Passion Below Zero, Essays from Last Chance, Idaho [Paperback]

David Hays (Author), Dan Casali (Illustrator), David T. Hays (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1995 | ISBN-10: 1885719019 | ISBN-13: 978-1885719010 | Edition: 1

A collection of 88 humorous short essays on life, living, and nature, by newspaperman David T. Hays, who leads an uncommon life in wild country just west of Yellowstone National Park.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Passion Below Zero: Essays from Last Chance, Idaho" is a collection of finely wrought columns by David Hays, editor and publisher of the Island Park Bugle. His essays are set in the Henrys Fork watershed, in a land where winter comes early and stays late. It's a place without neon, or even much concrete, so Hays' writing is in tune the rhythms of the earth. He describes the early snows of fall, dark depths of winter, first flowers of spring, and vibrant buzz of summer. He writes of birds, and squirrels, of wind and sun, of friendship and loneliness, and the inexorable slide of youth into maturity. Hays leads readers on rarely trodden paths of the mind, deftly slipping behind life's insoluble mysteries and laying them bare with incisive strokes of his pen. David Hays can reawaken anyone's respect for nature. -- by William Brock The Times-News Twin Falls, Idaho December 21, 1995

From the Back Cover

Eighty-eight Essays on Living

AN UNCOMMON LIFE "Mine is a very fine life, blessed by the absence of anguish or tragedy and filled with the comfort of knowing my own boundaries. I have a small newspaper that is enormously enjoyable to run and, I am told, fun to read. I write this on a porch I have known for years though it now sits on land new to me and it, a gentle bench looking over a quiet swale groved in young aspen. My companions are an old black cat-with me since I came to these mountains-and a bestiary of other species, compatible in their calmness. This is a secure place. The door is rarely closed and no one is caged, or obligated, or here because they cannot be somewhere else."

IN AN UNCOMMON PLACE "I home on a good half-acre. at the end of an old road that sneaks off through the trees like an evening deer, off of an even older quiet road, near but not on the river, the Henrys Fork, the splendid main artery of the old volcano. One first spring, years ago, I heard a brief choir of frogs in the swale below the one-room cabin and, in a fit of the cutes, named the place Lesser Frogpond. It was a suitable and proper name for the home of one who has my habits and vocation, and my old tom cat, P'o, was well-pleased enough with the quiet and the fur-only neighbors, so we nested up in front of the small stove that first winter and have never found reason to leave since. It is home."

WITH UNCOMMON INTENSITY "Passion is a huge word meant only for the large places: it means both great suffering and great desire. The mountains will hold such a word, perhaps especially in winter. Stars against the cheek, the wind always coldly near. Fire and ice; a place where the heart needs to warm itself against another needing heart."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Lost River Pr; 1 edition (October 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885719019
• ISBN-13: 978-1885719010
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,765,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Spirit of Wildness, January 24, 2003

By 

Lynn Hagedorn (Pekin, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passion Below Zero, Essays from Last Chance, Idaho (Paperback)

David Hays, author of this book and editor of The Bugle, captures the spirit of wildness in his essays and captured my heart from the first page. With each essay I felt his passion for the land he loved and his homage to simplicity. Those who find respite in the wonderous western outdoors will feel their hearts swell as each essay is read. This author and his cat enjoyed a life that many of us can only dream of....but then, David Hays taught us that the dreams we have neatly boxed away are meant to be taken off the shelf and lived.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wisdom litterature, November 13, 2001

By 

Dr. John Laughlin (Glenn Dale, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Passion Below Zero, Essays from Last Chance, Idaho (Paperback)

This is a real surprize for anyone unfamiliar with the author or with rich essays that were once part of a newpaere column. They are full of wisdom, humor, and mystery.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent essays on life, nature, and the nature of life., April 26, 1999

By 

edunn "edunn782" (Idaho) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Passion Below Zero, Essays from Last Chance, Idaho (Paperback)

I bought this book a year after it's publication and throughly enjoyed it, especially since I, too, live in the backwoods of Idaho. I was deeply saddened today to learn of the death of the author, David Hays. He was one of those rare writers who can paint with words, take your imagination on a wild ride, and completely captivate you. David, wherever you are, you will be missed.