The Alpenglow

Livingston's literary heyday is long gone, and many of those writers and actors who flocked here have left. But this railroad town was changed by all of that, and the aura lingers on. Tom McGuane has bought a costly home in Florida. Peter Fonda moved back to California. So did Russell Chatham. Jeff Bridges still has a place and so does Michael Keaton, but they visit here only briefly. Sam Peckinpah is dead. So is Warren Oates. Margot Kidder stays on. Various writers are retired or semi-retired. Richard Brautigan is dead. Tim Cahill is living quietly after a narrow escape during his last adventure. Some of those who visited regularly, such as Peter Matthiessen, are gone. Nothing written here during the literary heyday has been added to Montana's famed literary canon by academics.

The parade of news people, publicists, editors, agents, publishers, autograph-seekers, and pilgrims has all but vanished. The film-makers have returned to California. You don't find stories about Livingston in national papers or literary journals now. The town has moved away from fiction and film, toward nonfiction and music. Scott McMillion produces an exceptionally fine quarterly here. The fire-scarred mountains endure, and the clear, clean Yellowstone River water follows its eternal trip to the sea. The black bears still look for apples in the fall. I've lived here longer than any other place, including my childhood home, and I am content. So are my writing friends. We flocked in, and found a good life and good company.