Roger Welsch did what many Americans only dream of doing. While still in his professional prime, the folklorist and humorist quit a tenured professorship and headed toward the hinterland. Resettled in the open heart of Nebraska with his wife, Welsch proceeded to learn how to live. It’s Not the End of the Earth, but You Can See It from Here is, in his own words, "a celebration" of his "rural education."

 

These twenty-eight tales of the Great Plains convey in familiar Welschian style "the importance, charm, beauty, and value of the typical." They describe the wisdom that Welsch’s new-found teachers share with him. From everyday country people, he learns the fine arts of relaxing, using his noggin, trusting his instincts, and laughing a lot more, while Omaha Indian friends teach him the most profound lessons of all.

Roger Welsch is a television personality and the author of nearly two dozen books including Mister, You Got Yourself a Horse: Tales of Old-Time Horse Trading and Shingling the Fog and Other Plains Lies, both available in Bison Books editions from the University of Nebraska Press.

"Roger Welsch is America’s premier storyteller. From his lips, small-town life takes on the dignity of history and the currency of the evening news. . . . These are America’s stories."—Charles Kuralt

"Roger Welsch is an old plains possum who can nose out a good tale in your backyard."—William Least Heat Moon, author of Blue Highways