Includes autobiographical essays that begin with the author's birth and early years on the family farm in southern Wisconsin, continue through a lifetime of movement away from the farm, and document a return to the farm.

The setting is the Midwest borderland remembered in the writings of Hamlin Garland. Richard Quinney's autobiographical essays begin with his birth and early years on the family farm in southeastern Wisconsin, continue through a lifetime of movement away from the farm, and document a return to it. Along the way are tales of the years of living and writing in a prairie town across the border in Illinois. Part of the return of the native is a remembrance of his father and mother. In the most recent telling, Mr. Quinney continues to move between town and country, but it is always to the farm on the middle border that he returns. Tales from the Middle Border in effect recounts a pilgrimage: the author's journey.