Fifty Years after The Big Sky (pb) New Perspectives on the Fiction and Films of A.B. Guthrie, Jr.

by Bevis, William W.; Farr, William E.

• ISBN13: 9780917298738
• ISBN10: 091729873X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: Montana Historical Society Press

Summary

Writers, historians, and public intellectuals from James Welch and Mary Clearman Blew to Dan Flores, William W. Bevis, and Daniel Kemmis explore A. B. Guthrie's life and legacy in Fifty Years after The Big Sky: New Perspectives on the Fiction and Films of A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Best known for his novels, The Big Sky and The Way West, and as the author of the screenplay for the movie classic Shane, A. B. Guthrie is a much-loved but understudied Montana author. There has been almost no serious examination of Guthrie's work, until now. This wide-ranging anthology looks at this beloved western author in multiple contexts. Essays examine Guthrie's relationship with the movie industry; how the Cold War influenced Guthrie's work; how people in his home-town of Choteau, Montana, and others chose to him remember the man; and how the myths that lie at the core of Guthrie's fiction haunt today's Montanans.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
William E. Farr
William W. Bevis
Reading Guthrie
The Big Sky and the Siren Song of Apocalypse	9	(12)
Ken Egan, Jr.
Lige Mounts: Free Trapper and Beyond Law: Antecedents to The Big Sky?	21	(18)
Celeste River
``Companion to the Wide Horizons'': Exploring the Guthrie Hexad	39	(16)
Louie W. Atterbery
Murders at Moon Dance and the Evolution of A. B. Guthrie's Fiction	55	(18)
Fred Erisman
Guthrie, in Context
A. B. Guthrie, Jr., in Hollywood: Variations on the Writing Experience	73	(32)
James V. D'Arc
Guthrie's Shane and American Culture of the Cold War	105	(14)
Richard Hutson
Meditations on Women in the Big Sky	119	(38)
Dee Garceau
Some Recollections of and Reflections on A. B. Guthrie, Jr., and His Work	157	(18)
Sue Hart
The West from Two Perspectives	175	(12)
James Welch
``Rattling the Teacups'' of His Hometown: Guthrie's Grizzly, His Grocery List, and Other Tales of Choteau Life	187	(14)
Jo-Ann Swanson
Shane Rides into the Millennium	201	(12)
Mary Clearman Blew
Is It ``All Sp'iled''? Moving beyond Guthrie's View of Nature
Mountains on Center Stage	213	(10)
Dan Flores
The Last Best Place: Economic Opportunity or Wilderness Solace?	223	(10)
Alan Weltzien
The Rise of Environmentalism and its Relation to Western Myths	233	(14)
Lee Rostad
Nature and Other Nonsense: The Big Sky at Fifty	247	(20)
William W. Bevis
Fifty Years Later: Guthrie and Montana's Changing Politics
The Big Sky, Humanities, and Public Policy	267	(10)
Mark A. Sherouse
A Fifty-Year Montana Political Profile	277	(8)
Pat Williams
Of Poets, Place, and Politics	285	(10)
Daniel Kemmis
Works	295	(4)
A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
About the Contributors	299	(4)
Index	303