder abounds in these pages. . . . Short chapters of prose that read almost like prayers to the natural world.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Short but satisfying. . . . Using lyrical, heartfelt language, [Momaday] looks back on a life lived close to nature, and on the joy that natural wonders have given him. . . . At a time when bad news is in plentiful supply, readers will find Momaday’s words refreshing and comforting in their sincerity.” — Publishers Weekly

"A profound reflection on humanity's relationship with its terrestrial home, the planet Earth." — Booklist

“A collection of short essays as multilayered and majestic as the landscape that has been present in everything that Momaday has written. . . . [A] poetic love letter to the Earth.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Part memory and part meditation, part poem and part prayer, Earth Keeper is a short but powerful collection that holds its arms out to the world, asking to be read again and again. "I make a prayer for words," writes Momaday. "Let me say my heart." That heart is evident on every page of Earth Keeper, a reminder that body, soul and earth are inextricably woven together, and to deny that connection is to deny one's very humanity." — Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"Earth Keeper is a celebration of the rich spiritual imagination of America’s Native peoples. . . . Momaday, now 86 years old, must be ranked among the greatest of our contemporary writers and our environmental prophets." — American Scholar

"Equal parts memoir, folklore, and poetry, Earth Keeper is above all a work of great reverence, an appreciation for the earth and the relationship we cultivate with it." — Commonweal

"In many ways, to read Momaday is to read the land. It is to encounter the earth alive with wind and sunlight, with plants and animals, and to know all of it—each aspect of the world—by name. It is also to renew a reverence for beauty and a feeling of hope." — Stanford Magazine

“Earth Keeper is a prayer for continuity in these days of uncertainty. I cannot tell you why I loved this book, I can only tell you I wept my way through it. Each page brought me closer to myself, a self I had lost in the pandemic. We need Scott Momaday's calm, clear prose and stories. Words are medicine. There is wisdom in sharing what one knows, especially at a time when we know so little. ‘Let me say my heart,’ he says.  And he does.

"A profound reflection on humanity's relationship with its terrestrial home, the planet Earth."

"Part memory and part meditation, part poem and part prayer, Earth Keeper is a short but powerful collection that holds its arms out to the world, asking to be read again and again. "I make a prayer for words," writes Momaday. "Let me say my heart." That heart is evident on every page of Earth Keeper, a reminder that body, soul and earth are inextricably woven together, and to deny that connection is to deny one's very humanity."

"Dazzling. . . . In glittering prose, Momaday recalls stories passed down through generations, illuminating the earth as a sacrosanct place of wonder and abundance. At once a celebration and a warning, Earth Keeper is an impassioned defense of all that our endangered planet stands to lose."

A collection of short essays as multilayered and majestic as the landscape that has been present in everything that Momaday has written. . . . [A] poetic love letter to the Earth.

"Earth Keeper is a celebration of the rich spiritual imagination of America’s Native peoples. . . . Momaday, now 86 years old, must be ranked among the greatest of our contemporary writers and our environmental prophets."

"A timely meditation on the natural world — as well as what we stand to lose as the climate changes."

Poets and storytellers have always reminded us of our spiritual connections to the land and the world around us — passed along through dreams, stories, memories, and mythologies. Scott Momaday skillfully continues this tradition in Earth Keeper, from which we can all learn and benefit.

"A profound reflection on humanity's relationship with its terrestrial home, the planet Earth."

"Equal parts memoir, folklore, and poetry, Earth Keeper is above all a work of great reverence, an appreciation for the earth and the relationship we cultivate with it."

N. Scott Momaday’s deep, distinctive voice draws listeners into his reflections on a remembered Earth. The writer starts by sharing the memories of his grandfather, Dragonfly, a Kiowa holy man who prayed to raise the sun. What Momaday knows of his grandfather came through his father's stories. Momaday, who considers himself an Earth keeper, conveys his dreams of Dragonfly, speaking with an enunciation that might make listeners feel like they're listening to a stage performance. Momaday shares his sadness at the decline of buffalo herds, his wonder at seeing a large butterfly, and the age and wisdom he sees in a turtle's face. Listeners will be enthralled as they share his personal quest and his vision of the American West. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

2020-09-01
A plea for the planet from the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist, poet, and playwright.

Born and raised as a member of the Kiowa tribe, Momaday (b. 1934) has had a remarkably distinguished career, earning a National Medal of Arts and a lifetime achievement award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, among other honors. Here, the author follows the dictum of one of his own teachers: “Write little and write well.” Momaday distills age-old wisdom from the elders who came before him into a concise book featuring chapters no more than a paragraph in length. He evokes a world of natural connection, one that existed long before him and is now threatened, and he draws inspiration from Dragonfly, “a holy man” devoted to “a spiritual life of the mind.” Throughout the book, Momaday maintains a tension between the eternal spirit of the Earth, with the “Great Mystery” pervading it, and the threats posed by those infected with “the immorality of ignorance and greed, the disease of indifference to the earth.” While he notes the importance of studying history, he also argues that “it is the present and the possibilities of a future that must concern us. Ours is a damaged world. We humans have done the damage, and we must be held to account. We have suffered a poverty of the imagination, a loss of innocence. I would strive with all my strength to give [a] sense of wonder to those who will come after me.” Wonder abounds in these pages, and the author also touches on the passage of time and the many costs of supposed progress. Though brief, the book serves as a tight summation of many of the themes that Momaday has developed during his long career, and his fans will relish it.

Short chapters of prose that read almost like prayers to the natural world.