The Inland Ground: An Evocation of the American Middle West: Revised Edition

Inland Ground is Richard Rhodes's first book. It was published quietly in 1970 to critical acclaim (The New York Times Book Review named it one of the best books of the year). In the two decades that followed, Rhodes published ten more books, including A Hole in the World, Farm, and The Making of the Atomic Bomb, for which he won the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Yet, Rhodes contends, some of his best writing is collected here, in Inland Ground, sixteen essays that evoke the Middle West, on topics that range from coyote hunting to the Mayo Clinic. For this updated edition Rhodes has chosen the twelve best of his early pieces, combined them with four new essays, and added a spare, forceful preface.