Good books on Wyoming?

[Monika]

Hi, I´m looking for good reading material on Wyoming. I´ve just ordered a book titled "Wyoming Fence Lines" but am looking for more. If anyone has read anything good on this topic, I´d appreciate it if you´d point me in the right direction. I´m mainly looking for non-fictional reading material that deals with different aspects of Wyo culture.


I´ve also started a subscription to a magazine called High Country News. Does anyone have any experience from that?

[Front-Ranger]

High Country News is an excellent publication about the U.S. West. Regarding nonfiction about Wyoming culture, I used to have some that I bought at the literary festival in Casper, but I have passed them all along to other people. Search under Wyoming essays, anthologies, nonfiction, etc. Also, different writer's groups, such as Ucross Ranch, have released collections of their work. John McPhee wrote a three-volume nonfiction series including Rising from the Plain about Wyoming geology. Also there is a good book called Where the Rivers Run North, which has a lot of history. Annie Proulx recently published Red Desert. Some fiction I would recommend include the work of David Romtvedt, the poet laureate of Wyoming; anything by C. J. Box, the mystery writer; The Virginian, a historical novel; and Try, about rodeo types, by Lily Burana (that's of course in addition to Annie Proulx).

[Monika]

High Country News is an excellent publication about the U.S. West. Regarding nonfiction about Wyoming culture, I used to have some that I bought at the literary festival in Casper, but I have passed them all along to other people. Search under Wyoming essays, anthologies, nonfiction, etc. Also, different writer's groups, such as Ucross Ranch, have released collections of their work. John McPhee wrote a three-volume nonfiction series including Rising from the Plain about Wyoming geology. Also there is a good book called Where the Rivers Run North, which has a lot of history. Annie Proulx recently published Red Desert. Some fiction I would recommend include the work of David Romtvedt, the poet laureate of Wyoming; anything by C. J. Box, the mystery writer; The Virginian, a historical novel; and Try, about rodeo types, by Lily Burana (that's of course in addition to Annie Proulx).

thanks, Lee. This is exactly what I was after. Rising from the Plain, in particular, sounds interesting. Good to hear about HCN as well. I signed up for a free trial but if it is good, I´ll be more than glad to pay money for it.

Oh yeah, The Viriginian. I stoped by the hotel in Medicine Bow last summer but had forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder.

[Front-Ranger]

I found a couple of others in my upstairs bookcase:

Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West, edited by Linda Hasselstrom and others. Hasselstrom holds women's writing seminars at her ranch.

The Mountain Reader, edited by John A. Murray, A Nature Conservancy Book

Annals of Wyoming, published by the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department, and the Wyoming State Historical Society. My friend Chuck gave me the October, 1983 edition!!

[Monika]

Hi, Lee! I looked them all up on eBay and I especially found Crazy Woman Creek: Women Rewrite the American West to be of interest. I think I´m gonna a bid on it.


Right now I´m in the midst of reading The Virginian. It´s not exactly great literature, but it´s interesting in its historical context.

Btw Lee, I was interested in hearing if you perhaps had checked out a book called "History and Ecology: Studies of the Grassland" by James C. Malin. Annie has mentioned it in a couple of interviews and given it a lot of praise.

[Andrew]

Monika, they do have Crazy Woman Creek at Amazon starting at 15 cents for used 'good condition', plus they have it new...

[Front-Ranger]

I would be happy to send you Crazy Woman Creek.

And, here's the discussion thread from The Virginian. Let's revive it, it's only been four effin' years!!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I would be happy to send you Crazy Woman Creek.

And, here's the discussion thread from The Virginian. Let's revive it, it's only been four effin' years!!

Ever' once in a while I get a notion to read it. One of these days I'll get a copy and follow through. At the present time I'm kind of intrigued because I'd like to check the accuracy of the plot summary I read about a week ago in a listing for the book that I found on line--I forget if the listing was on eBay or Amazon. Warning! What follows may be considered spoiler! The listing summary described the plot as being inspired by the Johnson County Cattle War(s) in Wyoming, and made out the "big ranchers" to be "the good guys" in the story, against small ranchers and rustlers. That surprised me because it seems to me that in Hollywood, anyway, the "convention" of the Western genre evolved such that "big ranchers"--or "cattle barons"--are usually the "bad guys," against small ranchers and homesteaders.

[Front-Ranger]

I'd be happy to go into that on the Virginian thread, Jeff. I always thought of you when I read it because, guess what the Virginian's name is??

Did I mention Annie's own book Red Desert? It started out as a photo book by a photographer friend Marty Stypitch, but once Annie got involved, the prose portion grew and grew. It was finally published as a comprehensive tome with chapters on history, flora and fauna, environment and every other aspect you can imagine. Annie's memoir, Bird Cloud, contains a lot of history and nature writing about the South Central part of Wyoming on the eastern edge of the Red Desert.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'd be happy to go into that on the Virginian thread, Jeff. I always thought of you when I read it because, guess what the Virginian's name is??

Chuck?  Adam?

I wouldn't want to spoil the story for anyone. That's why I put the spoiler warning in my post. I guess rustlers are always bad guys, anyway.