Twilight of the tenderfoot: A Western memoir - Hardcover

Ackerman, Diane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688036058 ISBN 13: 9780688036058

Publisher: Morrow, 1980

Synopsis

In the twenty-some years since award-winning writer Diane Ackerman first visited the Tequesquite ranch in New Mexico, she has delighted readers with her rich, observant prose in such books as A Natural History of the Senses and, most recently, Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden. However, her first nonfiction book, Twilight of the Tenderfoot, reveals the strong beginnings of a writer who renders the experience of nature and place into an intimate and magical affair. Now back in print, Twilight of the Tenderfoot lets readers once more glimpse the backbreaking, soul-satisfying work of ranching. Growing up in rural Illinois, Diane Ackerman "knew" the West through film and television. Her abiding love of horses led her to one day seek to ride alongside cowboys on a traditional New Mexican ranch. "At 5:30 the next morning, I buckled on my chaps, and rode out to herd cattle for the first time in my life, not knowing exactly what I would find in an American past mine only by association, a landscape alien as Mars, a desert heat and physical labor so hard it leaves you aching all over."

As a tenderfoot-and a woman in a man's world-Ackerman undergoes an often hilarious initiation: but she is game and spirited, up to the challenges of red-hot chiles, Red Man chewing tobacco, revved-up horses, snakes dangling from brooms, and tough work well before sunrise. For Ackerman, and for her readers, what happened remains indelibly branded in memory.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Through the eyes of a premier writer and naturalist, see daily life on a working western ranch

From the Author:

While writing this book, ranch life corralled most of my thoughts and often appeared in my dreams. Working on the Tequesquite, I felt freed from all the mortgages on my spirit, all the professional demands, all the expectations of me (particularly my own), and there were times when I thought maybe I could live such a life forever. Only now do I recognize its transcendent appeal as "deep play" In the tiptoe thrill of love, or the adrenal splurge of some adventures, the heart can be satisfied often and well, but, to paraphrase Wallace Stevens, the mind never. I thought ranch life might satisfy my restlessness. It didn’t. But it did satisfy other desires: to live out a childhood fantasy and breathe the life of our frontier past, turn an analytical mind to the welcome demands of physical labor, join a ranch society closer-knit than many families. Neither time nor distance could erase such bounty.

Much has changed on the Tequesquite since I wrote this book, which makes it all the dearer. In a sense, Twilight of the Tenderfoot is a time capsule, not just of me but of the ranchhands, the Mitchells, and the land we all love.

About this edition

• Publisher: Morrow
• Publication date: 1980
• ISBN 10: 0688036058
• ISBN 13: 9780688036058
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 222