A sequel of sorts to his earlier book, Pleasant Valley, this book significantly adds to Louis Bromfield’s body of work on agriculture, economics, and the value of home.

“Because Bromfield has seen so many different lands, he is now more a country man than ever. When he turned his first spadeful on his new Ohio farm acres, it marked the return of the native. Bromfield writes his books in pencil, longhand. He has such concentration that he can come in from working in his fields, go to his desk and finish a sentence he started the day before.”

—The New Yorker

“Written years before celebrated authors like Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver popularized agriculture writing, Pleasant Valley . . . unveils the romantic qualities of farm labor, without romanticizing it. It celebrates hard work, without being patronizing. It makes you want to get dirt under your nails. Pleasant Valley is charmingly nostalgic, yet offers environmental commentary that is timely and urgent. Bromfield’s writing will appeal to lovers of regional writing, unconventional memoirs, and mid-century modernity in literature. Most of all, it is a book to read when you miss home, whatever and wherever that may be.”

—Public Books

From their beginnings as private farmland to their current form as monuments to cultural and ethnic diversity, the unique collection of landscaped, themed gardens that compose Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens holds a rich history. John J. Grabowski guides readers through this story, using both archival images and Lauren R. Pacini’s stunning contemporary photography.

Anneliese Abbott tells the story of Malabar Farm within the context of the wider histories of soil conservation and other environmental movements, especially the Ohio-based organization Friends of the Land. As one of the few surviving landmarks of this movement, which became an Ohio state park in 1976, Malabar Farm provides an intriguing case study of how soil conservation began, how it was marginalized during the 1950s, and how it now continues to influence the modern idea of sustainable agriculture.

Peatlands—and specifically “bogs”—have long been a source of fascination for humans, and these amazing places are truly living relics of the Ice Age. More recently, bogs have come to be regarded as complex and fascinating wetland ecosystems. Peatlands of Ohio and the Southern Great Lakes Region focuses on the sphagnum peat bogs and rich fens of the lower Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, southern Michigan, and the glaciated northern corners of Pennsylvania.

Problem Plants of Ohio is an informative guide, providing information on the identification and control of nonnative plant species formally listed as invasive or prohibited noxious weeds in Ohio. In addition, the book treats many additional species that are considered a nuisance in gardens, landscaping, or natural settings.

Resurrection of the Wild: Meditations on Ohio’s Natural Landscape wins the 2020 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay by this year’s judges—Jelani Cobb, Daniel Menaker, and Judith Thurman!

In 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright returned to their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, from North Carolina, where they had piloted their powered flying machine for several short flights. They wanted to continue their research closer to home and chose a flat expanse called Huffman Prairie, eight miles east of Dayton, to continue their experiments. Here, in 1904 and 1905, the brothers refined their machine, creating the world’s first practical powered aircraft.

Ernest Hemingway is a writer we often associate with particular places and animals; Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Spain’s countryside, East Africa’s game reserves, Cuba’s blue water, and Idaho’s sagebrush all come to mind. We can easily visualize the iconic images of Hemingway with fly rod bent by hefty trout, with bulls charging matadors, or of the famous author proudly posing with trophy lions, marlin, and a menagerie of Western American game animals.

With text by coauthors Gary Meszaros and Guy L. Denny and striking photographs by Meszaros, The Prairie Peninsula examines the many prairie types, floristic composition, and animals that are part of this ecosystem. It took only 50 years for 150 million acres of tallgrass prairie to disappear under the steel plow, transforming the Prairie Peninsula into fields of corn and wheat. Today, only a few thousand acres of this endangered ecosystem remain in small parcels, some just a few acres each. The second half of the 19th century brought the mass slaughter of prairie wildlife. By 1900, like the prairie they roamed, the plains bison, gray wolf, and eastern elk became extirpated east of the Mississippi River.