Montana and the West

Carys Davies, 2018

Although this book doesn’t deal exclusively with Montana, it captures the desire for discovery and dreaming, and how the wide-open West offers people a way to reinvent themselves. A mule seller in Pennsylvania sets off from his farm to track down reports that dinosaur bones have been found in Kentucky, leaving his motherless 10-year-old daughter with his sister. The story is told from a variety of different perspectives, which really keeps things moving.

Dorothy M. Johnson, 1995

For her sensitive writing about Native Americans, Whitefish, Montana, native Dorothy Johnson was adopted into the Blackfeet Indian Tribe and given the name Kills Both Places, which she loved. She wrote many iconic short stories about Montana and the West, some of which were made into movies: A Man Called Horse, the Hanging Tree, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance. Dorothy was a generous person and a very disciplined writer.

Ivan Doig, 1980

After finishing this book the first time, I re-read it, just for the sheer pleasure of Doig’s beautiful writing. Born in White Sulphur Springs, north of Livingston, he lost his mother when he was six. Unable to care for little Ivan, his grief-stricken father left him with relatives for two years. The two reunited, and his father moved to Dupuyer, a tiny central Montana community, which continues to celebrate him. Doig writes about sheepherders and cattlemen, town eccentrics and rural characters, as well as the harsh beauty of central Montana.

Richard Hugo, 1973

Poet Richard Hugo taught for many years in the creative writing program at the University of Montana. These poems capture the Montana of the 1960s and 70s, with its wide, open spaces, breathtaking beauty and collapsed, lonely towns. “Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg” is my favorite. Hugo was a good teacher and a very good poet.

Debra Magpie Earling, 2022

Set on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, in the 1940s, this book tells the story of teenage Louise White Elk, who is seeking an independent life as she enters adulthood. The treatment she endures at the hands of three different men is often horrible, but she manages to survive and even thrive and to live life on her own terms.

Rick Bass, 2024

For decades, Rick Bass has been living in, advocating for, and protecting the Yaak Valley, an isolated part of far Northwest Montana and the last place in America to get electricity. These essays are astoundingly beautiful and insightful. I knew a couple who lived in the Yaak and they would have loved this book as I do.

Thomas McGuane, 2001

McGuane has lived in central Montana for decades. This is a collection of 40 essays on fishing, fish, aging and the beauty of the outdoors. The descriptions often left me breathless and envious. Even if you don’t fish, you will enjoy the fabulous writing.