The Solace of Open Spaces
The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich, published by Penguin on December 2, 1986, is a collection of lyrical essays that reflect on life in the American West. Spanning 144 pages, this edition presents Ehrlich’s personal journey in Wyoming, where she found herself after the loss of her partner. The essays chronicle her experiences and observations, capturing the beauty and harshness of the natural environment alongside the unique individuals who inhabit it.
Readers will discover a vivid portrayal of the American West through Ehrlich’s insightful reflections on nature and the diverse lives of its residents, including ranchers, hermits, and schoolteachers. The essays delve into themes of travel and the interplay between personal and external landscapes, offering a meditative exploration of the region’s geography and its impact on the human spirit. This edition invites readers to engage with the profound connections between their inner lives and the world around them.
Official synopsis Publisher
A collection of transcendent, lyrical essays on life in the American West, the classic companion to Gretel Ehrlich’s new book, Unsolaced
“Wyoming has found its Whitman.” —Annie Dillard
Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the first in a series of documentaries when her partner died. Ehrlich stayed on and found she couldn’t leave. The Solace of Open Spaces is a chronicle of her first years on “the planet of Wyoming,” a personal journey into a place, a feeling, and a way of life.
Ehrlich captures both the otherworldly beauty and cruelty of the natural forces—the harsh wind, bitter cold, and swiftly changing seasons—in the remote reaches of the American West. She brings depth, tenderness, and humor to her portraits of the peculiar souls who also call it home: hermits and ranchers, rodeo cowboys and schoolteachers, dreamers and realists. Together, these essays form an evocative and vibrant tribute to the life Ehrlich chose and the geography she loves.
Originally written as journal entries addressed to a friend, The Solace of Open Spaces is raw, meditative, electrifying, and uncommonly wise. In prose “as expansive as a Wyoming vista, as charged as a bolt of prairie lightning” (Newsday), Ehrlich explores the magical interplay between our interior lives and the world around us.
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