Cow-Country

by B.M. Bower

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Genres: Westerns

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Bertha Muzzy Sinclair or Sinclair-Cowan, née Muzzy, best known by her pseudonym B. M. Bower, was an American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West. Her works, featuring cowboys and cows of the Flying R Ranch in Montana, reflected "an interest in ranch life, the use of working cowboys as main characters (even in romantic plots), the occasional appearance of eastern types for the sake of contrast, a sense of western geography as simultaneously harsh and grand, and a good deal of factual attention to such matters as cattle branding and bronc busting.

Born Bertha Muzzy in Otter Tail County, MN and living her early years in Big Sandy, Montana, she was married three times: to Clayton Bower, in 1890; to Bertrand William Sinclair,(also a Western author) in 1912; and to Robert Elsworth Cowan, in 1921. Bower's 1912 novel Lonesome Land was praised in The Bookman magazine for its characterization. She wrote 57 Western novels, several of which were turned into films.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata]

Well, here we are at the end of the B. M. Bower trail. I started reading the 29 titles of hers at Gutenberg way back in July of 2015. At first I never read two in a row, and I did not have a time frame for this personal challenge, so I didn't care how long it might take. But this year I decided I wanted to make completing the list a major reading goal, mostly so I can do the same thing with other authors!

The last few books have been good but with more modern aspects: cowboys who had to quit working the range because of changing times, then silent movie makers becoming the major focus of the stories, then middle aged cowboys who are hunting to find a fulfilling life in a world that values automobiles more than horses.

But Cow Country goes back a bit to some of Bower's earlier works. Buddy is four years old in chapter one, crossing the Staked Plains with his family and a herd of Longhorn cattle. He is all boy, as were all of Bower's youngsters whenever they appeared in the various books. He has adventures along the trail (loved how he caught the "hawn toad"!) but survives them all to reach manhood at age 21, when he is promptly turned out into the world by his father. Well, that sounds a bit harsh. Bud (only his mother can still call him Buddy) is given a choice: ten thousand dollars and life in Europe making music or the gift of a select group of cattle so he can go off somewhere and start his own ranch.

Bud gets more than a little angry about this. He has worked for his father since the days he was still Buddy, becoming a top hand, and saving the ranch the need to put at least two more men on the payroll. How dare his father think that Bud cannot make his own way in the world and to prove it that is exactly what he will do. He asks just for his pick of three horses, his saddle, and enough 'grub' to give him a few days to find work of some kind somewhere. And then he ropes the three best horses on the ranch and rides off to prove himself to his father.

The horses he chose made all the difference in Bud's angry start to independence, but his own character and upbringing helped a lot as well. He rides far enough away that when he stops at a certain ranch, the people are at first suspicious of who he is and why he is wandering, especially when he has a guitar and mandolin packed in his gear. These two items also made a huge difference in Bud's adventures, and I'm sure that more than once he was thankful for the musical training his mother had given him!

I liked this final book a lot. A young man finding his place in the world, awesome horses, a mystery to unravel, exciting adventures, and romance. The best ingredients of a Bower book, and the best way to finish this little challenge of mine. I have a few that I will go back and re-read when I start feeling homesick for Bower's world or need a tried and true comfort read; Cow Country will be one of the options.

Meanwhile, along the way in this fun journey, I discovered that Bower's second husband also wrote books. There are a few titles of his at Gutenberg, so I think I will read at least one and see if perhaps I will have a new list to work through!

[Abby]

I ended up liking it more than I did during the first 1/3 of the book. At the start Bud was an unlikeable, stubborn, annoying character. A bit of a goody two shoes on his high horse.

What this story does well is sets a rosy white young character into a den of vipers, so he really had to keep his wits about him. However, Bud is also written as too perfect a character. Even though he’s never really needed street smarts or interacted with shady characters, he always stayed one step ahead and never really saw any repercussions or made any remarkable mistakes. (Though I will admit he had help along the way.)

Marian was a woman in distress, a maiden to save. Yeah not my favorite troupe. However I like that the main character pushed for her to leave and protect herself, but at the end of the day she had to choose for herself. So a bit more nuanced than I expected.

I also didn’t like how much they dwelled on worrying if Marian was captured. I felt like it was leading up to another confrontation but was let down on that account.

The story definitely helped the character grow up from the brash youth that he was.

[Larry Piper]

I'm generally a fan of B. M. Bower, but this book wasn't doing it for me. I gave up about 15% of the way through. We're dealing with a 13-year old who thinks he's a real man, but is rather a punk. Then too, the book was hideously racist, something that wasn't nearly so obvious in other Bower books I've read. Not at all interesting.

[Christopher Taylor]

This is a solid, basic cowboy story from Bower, an early work of hers on the standard ranching setting she writes many more times. This follows the life of a boy from very early youth until he finds his own way and establishes his name. Headstrong and often rash, with a quick temper, he's restrained by the teaching of his mother and the example of his father and does well for himself.

The book is old, and has some older perspectives and presumptions, but is quite good as a simple cowboy tale.