It is time for some overdue book reviews. I’ve been on a Western American history kick, and today I would like to share a few words on two books by one of my latest favorite Western American authors. The Big Sky and The Way West were written by the late A.B. Guthrie, a longtime resident of Montana. I enjoyed Guthrie’s work so much, I wanted to learn more about him. Who was this man who used his words to paint intimate portraits of the landscape and people of the early American West? Turns out, he was a real character. In my favorite interview, conducted with Guthrie when he was 86, four years before his death in 1991, while discussing his family life, and explaining that many of his nine siblings did not live past early childhood, Guthrie is asked if he was a precocious child, “I was an ornery little bastard.” Asked why he goes by the name, Bud, he replies, “Because Alfred Bertram is a sissy name.”
If you would like to hear more from Guthrie, and begin to understand how a gruff and tough Montana man can accurately portray a vast range of characters and situations ranging from the complex emotions of mountain men forced to stand by as they watch their way of life melt away, to the conflict and strength of early pioneer women as they cross the continent by wagon on the Oregon trail, check out the interview at, Writers of the West: Remembering A.B. Guthrie.
The Big Sky and The Way West are the first two books in a series of four that together chronicle the changes visited upon the West beginning in the early days of the American fur trade and closing with the cattle boom of the 1880’s. Big Sky follows the lives of three mountain men, detailing their first trip as Greenhorns up the Missouri River, and closing years later, the way of the early mountain man lost to Western expansion. The Way West picks up a few years later, and follows a family on their journey from the farm they leave behind in Missouri through the trials of life as members of a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. Dick Summers, a seasoned mountain man and star of The Big Sky, joins the train as a scout, having given up the vanishing mountain man ways to become a farmer, only to realize his heart remains in the vast open reaches of the West.
Guthrie covers tremendous ground through the telling of his tales. His stories carried me away, so that I too could see the unbroken landscapes and people of the West before and through Western expansion. I have little patience for poorly rendered pictures, so it is telling that Guthrie’s descriptions of people and place kept me up all night turning the pages.
Guthrie’s style demonstrates his authority on all things Western history. From his ability to employ the vernacular of the times, to his detailed descriptions of the era’s tools, medicine, and social sentiments, Guthrie asserts his authority as an author. This is not to say that Guthrie puts himself on the page. In the Remembering A.B. Guthrie interview, he speaks to this when he says, “I happen to be a writer who can’t bury the author on the page. Any sign of him and I’m through.”
It is this knack for letting the stories and the characters speak for themselves that makes Guthrie’s novels stand out as some of the best historical fiction I have read to date. So, if these warm summer days have you looking for a book that meets the restless spirit of adventure that super moons and thunderstorms stir in the likes of avid readers, or if you’re looking for just the right book to pack in your suitcase headed for summer vacation, check out The Big Sky Series.
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