Searching for the West, real and imagined, is a theme of our authors and contributors this month. One of the best ways to experience the West is through the observations of today’s generation of chroniclers.
One such writer, Evan Connell Jr., died in Santa Fe on January 10.
Allen Barra, who shares with us his favorite biographies in “Building Your Western Library,” highly recommends starting any journey to the Little Bighorn Battlefield by reading Connell’s classic on Custer, Son of the Morning Star. Barra believes “it is the best and most literary book on the controversial, American general and infamous battle.”
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We also remember Gary Hausladen, who died on April 8. His 2004 book, Western Places, American Myths: How We Think About the West, was a ground-breaking collection of essays that greatly contributed to our understanding of the real and imagined West.
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True West’s Old West Saviors columnist, Jana Bommrsbach, has just published her first children’s book, A Squirrel’s Story: A True Tale (Little Five Star).
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Photographer Scott Baxter’s 100 Years, 100 Ranchers (Prisma Graphic Corp.), which celebrates a century of Arizona ranching families, won the “People’s Choice” Award at the Printing Industry of Arizona Awards Gala.
—Stuart Rosebrook
