What Herbert Krause brings to telling the stories of the birds of the Great Plains is his love of the rich variety of wildlife here – especially its sheer profusion – and his novelist's ability to give every individual bird he visits its own character and personality.

For Johnny Black, the young man we meet in Herbert Krause's classic Minnesota farm novel The Thresher, his dream of becoming a member of a steam-powered threshing crew has come true. As fireman, he builds the fire that generates the steam and blows the whistle to wake up the rest of the crew.

As writer Patrick Hicks explains in his introduction, commissioned especially for this edition, Johnny's ambitions far exceed mastering this new technology, and what he is willing to sacrifice to achieve them is the driving force of the novel.

What Herbert Krause brings to telling the stories of the birds of the Great Plains is his love of the rich variety of wildlife here – especially its sheer profusion – and his novelist's ability to give every individual bird he visits its own character and personality.

For Johnny Black, the young man we meet in Herbert Krause's classic Minnesota farm novel The Thresher, his dream of becoming a member of a steam-powered threshing crew has come true. As fireman, he builds the fire that generates the steam and blows the whistle to wake up the rest of the crew.

As writer Patrick Hicks explains in his introduction, commissioned especially for this edition, Johnny's ambitions far exceed mastering this new technology, and what he is willing to sacrifice to achieve them is the driving force of the novel.