James P. Jackson

Views from the Back Forty James P. Jackson

Views From the Back forty is the author's first person story about rural life on what had once been the back forty acreage of a family farm. When the author and his wife purchased the land, partly for benefit of two growing sons, it gave the impression of being worn-out acreage. But after 30 years of living there and experiencing its inherent values, the author found it to be much more: a trove of geology and natural history, a repository of human history, and one family's revelations about the enduring qualities of being home on America's rural landscape. After a short introduction, this book takes the reader through 23 chapters that comprise 15% personal memoir, 15% regional history, plus 70% natural history and ecology that extend well beyond the back forty's geographical location in east-central Missouri.