Clell Goebel Gannon, Songs of the Bunch Grass Acres. New Edition. With a forward by Tom Isern and an introduction by Aaron Barth. Grand Forks, ND: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, 2025.
Clell Gannon’s Songs of the Bunch Grass Acres is a minor monument to the literary culture of the Northern Plains and American West. At a century old, it continues to speaks to the complexities of the settler colonial experience on the Northern Plains of the United States. From the vantage of Bismarck, North Dakota, Gannon’s poetry looks across a landscape being shaped by development and induces a deep nostalgia for the beauty of a fading nature. Along the way, Gannon sings songs love, loss, and hope that resonate as strongly with us today as they did a century ago.
This reissue of Songs of the Bunch Grass Acres also includes an 1926 article describing Gannon’s raft float down the Missouri river and the historical and natural sites he documented along the way.
This new edition features a new historical introduction by Aaron Barth and a foreword by Tom Isern. Their historical lyricism amplifies Gannon’s poetry and celebrates this lost gem of the American prairie.
Clell Gannon (1900-1962) was a poet, essayist, artist, and visionary of American Plains. He was born in Nebraska, but spent most of his life in Bismarck, North Dakota.
The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota 