Research Catalog

There was a river

Title
There was a river / Bruce Berger.
Author
Berger, Bruce.
Publication
Tucson : University of Arizona Press, ©1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library F788 .B47 1994Off-site

Details

Description
x, 198 pages; 22 cm
Summary
  • On October 7, 1962, Bruce Berger and three friends embarked on what may have been the last trip taken through the Colorado River's Glen Canyon before the floodgates were closed at Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell began to fill. After thirty years, one can grieve for what was lost and then, like Berger, take another look around.
  • The Southwest Berger sees is an unusual, even odd, place, with inhabitants that are just as strange. In this collection of essays he introduces us to people and places that define a region and a way of life. We meet eccentric desert dwellers like Cactus Pete, who claimed to have mapped the mountains of Venus long before NASA penetrated its clouds.
  • We chart the canals of Phoenix, which have created a Martian landscape out of an irrigation system dating back to the ancient Hohokam; stay at a "wigwam" motel in Holbrook, whose kitsch appeals even to Hopis; and dim our lights for the International Dark-Sky Association's efforts to keep night skies safe for astronomy.
  • Focusing on the interaction of people with the environment, Berger reveals an original vision of the Southwest that encompasses both city and wilderness. In a concluding essay centering on the sale of his mother's estate in Phoenix, he concedes that "our intention to leave the desert alone has resulted, unwittingly, in loss after loss, simply by our being here." Sometimes there are losses - a canyon, a house - but Berger attunes us to the prodigies of change.
Subject
  • Berger, Bruce > Travel > Glen Canyon (Utah and Ariz.)
  • Berger, Bruce
  • Travel
  • Maatschappij
  • Southwest, New > Description and travel
  • Glen Canyon (Utah and Ariz.)
  • New Southwest
  • United States > Glen Canyon
Contents
There was a river -- One step beyond -- Transition zone -- Cactus Pete -- Wigwam for one -- The floating observer -- Squeak -- Watermelon for sale -- Blue -- Desert diorama -- A cactus of our times -- Phoenician shipwrecks -- The face on the canyon wall -- Optic nerve -- The light brigade -- Roots -- Comfort that does not comprehend.
ISBN
  • 0816514690
  • 9780816514694
  • 0816514933
  • 9780816514939
LCCN
94016296
OCLC
  • ocm30360184
  • 30360184
  • SCSB-2036244
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library