Publisher Description

"A few years ago, as I listened one night to my mother telling incidents of her life pioneering in the semi-arid region of Western Kansas, it occurred to me that the picture of that early time was worth drawing and preserving for the future, and that, if this were ever to be done, it must be done soon, before all of the old settlers were gone. This book is the result--an effort to picture that life truly and realistically. It is the story of an energetic and capable girl, the child of German immigrant parents, who at the age of seventeen married a young German farmer, and moved to a homestead on the wind-swept plains of Kansas, where she reared eleven of her twelve children, and remembering regretfully her own half-day in school, sent nine of them through college. It is a story of grim and tenacious devotion in the face of hardships and disappointments, devotion that never flagged until the long, hard task of near a lifetime was done."--John Ise (from the preface) Deeply moved by his mother's memories of a waning era and rapidly disappearing lifestyle, John Ise painstakingly recorded the adventures and adversities of his family and boyhood neighbors--the early homesteaders of Osborne County, Kansas. First published in 1936, his "nonfiction novel" Sod and Stubble has since become a widely read and much loved classic. In the original, Ise changed some identities and time sequences but accurately retained the uplifting and disheartening realities of prairie life. Von Rothenberger brings us a new annotated and expanded edition that greatly enhances Ise's timeless tale. He includes the entire first edition-replete with Ise's charm, wit, and veracity, restores four of Ise's original chapters that have never been published, and adds photographs of many of the key characters. In his notes, Rothenberger reveals the true identity of Ise's family and neighbors, provides background on their lives, and places events within a wider historical and geographical context. Ushering us through a dynamic period of pioneering history, from the 1870s to the turn of the century, Sod and Stubble abounds with the events and issues--fires and droughts, parties and picnics, insect infestations and bumper crops, prosperity and poverty, divisiveness and generosity, births and deaths--that shaped the lives and destinies of Henry and Rosa Ise, their family, and their community. One hundred and twenty-five years after Osborne County was organized and Henry Ise homesteaded his claim, a corner of nineteenth-century Kansas social history remains safeguarded thanks to the tenacity of John Ise and the insight of Von Rotheberger, who enlivens Ise's story with revealing detail.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Foreword, by Thomas D. Isern Editor's Preface Acknowledgments Part One: Breaking Sod--A Story of Pioneer Life in Kansas Preface 1. A Simple Wedding 2. The Hopeful Journey 3. A New Homestead 4. The Neighbors 5. The First Months in the Log Cabin 6. The Mad Wolf 7. Horse Thieves 8. The Bright-Eyed Baby 9. Grasshoppers 11. Grasshopper Relief 12. The Great Menace Again 13. The Prairie Smiles Once More 14. The New House, and a Trip Back Home 15. Dangers of Pioneering 16. Henry Signs a Note 17. The Coming of the Railroad 18. A Prairie Fire 19. The Road Fight 20. The Retreat of the Defeating Legion 21. Unkind Seasons 22. Good Years and the New House 23. Trouble for the Little Children 24. A Happy Day, and an Anxious Night 25. A Sick Baby 26. More Hard Years and Hard Problems 27. Henry Buys a Windmill, and Sells Some Cattle 28. More Drouth and Anxiety . . . and Hope 29. Good Crops and the New Barn 30. Trouble in School and Church 31. A Dust Storm 32. The Darkness Before Dawn 33. Better Times 34. The End of a Brave Fight 35. Rosie and the Children Manage 36. The Sale, and the End of Pioneering 37. Afterword: Sale Auction Book (1909) Part Two: Sod and Stubble--The Ise Family Before and After 38. The Haag Family and the Early Years in Kansas 39. Henry Ise and the Eisenmanger Family 40. The Writing of Sod and Stubble 41. After Sod and Stubble: Of Rosa and the Children Notes Bibliography Index

Review

"Over the years, I have recommended this book to hundreds of people in all walks of life and of almost all ages. Many have declared it to be the most informative and most interesting book they have read about Kansas history. The new material Rothenberger has located will add substantially to its value."--Leo E. Oliva, author of Woodston: The Story of a Kansas Country Town"A first-rate edition. The annotations are informative in content and graceful in style."--Susan J. Rosowski, general editor of The Willa Cather Scholarly Edition
"This is a new and improved version of John Ise's classic work, Sod and Stubble. It includes a good bit of material that was edited out of the original, as well a family photographs, family histories, and extensive annotation. Highly recommended for anyone who might want to know 'the rest of the story.'"--Journal of the West"This new edition should remain a fixture of western 'Realism' and a model family for a very long time."--Great Plains Quarterly

Review Quote

"This is a new and improved version of John Ises classic work, Sod and Stubble . It includes a good bit of material that was edited out of the original, as well a family photographs, family histories, and extensive annotation. Highly recommended for anyone who might want to know the rest of the story."Journal of the West "This new edition should remain a fixture of western Realismand a model family for a very long time."Great Plains Quarterly

New Feature

List of Illustrations Foreword, by Thomas D. Isern Editor's Preface Acknowledgments Part One: Breaking Sod--A Story of Pioneer Life in Kansas Preface 1. A Simple Wedding 2. The Hopeful Journey 3. A New Homestead 4. The Neighbors 5. The First Months in the Log Cabin 6. The Mad Wolf 7. Horse Thieves 8. The Bright-Eyed Baby 9. Grasshoppers 11. Grasshopper Relief 12. The Great Menace Again 13. The Prairie Smiles Once More 14. The New House, and a Trip Back Home 15. Dangers of Pioneering 16. Henry Signs a Note 17. The Coming of the Railroad 18. A Prairie Fire 19. The Road Fight 20. The Retreat of the Defeating Legion 21. Unkind Seasons 22. Good Years and the New House 23. Trouble for the Little Children 24. A Happy Day, and an Anxious Night 25. A Sick Baby 26. More Hard Years and Hard Problems 27. Henry Buys a Windmill, and Sells Some Cattle 28. More Drouth and Anxiety . . . and Hope 29. Good Crops and the New Barn 30. Trouble in School and Church 31. A Dust Storm 32. The Darkness Before Dawn 33. Better Times 34. The End of a Brave Fight 35. Rosie and the Children Manage 36. The Sale, and the End of Pioneering 37. Afterword: Sale Auction Book (1909) Part Two: Sod and Stubble--The Ise Family Before and After 38. The Haag Family and the Early Years in Kansas 39. Henry Ise and the Eisenmanger Family 40. The Writing of Sod and Stubble 41. After Sod and Stubble: Of Rosa and the Children Notes Bibliography Index

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