Richard S. Wheeler's Blog, page 14
July 13, 2014
Communique
I am unable to remain close to friends and colleagues because of multiple medical troubles. I wish you all best wishes,
R
R
July 12, 2014
June 21, 2014
Carefully Ignored in Montana
I’ve noticed over the years that literary gatherings in Montana never celebrate popular or commercial fiction, including genre fiction, such as mysteries, romances, or thrillers. I don’t know why this is so. Perhaps the academics or cultural mavens who put these things together think that popular fiction has no artistic merit or significance, and therefore ought to be ignored. Or perhaps the arbiters of literary life in Montana are simply ignorant of the large world of commercial fiction, and this world remains out of sight.
There might well be prejudice. Academics who dismiss the world of popular fiction may well do so because of some assumptions: Such fiction is without merit. The skills of the authors are substandard. I don’t know if this is the attitude of people who influence literature in Montana, but I suspect it’s the case.
Whether they are correct is a good question. In New York, the heart of publishing and literature, popular fiction and its authors are treated with much more respect. When the legendary mystery writer Elmore Leonard died recently, New York publications celebrated him as a literary genius who made an enormous contribution to literature and letters. Many houses in New York are swift to publish and promote good authors of popular fiction. Viking, for example, proudly publishes Craig Johnson, whose contemporary Wyoming mysteries are gems.
One can examine the novels that became classics, and are part of the literary canon, and discover that many, maybe most, of these novels were published as the popular fiction of their times. One thinks of Charles Dickens, or Mark Twain, whose stories are loved by generation after generation. I am thinking that The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough’s great novel of Australia, which sold six million copies, may well become a part of the canon.
Theoretically, if “literary” novels are superior to popular ones, they should be the ones that survive and became a part of the literary canon. But that isn’t what happens, perhaps because many of those are less well written than literary tastemakers and arbiters wish to believe. My own view is that some literary novels are inferior in most respects to much commercial fiction. That seems to be better understood in New York and other centers of book publishing than it is out in the remote reaches of Montana.
At any rate, Montana’s literary establishment has never interested itself in popular fiction, and I suspect it never will.
There might well be prejudice. Academics who dismiss the world of popular fiction may well do so because of some assumptions: Such fiction is without merit. The skills of the authors are substandard. I don’t know if this is the attitude of people who influence literature in Montana, but I suspect it’s the case.
Whether they are correct is a good question. In New York, the heart of publishing and literature, popular fiction and its authors are treated with much more respect. When the legendary mystery writer Elmore Leonard died recently, New York publications celebrated him as a literary genius who made an enormous contribution to literature and letters. Many houses in New York are swift to publish and promote good authors of popular fiction. Viking, for example, proudly publishes Craig Johnson, whose contemporary Wyoming mysteries are gems.
One can examine the novels that became classics, and are part of the literary canon, and discover that many, maybe most, of these novels were published as the popular fiction of their times. One thinks of Charles Dickens, or Mark Twain, whose stories are loved by generation after generation. I am thinking that The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough’s great novel of Australia, which sold six million copies, may well become a part of the canon.
Theoretically, if “literary” novels are superior to popular ones, they should be the ones that survive and became a part of the literary canon. But that isn’t what happens, perhaps because many of those are less well written than literary tastemakers and arbiters wish to believe. My own view is that some literary novels are inferior in most respects to much commercial fiction. That seems to be better understood in New York and other centers of book publishing than it is out in the remote reaches of Montana.
At any rate, Montana’s literary establishment has never interested itself in popular fiction, and I suspect it never will.
June 9, 2014
A Fine Study of a Reclusive Heiress
This is a superbly researched biography of a reclusive woman who inherited one of the country's great fortunes. The author fleshes out the life and character of Huguette Clark, as well as her family and her many friends and retainers, and creates of vivid portrait of a woman dealing with too many bad memories. I found it deeply rewarding.
It is somewhat flawed by poor editing, copyediting and proofing. There are passages in need of a sharp cut. But my primary objection is to the sketchy and slapdash portrayal of copper king William Andrews Clark, Huguette's father, who is dismissed as a "robber baron" when in fact he is much more complex than that, and had the business acumen to amass the second-largest fortune in the country at the time. There are odd assertions, such as that the sudden demand for copper late in the 19th century could be ascribed to the spread of telephones (instead of the electrification of cities).
