Montana


Book Description




Growing Up in Montana


Book Description

I always felt privileged to have been raised in the Bitterroot Valley. Yes, we had tragedy when we lost our dad and our ranch, but with the help of the Good Lord, we prevailed. These are our experiences of ranching, hunting, logging, and even fighting forest fires. The valley was at its best, And its beauty must be told. Hearing it again and again, Its memories shall never grow old.




Talking Up a Storm


Book Description

In interviews with fifteen contemporary writers of the American West, Gregory L. Morris demonstrates what these widely divergent talents have in common: they all redefine what it is to be a western writer. No longer enthralled (though sometimes inspired) by the literary traditions of openness, place, and rugged individualism, each of the writers has remained true to the demand for clarity, strength, and honesty, virtues sustained in their conversations. Morris talks with Ralph Beer, Mary Clearman Blew, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, James Crumley, Ivan Doig, Gretel Ehrlich, Richard Ford, Molly Gloss, Ron Hansen, John Keeble, William Kittredge, David Long, Thomas McGuane, Amy Tan, and Douglas Unger. Their lives and fiction stretch from Montana to Texas, from ranches to universities, from sea level to mountain slopes.




Growing Up in Montana


Book Description




How It Looks Going Back


Book Description

In 1949, taking a break from San Diego’s post–World War II bustle, the Knowles family went camping in Canada. Heading home through northwest Montana’s Yaak River country, they found a two-bedroom, story-and-half log cabin on a small lake. There was neither electricity nor plumbing. Access was via dirt road, slow at best and iffy during the long, hard winters. Darwin Knowles saw a peaceful life, and adventurous wife Marilyn agreed. Third-grader daughter, Dee (for Doris), could attend the one-room school, and three-year-old Bob (Barbara) have a safe place to play. Enthusiastic but ignorant of wilderness living, the family moved in that fall—working together to cook and heat with wood, hunt and fish for food, haul water, and wash clothes by hand. They stayed for six years, during which son Stevie was born. Dee’s reminiscence of her childhood in “the Yaak” presents quirky neighbors, growing girls’ adventures, wildlife huge and tiny, and especially one loving family. As she writes, “It was a cozy, scary, painful, hilarious, dangerous, interesting, and grand time, and the most fun I ever had.”




The Mountain and the Fathers


Book Description

The Mountain and the Fathers explores the life of boys and men in the unforgiving, harsh world north of the Bull Mountains of eastern Montana in a drought afflicted area called the Big Dry, a land that chews up old and young alike. Joe Wilkins was born into this world, raised by a young mother and elderly grandfather following the untimely death of his father. That early loss stretches out across the Big Dry, and Wilkins uses his own story and those of the young boys and men growing up around him to examine the violence, confusion, and rural poverty found in this distinctly American landscape. Ultimately, these lives put forth a new examination of myth and manhood in the American West and cast a journalistic eye on how young men seek to transcend their surroundings in the search for a better life. Rather than dwell on grief or ruin, Wilkins' memoir posits that it is our stories that sustain us, and The Mountain and the Fathers, much like the work of Norman Maclean or Jim Harrison, heralds the arrival of an instant literary classic.




Growing Up Western


Book Description

Unpolished gem of a memoir of growing up in Western Montana in the 1930s and '40s. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




The Backyard Orchardist


Book Description

Discusses how to grow fruit trees in a garden or backyard, including such considerations as tree selection, planting and early care, growing fruit in containers, and pest and disease control.







Growing Up Montana


Book Description

Growing Up Montana is a combined story of both endearing and staggering revelation. It is the true story of two very different people in one common place. In these unfolding accounts which took place in the Montana of the 1970's and 80's, the two young kids about which this memoir is written, found their way in a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" era where both stereotypes and childhood adventures ran wild. Before the internet and social media ruled the hearts and minds of youth, and during the continuing and fearful saga of Montana's only serial killer, both Shelly and Russ grew in the face of challenge, witnessing change in their unique rural landscape and the hearts of those around them. Growing Up Montana will guide the reader through generational differences in the handling of traumatic events, and how our mindsets can mold and shape us as individuals. Blank vividly displays how much our sense of "place," and tradition can transform us, and ultimately how significant our big questions of faith and relationship serve as navigational grounding. The book offers an intentional set of study questions at the conclusion to guide readers in thought, as well as relational and personal growth.