In this collection of sixteen short stories, Robert Laxalt illuminates the Nevada of the 1950s. Written when Laxalt was in his twenties, the stories are as fresh as if they were penned yesterday. Humanity good and bad, humor and cruelty, satire and adventure are found in these early stories of a Nevada poised on the brink of change.

In the lead story, Cowboy Clint Hamilton laments that the town is getting more like a big city every day as the traditional gambling joints of earlier times give way to the gaudy casinos that will soon become modern glitz.

Sobering experiences from his...

Buckley takes the reader back to his childhood in Montecito, just outside of Santa Barbara, during the 1950s and 1960s. These eighteen essays are a chronicle of the rapid cultural and physical changes that coincided with his coming of age in California as a member of the baby boom generation. "I know it's simplistic," writes Buckley, "but nine out of ten days all I want to do is drive an old Chevy again, lean back against the wide bench seat, switch the AM radio on to a game, shift that 3-speed on the column, and cruise with the windows down." What Buckley calls the "fire at the edge of...

In this novel of the West, centered in east-central Nevada, John Siloa, a young Basque sheepherder, comes west to work on Cyril Kinsella's ranch and eventually becomes the old man's confidant and agent. An old man immured in the great stone house which has become both his refuge and the badge of his despair, Kinsella lives in a world haunted by his past. Slowly, Siloa becomes entangled in Kinsella's life and in the lives of those on whom he has left his mark. Listening long into the night to the old man's whiskey-revealed stories, Siloa moves uneasily between his roles as both actor and...

This erotic urban mystery is set in Salt Lake City, Utah. Grace Stern, a botanist, is married to but separated from Pascal, a heart surgeon and soon-to-be murder victim. The murder touches off a series of events that threaten to overwhelm Grace as she struggles to make sense of her life. A cast of interesting characters and a provocative writing style make this first novel by Coles a compelling read.

In this collection of letters, the authors critically examine the ecological principles and reality of the desert saint Van Dyke. The letters depict a privileged, patrician, and pampered member of the upper class, who saw most of the deserts from plush railroad cars and hotel rooms.

This text draws on biblical religion and Native American cultures to explore Mary Austin's creation of the mythology of the American continent. Austin lived in and wrote about the parts of California and Nevada that were home to the Northern Paiute, Shoshone, Interior Chumash and Yokut peoples.

This is the first book-length collection of essays on Mary Austin's work that covers the range of her writing in varied genres. Austin is revealed as a writer wrestling with issues that continue to challenge us today, including water in the arid West; social and environmental justice as it relates to indigenous peoples, women, and the working class; and the consequences of rigidly hierarchical thinking for western lands and people.

The rich literary tradition of Montana, contends author Ken Egan Jr., reflects a catastrophic vision of the West that shows the horrors of domination and the foolish and destructive habits of the imperial heart. Since the 1860s, Montana's writers have depicted struggles for survival in the state's dramatically beautiful but heartbreaking landscape and for decency in a region characterized by the headlong exploitation of both natural and human resources. So, too, has Montana's political culture reflected the strife between the state's utopian potential and its often apocalyptic realities....

When Gary Snyder's long poem Mountains and Rivers Without End was published in 1996, it was hailed as a masterpiece of American poetry. Anthony Hunt offers a detailed historical and explicative analysis of this complex work using, among his many sources, Snyder's personal papers, letters, and interviews. Hunt traces the work's origins, as well as some of the sources of its themes and structure, including No drama; East Asian landscape painting; the rhythms of storytelling, chant, and song; Jungian archetypal psychology; world mythology; Buddhist philosophy and ritual; Native American...

A restless man obsessed with dog races embarks on a cross-country journey leading to his Idaho hometown in this debut novel reminiscent of"Catcher in the Rye." Luke Rivers is a part-time bartender and full-time gambler who dreams of scoring big at the dog races. He travels the greyhound circuit with his wife, Jenny, and their young son, Jake, until one morning he wakes up in a motel in Rapid City, South Dakota, to discover that Jenny has left him and taken Jake with her. Now, for the first time, Luke must confront both the tragic family past that led him to gambling and the uncertain future...