Finding Higher Ground: A Life of Travels

217 Pages·2003·0.922 MB·English

by  Catharine Savage Brosman

Finding Higher Ground
environmental arts and humanities series

Finding Higher Ground
a life of travels
essays by catharine savage brosman
university of nevada press reno & las vegas
Environmental Arts and Humanities Series
Series Editor: Scott Slovic
University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada 89557 USA
Copyright © 2003 by University of Nevada Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Design by Carrie House
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brosman, Catharine Savage, 1934–
Finding higher ground : a life of travels /
essays by Catharine Savage Brosman.
p. cm. — (Environmental arts and humanities series)
ISBN 0-87417-538-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Southwest, New—Description and travel. 2. Texas,
West—Description and travel. 3. New Orleans (La.)—
Description and travel. 4. Europe—Description and
travel. 5. Identity (Psychology) 6. Place (Philosophy)
7. Regionalism. 8. Brosman, Catharine Savage, 1934—
Childhood and youth. 9. Brosman, Catharine Savage,
1934—Journeys. 10. Brosman, Catharine Savage, 1934—
Homes and haunts.
I. Title. II. Series.
F787.B76 2003
917.904'33—dc21 2002012293
The paper used in this book meets the requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI
Z39.48-1984. Binding materials were selected for strength
and durability.
First Printing
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
5 4 3 2 1
For my daughter,
Katherine Brosman Deimling (Kate)

contents
Acknowledgments ix
Watershed: An Introduction 1
The Immeasurable Sky 11
A House Apart 25
“ . . . To Miss New Orleans” 40
After the Flood 50
Getting Along 64
Desert 79
Sneaker Ball 97
The Rhythm of Experience 117
Under the Lone Star 135
Images of Paris 154
A British Interlude 168
Higher Ground 186

acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors of the
periodicals where the following essays first appeared, oc-
casionally in slightly different form: “ . . . To Miss New Or-
leans,” Negative Capability 13 (1993), edited by Dale Ed-
monds under the title The Big Easy Crescent City That Care
Forgot; “The Immeasurable Sky,” Sewanee Review 103 (Win-
ter 1995); “Images of Paris,” Sewanee Review 105 (Fall 1997);
“Sneaker Ball,” Southwest Review 84 (Spring 1999); “After
the Flood,” American Scholar 68 (Spring 1999), © Phi Beta
Kappa Society; “Higher Ground,” Shenandoah 49 (Summer
1999); “A British Interlude,” Louisiana Review 1 (Summer 1999);
“A House Apart,” Sewanee Review 108 (Summer 2000);
“Desert,” American Scholar 70 (Spring 2001), © Phi Beta
Kappa Society.