"Figures in a Western Landscape is an absolutely stunning book.
A biographer's take on the story of the American West, it posits
that the turns of history are based on people-major 'figures' who
shape their time and place. In her sequence of biographical essays,
Elizabeth Stevenson tells the story of the northern Rockies and, in
particular, Montana, a state of mind even more than it is a state
of the Union. As her readers have come to expect, she offers more
than a mere recounting of events. Stevenson captures the humanity
of her subjects." -Charles Little, author of Louis Bromfield at
Malabar and Greenways for America The northern Rocky Mountains and
adjacent high plains were the last American West. Here was the
final enactment of our national drama-the last explorations, the
final battles of the Indian wars, the closing of the frontier. In
Figures in a Western Landscape, award-winning biographer Elizabeth
Stevenson humanizes the history of the region with a procession of
individual lives moving across generations. Each of the sixteen men
and women depicted left behind his or her own unique written record
or oral history. The stories they have bequeathed are rich in
revealing anecdote and colorful detail. Among them: Meriwether
Lewis, America's "most introspective explorer," John Kirk Townsend,
known to the Chinooks as "the bird chief," Pretty-Shield, wife of
the Crow scout who warned Custer to turn back at Little Big Horn,
James and Granville Stuart, early settlers lured by rumors of gold
in the 1850s. In a concluding chapter, Stevenson draws on
previously unpublished material to reveal new information about
Martha Jane Cannary Burke, better known as Calamity Jane, the woman
who could ride, shoot, and drive a mule team as well as any man
(but who once failed to "pass" because she didn't cuss her mules
like one). She lies buried in Deadwood, South Dakota, next to the
man some said was her husband, Wild Bill Hickok. These and other
men and women whose stories Stevenson tells helped to shape, and
were in turn shaped by, the uniquely challenging landscape of
America's "last West." Their words and actions, here rediscovered,
give vivid color to a climactic chapter in American history. This
book will be of interest to historians and general readers
interested in the people of the American West. Elizabeth Stevenson
(1919-1999) was Candler Professor of American Studies, Emeritus, at
Emory University and the author of the Bancroft Award-winning Henry
Adams: A Biography; The Grass Lark: A Study of Lafcadio Hearn;
Babbits and Bohemians: From the Great War to the Depression; Henry
James: The Crooked Corridor, and Park Maker: A Life of Frederick
Law Olmsted, published by Transaction.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
