Good Authors Died in 2016

We lost some good writers in 2016 - Jim Harrison, Harper Lee, and Pat Conroy among others.  I've gotten more entertainment from reading Jim Harrison's  work than probably any other author.  A great poet and storyteller, his way with words could always enthrall.  In Legends of the Fall he set the story up this way: "Late in October in 1914 three brothers rode from Choteau, Montana to Alberta to enlist in the Great War.  An old Cheyenne name One Stab rode with them to return with the horses in tow because the horses were blooded and their father did not think it fitting for his sons to ride off to war on nags."

Then there's this line from his prose poem "Late Spring."Because of the late, cold wet spring the fruit of greenness is suddenly upon us so that in Montana you can throw yourself down just about anywhere on a green, grassy bed, snooze on the riverbank and wake to a yellow-romped warbler flittering close to your head then sipping a little standing water from a moose track."

Then there's Harper Lee's famous book To Kill a Mockingbird that grabs you from the beginning and doesn't release you until the end.  But that's not really the end because you keep thinking about it on and on.  Atticus Finch and Boo Radley were two memorable characters that stay with you.

And Pat Conroy.  The Great Santini is called a novel but is apparently closely patterns Conroy's real-life father, a hard-nosed Marine fighter pilot, a warrior without a war, who ran his family with a strict Marine Corps discipline.  Conroy exposes the love-hate relationship between him and his father.

Some authors stand out in my estimation and three of them left us this year.  I still review a lot of books for Western Writers of America and right now on my desk is The Winchester: The Gun that Built an American Dynasty.  Written by a distant relative of the family, she admits early on the book is not a technical history but is the story of the Winchester family.  One part jumped out when I read through it.  One of the descendants "Sarah Winchester was ridden with guilt because her fortune came from Native Americans killed by settlers of the West with their Winchesters."  After consulting with mediums, she decided to build the huge mansion in San Jose, California where "miles of twisting hallways are made even more intriguing by secret passageways in the walls... supposedly to confuse any mischievous ghosts that might be following her."

A brief article in yesterday's Fargo Forum made mention of "The Galloping Goose" train.  I remembered another article the paper ran a few years back that showed this painting which featured the train leaving Streeter.  Streeter was the end-of-the-line for the branch NP line that ran through my hometown of Sheldon.  One day the train ran west, the next day it turned around and headed back to Fargo.  On clear days, I see it when I visit "Wistful Vista."

The Aftermath of the Fort Laramie Treaty

When I republished the book by William V. Wade, little did I realize how fruitful facts of his life would be for this amateur historian.  Terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 were starting to be ignored when miners began entering the Black Hills in their search for gold.  Wade had earned respect from both the white and Indian communities in this area and was asked in 1875 to accompany the Lakota Indians from Fort Yates to Fort Robinson, NE where the Allison Commission convened a large gathering of government representatives and upwards of 5,000 Indians to discuss Black Hills access.

Things did not go well and Wade gives us this eye-witness account:  “After quite a bit of parley our Indians agreed to move up within 11 milies of Fort Robinson.  I think they were being just a bit cautious as we had heard Crazy Horse from out at the hostile camp had sent 100 warriors under the “Little-Big-Man” to break up the council with the Washington Commissioners.  … We were soon asked to come to the Agency to meet the twelve Commissioners.  Among them were Senator Allison from Iowa, General Terry and a Frenchman…  Allison said to our Indians, “We did not come here to buy your Black Hills, we just want you to loan them to us for 10 years.  The white men are bound to go in there and we cannot stop them.  If you will loan them to us we will let the people go in and see what they can find and at the end of that time, if they find gold we will buy the Hills from you and if they don’t find anything they want, we will let you have them back again.”  The Indians talked the matter over among themselves and the old Chiefs said, “We cannot lend these hills to the whitemen … If the white soldiers can’t keep their people out of the Hills, we will have to.”

Wade goes on to describe how a bit of intimidation on the part of the Commission backfired when they arrived for a day’s parley with thirty armed cavalrymen.  “As soon as the Commissioners went inside and the soldiers lined up on four sides of the tent with their horses facing toward the tent.”  One of the onlookers punched Wade in the ribs and said, ‘Look here.’  He jerked his thumb in the direction of the mounted guard, and, Lo and Behold, there were as many as three mounted Indians behind every soldier with their guns aimed at the soldiers’ backs"

Wade painted quite the picture of tension.  The following year the Battle of the Little Big Horn occurred.  This book sold well, but after its fourth printing, quite a few copies remain at $10 each and $3 postage.  In my "Complete Profile" you can email me.

I woke this morning with a phrase running through my head - "... of the people, by the people, for the people..."  I've thought about it so much this morning that I gave myself a migraine headache.  However, my wife says it's the weather.  I'll return tomorrow.

Welcome! It's Good to See You.

Welcome!  It’s good to see you. 

I’ve been too long away, and am looking forward to posting on this blog from time to time.  While I’m writing a weekly newspaper column and adding something on FaceBook from time to time, more words and thoughts beg to surface before they drown in muddy water.

I made a good choice when I joined the Western Writers of America a few years ago.  One of the benefits has been exposure to a wide range of writing published by its members.  As an added benefit, the editor of our organization’s magazine “Roundup” made a reviewer out of me and sends books to read and make comments on.

Three books in hand now - The Winchester: The Gun That Built an American Dynasty, Black Cowboys in the American West, and Smoke Wagon: A Morgan Clyde Western - look interesting. The classic lever-action Winchester rifle appears in almost every Western movie.  Remember the Rifleman?  He customized his lever-action to facilitate his fast shooting usually seen coming from a machine gun.  Didn’t John Wayne have a customized model, too, with an enlarged lever to fit his large hands?  This book looks at the family that developed the gun and reaped in financial rewards from its popularity.

Black Cowboys in the American West holds the most interest for me.  One of its authors is a fellow member of WWA whom I have visited with at our conventions.  I know he has taken an interest in black cowboys, maybe because he is black himself.  A college professer, he fills the room with his bright personality and hearty laugh, and I daresay he is one of the most popular members of the group.  Not so long ago I read and wrote something about blacks in the West.  After the slaves were freed, where were they to go and do with their lives?  Some floated north to St. Paul, MN on steamboats and became mule skinners and helpers for General Sibley’s expedition into North Dakota.  I found that story interesting and will probably return to it in the future.

Smoke Wagon by Brett Cogburn, a younger writer who informs us he is the great-grandson of Rooster Cogburn who Hollywood made famous in the movies named True Grit.  I’ve met and visited with him at the convention held in Las Vegas where he won the Spur Award for best first novel.  It looks like he is settling into writing for the long haul.  He and I have one thing in common - we both majored in English and minored in history as undergraduates.

With that, I leave you but will return on Wednesday with other musings.  So long til then!