In the
1950s, a series of dams was proposed along the Brazos River in north-central
Texas. For John Graves, this project meant that if the stream’s regimen was
thus changed, the beautiful and sometimes brutal surrounding countryside would
also change, as would the lives of the people whose rugged ancestors had eked
out an existence there. Graves therefore decided to visit that stretch of the
river, which he had known intimately as a youth.
Goodbye to
a River is his account of that farewell canoe voyage. As he braves rapids and fatigue
and the fickle autumn weather, he muses upon old blood feuds of the region and
violent skirmishes with native tribes, and retells wild stories of courage and
cowardice and deceit that shaped both the river’s people and the land during
frontier times and later. Nearly half a century after its initial publication,
Goodbye to a River is a true American classic, a vivid narrative about an
exciting journey and a powerful tribute to a vanishing way of life and its
ever-changing natural environment.
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