Product Description

Gene Logsdon's story embodies both the frustrations and longing so many of us feel as we search for our essential selves and a harmonious life. The measure of his courage -- and contrariness -- is that he has been successful. In You Can Go Home Again, he tells us what motivated him and what success has meant.

For Logsdon, to create a "home" is not to escape from the world, but to establish a nexus of people, all working together to produce a home-based economy as a bulwark of stability under the larger economy gone crazy with paper money. "Home" is a local community tied to other local communities. But mostly Logsdon's philosophy must be read between the lines. What he writes about are the sad, funny, and sometimes harrowing adventures of those who live seemingly humdrum lives: understanding creeks; shepherding sheep; coping with blizzards; winning softball tournaments; losing sanity at rock concerts; hiding in haystacks; enjoying Christmas; surviving a buggy ride; overcoming grief, not to mention absentminded professors, dictatorial editors, and fervid priests; and why it might not be a bad idea to go to church in our underwear. What transpires is an inspiring picture of a very American life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1188589 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Booklist
Logsdon--the contrary farmer, as one of his earlier (1994) books' title styles him--offers warmth and insight in his autobiography. He describes the pressures that compelled him to leave the Ohio farm of his childhood for seminary training and the epiphany that propelled him back to secular life to pursue the dream of returning to the lifestyle of his childhood. He discusses the slow death of the agrarian lifestyle at the hands of agribusiness and clearly delineates the economic and political forces destroying small farming in America. But he doesn't just talk. For years he has lived the contrary lifestyle he advocates, using ecologically informed farming techniques and the agricultural wisdom of his background on a sustainable, highly profitable 32-acre "garden farm" in the valley in which he grew up. And he provides not just a fascinating glimpse of a lifestyle that has nearly disappeared but also a blueprint for those who want to lead a similar way of life. The simpler life is within our reach--if we will choose it. Bonnie Johnston

Customer Reviews

Makes me homesick but not a how to. The how to is up to you.
This book is about the idea that we can go back to a slow, sane and thoughtful way of life. The story is autobiographical and describes the life of the author in a rural area of north western Ohio. He leaves home to train for the priesthood but decides that he isn't cut out for it. He goes home for a while, goes to college, gets married, moves to Philly to write for Farm Journal, sells a book and moves onto a small farm near his folks' old place. He's been there ever since.

The book is peppered with stories about life of small town people and farmers. He also writes about how economic interests in this country have made some ways of life very touch and go. It was very familiar to me because that is where I grew up. Logsdon writes about the 1978 blizzard, an event of note that is still spoken of around there. The great strength of this book can be brought out in this particular story. Mr. Logsdon recounts how he, his family and his neighbors made it through a storm that had shut the electricity for several days and the temperature plunged down well below zero. The people that were the best off were his elderly neighbors that heated with wood and made their food on a cook stove. Much of what is in this book is about having an independent spirit and thinking for your self about what makes sense and not what the supposed experts say. Going home is portrayed both literally and metaphorically. Our real home is the simple and wise way of life that considers how we can live in this world with destroying it. Home is where you can make it.

My one complaint of this book is that there are some issues with living in rural areas that the author doesn't write about. Like all places there are social issues. A person that wants to move into a rural area and has no experience in these sorts of places should spend a little time vacationing in their perspective home and talking to the people there.

I grew up and my parents still live in Forest, Ohio that is mentioned in this book. An earlier reveiwer mentioned about rural land being expensive. That's true if you are buying rural land in California, Vermont or Washington. In Northwestern, Ohio you can get farm land for $5000 an acre or less depending on the ground itself. An average house in the towns that are written about in this book go for less than $100,000.

The Contrary's Farmer Autobiography
Gene Logsdon has published his autobiography. Telling the story of his life - from farm boy to the Roman Catholic seminary, studying for the priesthood, dropping out, graduate school, and editor of a farm magazine and finally back to Ohio - he describes how his life comes to a circle. He returned to the good life of his childhood - at least almost. As a witness of the great change in agriculture, he feels a little bit like the last of the dinosaurs, one of the last generation who grew up on a traditional farm before agrobusiness destroyed the culture of rural America. Logdson does not present great programmes, but he has rather chosen to change his life by living an alternative life and work for in his home area for a resurgence of rural America. With his writings he nevertheless exercised a great influence. If you have enjoyed any of Logsdon's books, are interested into rural living and agrarian thought, this book is definitely worthwile reading.

We're doing it -- Coming home
I *am* going home again. After nearly 20 years in Texas, my family is moving back to Ohio. We feel that call that Gene Logsdon describes so movingly, hilariously. Now, most people, considering the fact that we are doing it by going first and finding jobs later, think we are certifiable. How wonderful to read Gene's work and find encouragement in values that go beyond acquisition and comfort. We're college [over]educated and employable, and jobs are the least of our worries.

Gene's book talks about home, care, a sense of place. When a place where eleven generations have called home calls you back, you have to listen, and that's why we're going. We have a "10-year plan" -- we're lucky enough to be starting out on some acreage on my Dad's farm. And will build from there. My child and my brother's children will be able to cross the pasture to visit each other and their grandparents.

Will we be self-sufficient? Of course not. What does that mean anyway? People are too "self-sufficient" as it is. I want to live someplace where I can depend on people (in all the right senses of the word). We'll grow some vegetables and berries, raise some chickens and have a good time doing it. I dream grandiosely of a cow or maybe three goats (I want to name them Gina, Lola and Brigitta, but my husband is pushing for "Shot Clock I, II, & III" [he spends a lot of time statting basketball games!]) I pour over Lehman's catalogues. It's fun to plan.

I think that's where reviewer "trailboss" below misses Gene's point. I've read everything of Gene's that I can lay my hands on (too much is out of print! ), and one point he repeatedly emphasizes is that this is not about subsistence farming. There's more than "survival" to it or it wouldn't be worth last week's supermarket strawberries.

Gene never claims that you can find Total Peace, Contentment and Happiness and on a homestead. If you don't have some of that before you start, then disappointment is inevitable.

Going home is about place, people, and good dirt. That's the saving grace of it. Not making a "profit" on it, not becoming Organically Pure, or worshipping Gaia. Of course, you can do all those things, but the home and the dirt is the start of it.

And the softball. Former high school first-base ace here! Since we're moving to southern Richland County, Ohio, I hope we get to meet Gene and the boys in a softball tournament somewhere, sometime! In the meantime, Gene, keep pestering your publishers about reprints. :)