In May 1995, with nothing but a backpack and a vague sense of disquiet, Patrick Dobson left his home and a steady if deadening job in Kansas City, Missouri. Over the next two and a half months he made his way to Helena, Montana, letting chance encounters guide him to a deeper sense of who he was and where he was going. His chronicle of this journey charts his experiences with the seldom-seen people of the small towns, the far-flung outposts, and the Great Plains that make up “our America.”

 

Beginning as a seeker, Dobson becomes a faithful recorder of other people’s search for contentment, introducing us to a firefighter with a farm at the end of the world, a fiery Christian conservative, a man sharing a van with a crowd of cats, a former circus carny who’s found the secret to living life, and a homeless Native American offering a special and enduring gift. Ridden out of a hostile Kansas town, sniffed by bears, confronted by bison and  recalcitrant moose, Dobson cannot help but see how land, sky, weather, and a world of circumstances influence people. Against the majestic sweep of the open plains and endless horizon, his story is one of hope and desperation, richness and simplicity—a portrait of who we are in the heartland of America.

Patrick Dobson is a freelance writer, former journalist, and working member of Ironworkers Local Union no. 10 in Kansas City, Missouri. He is pursuing his doctorate in U.S. environmental history and American literature at the University of Missouri–Kansas City.

"A journey worth taking."—David Pitt, Booklist

"The prairie, lovingly described by the author, becomes the fabric that holds these people together. Their stories, some as violent and powerful as a Midwestern thunderstorm, others as calm as a breeze, create a captivating narrative, and Dobson finds the common humanity that keeps people struggling against their circumstances and striving to succeed, in whatever form that may take."—Kirkus Reviews

"[Seldom Seen] is a dynamic portrait of a man in the process of arriving, step by step, at a better self."—Nina Shevchuk-Murray, Nebraska Life

“With open eyes and open heart, Patrick Dobson shows us the heart of the nation.”—David Shribman, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and syndicated columnist with Universal Press

“This intimate search for self-discovery and renewal is so well told, you’ll smell the dew on the morning grass, and you'll know you’ve found something truly delicious. I’ve put in more than 100,000 miles, some on these very highways. Dobson paints a clearer portrait with words than I ever captured with cameras. Bravo!”—Michael Murphy, coauthor of Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations and vice president of programming for Kansas City Public Television

“Lighting out for the territories—as Mark Twain would have put it—Patrick Dobson discovers his country, his neighbors, himself. Peter Jenkins (A Walk across America) meets Robert Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). Seldom Seen inspires the adventurer in me—as it should all of us—to go out and do something similar.”—Eddy L. Harris, author of Mississippi Solo: A River Quest and Still Life in Harlem