author
John G. Neihardt
1881–1973
Best known for Black Elk Speaks and the epic poem cycle A Cycle of the West, this Nebraska writer spent decades turning frontier history, spirituality, and the Plains into vivid literature. His work helped make him the state’s poet laureate in perpetuity.
5 Audiobooks
The Lonesome Trail
by John G. Neihardt
When the tree flowered : An authentic tale of the old Sioux world
by John G. Neihardt
Two Mothers
by John G. Neihardt
The Song of Hugh Glass
by John G. Neihardt
The River and I
by John G. Neihardt
About the author
Born in 1881, he grew up partly in the Great Plains region that would shape much of his writing. He moved to Nebraska as a boy, studied at Nebraska Normal College in Wayne, and began publishing early, eventually building a career as a poet, novelist, and storyteller with a lasting interest in the American West.
He is most widely remembered for Black Elk Speaks (1932), based on conversations with the Oglala Lakota holy man Black Elk, and for A Cycle of the West, an ambitious series of epic poems developed over many years. His writing often explored frontier history, Native lives as he understood them, and spiritual questions, blending narrative sweep with a strong poetic voice.
In 1921, Nebraska named him poet laureate, and a few years later the title was made permanent for him. He later taught and lectured at the University of Nebraska and the University of Missouri, and remained an important literary figure until his death in 1973.