Even so, this is an impressive work, in spite of numerous flaws, and is a good social history of the times.
It is somewhat flawed by poor editing, copyediting and proofing. There are passages in need of a sharp cut. But my primary objection is to the sketchy and slapdash portrayal of copper king William Andrews Clark, Huguette's father, who is dismissed as a "robber baron" when in fact he is much more complex than that, and had the business acumen to amass the second-largest fortune in the country at the time. There are odd assertions, such as that the sudden demand for copper late in the 19th century could be ascribed to the spread of telephones (instead of the electrification of cities).
Even so, this is an impressive work, in spite of numerous flaws, and is a good social history of the times.
May 26, 2014
An Elk River Books Reader
I'm enjoying a fat new anthology of works by Livingston authors, with a smattering of works from Billings. It celebrates the reopening of Elk River Books in Livingston, in its bright new quarters.
Livingston's literary history is legendary: In the seventies various writers collected here, including Tom McGuane, Richard Brautigan, Jim Harrison, Gatz Hjortsberg, and Tim Cahill. Along with them came Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Margot Kidder, and Sam Peckinpah.
The anthology has contributions from most of these literary luminaries, along with some material by newcomers. As its editor Allen Morris Jones points out, "After Brautigan's willful exit in 1984, things kicked into neutral; it was largely status quo for the next twenty years."
One of those who did settle here and prosper during the "status quo" was Walter Kirn, who has steadily made the best-seller lists, and he was welcomed into the anthology. Another was Peter Bowen, who is also included. Another was Maryanne Vollers, also included.
It's a splendid collection, written by gifted people, edited by a master, and available from Bangtail Press. You can buy it at Elk River Books in Livingston, and I promise you'll more than get your money's worth.
Livingston's literary history is legendary: In the seventies various writers collected here, including Tom McGuane, Richard Brautigan, Jim Harrison, Gatz Hjortsberg, and Tim Cahill. Along with them came Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Margot Kidder, and Sam Peckinpah.
The anthology has contributions from most of these literary luminaries, along with some material by newcomers. As its editor Allen Morris Jones points out, "After Brautigan's willful exit in 1984, things kicked into neutral; it was largely status quo for the next twenty years."
One of those who did settle here and prosper during the "status quo" was Walter Kirn, who has steadily made the best-seller lists, and he was welcomed into the anthology. Another was Peter Bowen, who is also included. Another was Maryanne Vollers, also included.
It's a splendid collection, written by gifted people, edited by a master, and available from Bangtail Press. You can buy it at Elk River Books in Livingston, and I promise you'll more than get your money's worth.
May 25, 2014
Steamboat
Craig Johnson's Spirit of Steamboat, a novella that grew out of a short story, is a masterpiece. Mr. Johnson is one of the great storytellers of our time.
This is about a mercy flight, in which Sheriff Walt Longmire commandeers an ancient World War Two bomber to carry a badly burned child to Denver's Children's Hospital in the middle of a blizzard. It is piloted by crusty, one-legged Lucian Connally, one of the famed Doolittle Raiders who surprised Japan in 1942. Everything that can go wrong does.
But at the heart of the story is the question, why did they do it? Risk everything to get a girl to a hospital when a blizzard has shut down roads and airways? Johnson discusses that, and does it beautifully.
This is about a mercy flight, in which Sheriff Walt Longmire commandeers an ancient World War Two bomber to carry a badly burned child to Denver's Children's Hospital in the middle of a blizzard. It is piloted by crusty, one-legged Lucian Connally, one of the famed Doolittle Raiders who surprised Japan in 1942. Everything that can go wrong does.
But at the heart of the story is the question, why did they do it? Risk everything to get a girl to a hospital when a blizzard has shut down roads and airways? Johnson discusses that, and does it beautifully.
May 12, 2014
More About Origins
The genius of Ron Scheer's study of the origins of western fiction is that it is organized by attribute. A reader can follow the evolution of western fiction through Scheer's remarkable comparisons of such qualities as women on the frontier, character, racial and ethnic viewpoints, storytelling technique, and attitudes about the West itself.
Anyone who wants to know where the western came from, how it evolved, and when it began its period of virtual standardization as cowboy fiction, will profit from this study. The vectors are all present, as various authors that preceded and followed Owen Wister, and his famed novel, The Virginian, are examined here.
