High, Wide and Lonesome Audiobook By Hal Borland cover art

High, Wide and Lonesome

Growing Up on the Colorado Frontier

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High, Wide and Lonesome

By: Hal Borland
Narrated by: Peter Lerman
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About this listen

A memoir of a childhood homesteading in frontier Colorado: "A book from the heart . . . the stuff of the American dream" (The New York Times).

In this memoir of a lost America, Hal Borland tells the story of his family's migration to eastern Colorado as homesteaders at the turn of the twentieth century. On an unsettled and unwelcoming prairie landscape, the Borlands build a house, plant crops, and eke out a meager existence. While life is difficult—and self-reliance is necessary with no neighbors for miles—the experience brings the family close and binds them closer to the terrible and beautiful natural patterns that govern their lives. Borland would grow up to study journalism and become an acclaimed nature writer, and it was these childhood years on the prairie that shaped the author's heart and mind.

©1956 Hal Borland; copyright renewed 1984 by Barbara Dodge Borland (P)2024 Tantor Art & Literature Journalists, Editors & Publishers Gardening Homesteading Heartfelt Great Plains
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This story is the thought-process of a growing boy and his responsibilities while growing into being an adult at a young age. Being in a place without having the “modern” conveniences of the early 1900s meant doing things with only the late 1800’s technology. The author was able to convey the thoughts of a young man without sounding as if his family was impoverished, although they had to scrape to get by.
I have been looking for “High Wide and Lonesome” as an audio book for several years. I did a book report on it in grade school in the 1960s and it made enough of an impression that I have remembered the title and author through the years. To my surprise the audio book came out in 2024 and I was surprised to find it.
The story doesn’t have a plot, other than a autobiography of Hal Borland’s memories of moving to the plains country as a boy and describing what it was like to be set back in time to build and survive in a homesteaders cabin with his parents. He touches on the dramas of everyday life and how they held on.
The narrator’s voice didn’t appeal to me at first, but was better than many other narratives I have heard. Soon the narrator seemed to have become the very voice of Hal Borland reminiscing about his young life and he held my interest until the end.
And now, after all these many years, it seems good to be able to do another book report on “High Wide and Lonesome”.

Surviving in your grandfather’s era

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