Synopses & Reviews
William Kittredge's relationship to the spare, often unforgiving Western landscape is fraught with contradictions. Having grown up on a cattle ranch in Oregon, he has an intimate connection to the vast landscape that was once vital to his family's trade. He has also witnessed, over many decades, the depletion of the West's natural resources due to overuse. These luminous essays move effortlessly from the personal to the political. With grace and integrity, Kittredge directly confronts the myths that lie at the heart of the Western experience: male freedom and female domesticity, the wild and the tame, self-interest and the love of the land.
On the heels of Kittredge's first novel, The Willow Field, published to wide critical acclaim in 2006, we are pleased to offer the best of his nonfiction writings.
Review
"A fine summation of Kittredge's excellent body of work." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
William Kittredge's relationship to the spare, often unforgiving Western landscape is fraught with contradictions. Having grown up on a cattle ranch in Oregon, he has an intimate connection to the vast landscape that was once vital to his family's trade. He has also witnessed, over many decades, the depletion of the West's natural resources due to overuse. These luminous essays move effortlessly from the personal to the political. With grace and integrity, Kittredge directly confronts the myths that lie at the heart of the Western experience: male freedom and female domesticity, the wild and the tame, self-interest and the love of the land.
On the heels of Kittredge's first novel, The Willow Field, published to wide critical acclaim in 2006, we are pleased to offer the best of his nonfiction writings.
About the Author
William Kittredge grew up on a cattle ranch in southeastern Oregon. He taught creative writing at the University of Montana for twenty-nine years and retired as Regents Professor of English. He now lives in Missoula, Montana.