Anyone who wants to know where the western came from, how it evolved, and when it began its period of virtual standardization as cowboy fiction, will profit from this study. The vectors are all present, as various authors that preceded and followed Owen Wister, and his famed novel, The Virginian, are examined here.
May 2, 2014
How the West Was Written
This book is an examination of early western fiction, most of it written contemporaneously with the settlement of the American west. It involves the birth of the classic ranch western, but much more: early novelists of the west examined all the facets of settlement, from mining to railroads, as well as the hardships endured by settlers, and their unique social arrangements.
There were a surprising number of woman authors, such as Mary Halleck Foote and Helen Hunt Jackson, unlike contemporary western fiction which is largely a male enterprise.
Ron Scheer, a retired California academic, provides an in-depth look at over sixty of these titles, ranging from 1880 to 1915, which includes much of the work of Owen Wister, and the early Zane Grey.
I found myself constantly surprised, as did the author, by the diversity and depth of early western fiction, and also by the extent that the field has reduced to the male-oriented gunman stories that we see today.
I found the book a fascinating journey into the origins of the western story, with rock-solid and penetrating reviews of the diverse stories that seemed to erupt from American authors even as the frontier faded away early in the twentieth century. This is not only a deeply rewarding book, but an authoritative and pioneering look at the original western story.
This book belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in western literature, but also any library collection dealing with American literature.
There were a surprising number of woman authors, such as Mary Halleck Foote and Helen Hunt Jackson, unlike contemporary western fiction which is largely a male enterprise.
Ron Scheer, a retired California academic, provides an in-depth look at over sixty of these titles, ranging from 1880 to 1915, which includes much of the work of Owen Wister, and the early Zane Grey.
I found myself constantly surprised, as did the author, by the diversity and depth of early western fiction, and also by the extent that the field has reduced to the male-oriented gunman stories that we see today.
I found the book a fascinating journey into the origins of the western story, with rock-solid and penetrating reviews of the diverse stories that seemed to erupt from American authors even as the frontier faded away early in the twentieth century. This is not only a deeply rewarding book, but an authoritative and pioneering look at the original western story.
This book belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in western literature, but also any library collection dealing with American literature.
April 29, 2014
Casualties
Like many authors of popular fiction, I have a few wounded books. There are two types: one is a book that suffers bad reviews, deemed a critical failure. My novel Aftershocks, based on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, was one of those. Some reviewers thought it was a cliche. But it sold well, and a lot of other reviewers liked it. I like it, and think over time the book might find some critical redemption.
The other sort of casualty is the novel that is scarcely read at all. That, truly, is the darker tragedy. We novelists write to be read. One of those novels was The Honorable Cody, which I thought was a true and entertaining depiction of the life of Buffalo Bill. But its original publisher sold only a few. So one of my favorite novels lies wounded, ignored, unknown. I've reissued it in electronic form and put a low ninety-nine cent price on it in the hope that it will sell. My goal is to distribute a thousand copies. That would give me the satisfaction of seeing the book out in the world, being enjoyed.
The other sort of casualty is the novel that is scarcely read at all. That, truly, is the darker tragedy. We novelists write to be read. One of those novels was The Honorable Cody, which I thought was a true and entertaining depiction of the life of Buffalo Bill. But its original publisher sold only a few. So one of my favorite novels lies wounded, ignored, unknown. I've reissued it in electronic form and put a low ninety-nine cent price on it in the hope that it will sell. My goal is to distribute a thousand copies. That would give me the satisfaction of seeing the book out in the world, being enjoyed.
April 28, 2014
Allen C. Guelzo
I've just finished Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, by Allen Guelzo, the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War. It is a magnificent, balanced, carefully wrought history of the most memorable and important battle in American history; the battle that inspired Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
It's a complex story, artfully captured in an Alfred Knopf book, and I am privileged to read it. The book greatly deepened my understanding of the Civil War, and helped me to understand the complex battle, and the difficult personalities of those who fought it.
The book helped me grasp not only the war, but what the United States of America is about. Surely Professor Guelzo ranks among our finest historians.
It's a complex story, artfully captured in an Alfred Knopf book, and I am privileged to read it. The book greatly deepened my understanding of the Civil War, and helped me to understand the complex battle, and the difficult personalities of those who fought it.
The book helped me grasp not only the war, but what the United States of America is about. Surely Professor Guelzo ranks among our finest historians.
