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Rising from the Plains
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Rising from the Plains Paperback - 1987

by John McPhee

Bestselling author McPhee takes us on another exciting geological excursion with this engaging account of life--past and present--in the high plains of Wyoming.


About this book

Rising from the Plains is John McPhee's third book on geology and geologists. Following Basin and Range and In Suspect Terrain, it continues to present a cross-section of North America along the fortieth parallel—a series gathering under the overall title Annals of the Former World.

Sometimes it is said of geologists that they reflect in their professional styles the sort of country in which they grew up. Nowhere could that be more true than in the life of a geologist born in the center of Wyoming and raised on an isolated ranch. This is the story of that ranch, soon after the turn of the century, and of the geologist who grew up there, at home with the composition of the high country in the way that someone growing up in a coastal harbor would be at home with the vagaries of the sea. While Rising from the Plains is a portrayal of extraordinary people, it is also a history of the landscape around them, where, with remarkable rapidity, mountains came up out of the flat terrain. Gradually, the mountains were buried, until only the higher peaks remained above a vast plain. Recently, they have been exhumed, and they stand now as the Rockies. 

-Description from First Edition (1986 Dust Jacket)

From the publisher

Rising from the Plains is John McPhee's third book on geology and geologists. Following Basin and Range and In Suspect Terrain, it continues to present a cross section of North America along the fortieth parallel--a series gathering under the overall title Annals of the Former World.

First Edition Identification

Farrar, Straus & Giroux published a First Edition hardcover in New York, 1986.


Details

  • Title Rising from the Plains
  • Author John McPhee
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Later Printing
  • Pages 208
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
  • Date 1987-11-01
  • ISBN 9780374520656 / 0374520658
  • Weight 0.5 lbs (0.23 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 in (20.83 x 13.97 x 1.27 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Plains
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 86014891
  • Dewey Decimal Code 557

About the author

John McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. Also in 1965, he published his first book, A Sense of Where You Are, with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and in the years since, he has written nearly 30 books, including Oranges (1967), Coming into the Country (1977), The Control of Nature (1989), The Founding Fish (2002), Uncommon Carriers (2007), and Silk Parachute (2011). Encounters with the Archdruid (1972) and The Curve of Binding Energy (1974) were nominated for National Book Awards in the category of science. McPhee received the Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977. In 1999, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Annals of the Former World. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

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Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World, 3)
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Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World, 3)

by McPhee, John

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Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World, 3)
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Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World, 3)

by McPhee, John

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Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World, 3)
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Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World, 3)

by McPhee, John

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Rising from the Plains

Rising from the Plains

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Rising from the Plains

Rising from the Plains

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Rising from the Plains

Rising from the Plains

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Rising from the Plains
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Rising from the Plains
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Rising from the Plains

by McPhee, John

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Rising From The Plains
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Rising From The Plains

by John McPhee

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Rising from the Plains
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Rising from the Plains

by McPhee, John

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ISBN 13
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ISBN 10
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