The Rural Life

Verlyn Klinkenborg · first published 2003 · ISBN 9780316741675

A collection of essays drawn from his New York Times editorials and other publications, each one a meditation on the rhythms of farm work, the behavior of animals, and the passing seasons. Klinkenborg writes about mending fences, training horses, the lives of barn cats, and the peculiar satisfaction of physical labor. These are not nostalgic portraits of rural simplicity but precise accounts of what it actually takes to live close to land and animals.