"Penner’s engaging style and story should delight anyone who grew up in the rural West around mid-century and provide a valuable, sometimes amusing, education to those who did not. . . . His tale of the one-room school, rural life, and changing attitudes toward stewardship of the land will ring true to several generations."—Journal of the West
"Penner takes readers inside the heart of the family farm . . . and brings it to vibrant life. Depiction of life on a Kansas farm before many of today’s technological advances exposes the spirit, tenacity, and creativity of early farmers and their families. . . . Section 27 is a warm,memorable look into a past that belongs to all of us. Penner’s storytelling style and rich characterizations will stay with you, giving you a new respect for the pioneers who walked the Kansas prairies before most of us were born."—Wichita Eagle
"Mil Penner chronicles his family’s more than century-long stewardship of a farm in McPherson County, Kansas. Part celebration and part elegy, this memoir traces the personal consequences of American agriculture’s historical arc. . . Penner uses a deft combination of episodic narrative and extended meditation to tell the story of his family, his community, and the plot of land that has sustained them."—Kansas History
"A warm-hearted tribute to the rural character of Kansas and its farmers."—Kansas! Magazine
“An extremely interesting and valuable memoir of life on a family farm and how that life changed over the course of a century and a quarter. In Section 27, Penner has created a universe in miniature in prose as fresh as the grass itself. . . . reminiscent of John Ise’s classic Sod and Stubble.”—Jim Hoy, Director, Center for Great Plains Studies and author of The Cattle Guard and Cowboys and Kansas
“A powerful work that chronicles the transitions and maturation of a reflective farmer in central Kansas. Penner, an enthusiastic participant in the transformation of the prairie landscape, reconsiders what he has done and what he ought to do in relation to land and community. He is utterly effective as a voice of his place, his class, and his generation. He speaks with authenticity: this stuff rings true.”—Tom Isern, author of Bull Threshers and Bindlestiffs: Harvesting and Threshing on the North American Plains
"An extremely interesting and valuable memoir of life on a family farm and how that life changed over the course of a century and a quarter. In Section 27, Penner has created a universe in miniature in prose as fresh as the grass itself. . . . reminiscent of John Ise s classic Sod and Stubble." -Jim Hoy, Director, Center for Great Plains Studies and author of The Cattle Guard and Cowboys and Kansas"A powerful work that chronicles the transitions and maturation of a reflective farmer in central Kansas. Penner, an enthusiastic participant in the trans-formation of the prairie landscape, reconsiders what he has done and what he ought to do in relation to land and community. He is utterly effective as a voice of his place, his class, and his generation. He speaks with authenticity: this stuff rings true." -Tom Isern, author of Bull Threshers and Bindlestiffs: Harvesting and Threshing on the North American Plains
About the Author
Mil Penner was born in 1929 and raised on the "Section 27" farm, where he still lives. He has published several books, including the best-selling Kansas Journeys and Prairie: The Land and Its People, both coauthored with Carol Schmidt.
