John G. Neihardt

Selected Works (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press) John G. Neihardt Illustrated, Ill Edition

Jonathan (John) Gneisenau Neihardt (1881-1973) was an American author of poetry and prose, an amateur historian and ethnographer, and a philosopher of the Great Plains. His attention was drawn to the experiences and memories of those who had been a part of the European migration as well as the American Indian cultures they displaced. He travelled down the Missouri River by open boat, visited with old trappers, became familiar with a number of Indian communities, and did extensive research throughout the Plains and Rocky Mountains. He then wrote to preserve these memories from the pioneer past in books that range across a broad variety of styles, from pleasant travelogue to epic poetry to extended narration of the dreams of a shaman. Neihardt had been writing poetry since the age of 12; he published his first book, The Divine Enchantment, at the age of 19. In 1921, the Nebraska Legislature elected him as the state's poet laureate, a title he held for fifty-two years until his death. His works include: The River and I (1901), Black Elk Speaks (1932) and A Cycle of the West (1949).