The Portable Western Reader (Portable Library) [Paperback] [1997] (Author) William Kittredge

by William Kittredge

The American West is as varied in its inhabitants as in its landforms. Yet what has come to stand for "Western" writing is the myth of the wagon train and the lone gunman. In the Portable Wester Reader, William Kittredge has assembled stories, poems, essays, and excerpts that transcend the Western myth and explore the vast range of Western experience. With selections from more than seventy authors, and an introduction and headnotes by William Kittredge. The Portable Western Reader redefines the Western literary landscape.

Genres: Anthologies, Fiction, Poetry, Westerns, Short Stories, Literature

Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

About the author

William Kittredge was born in 1932 in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal and representative collection of short stories, poems and even Native American songs that provides a great window in American Western culture. I read it 25 years ago and am re-reading it today to look for additional writers of interest.

Among the tidbits that you'll find here are:
* several days diaries from early in the Lewis & Clark Expedition (which may prompt you to see the excellent day-by-day journal of the expedition online)
* the short story, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," turned into an Academy Award winning movie by John Ford
* Larry McMurtry's personal story of the evolution of his Texas cattle-ranching family
* a Jack London story of tricking oyster pirates in the Bay Area, something he experienced first-hand
* John Steinbeck's account of California shanty towns, which has a resemblance to today's homeless camps
* D.H. Lawrence's critical analysis of James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales," written during a period of Lawrence's exile in Taos, NM after World War I.

[Deb Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently moved back west and this book allowed me to read a great many western authors who I hadn't heard of before (several I had). This compilation of short stories, excerpts, and poems, edited by William Kittredge, provided valuable information (awards, grants, etc.) about other books each author has written in the little intros before each story. I appreciated being able to read from a variety of authors, as I am very particular about reading good writing. (We all appreciate different writing styles.) My new "to read" book list has grown. However, I regret that he did not include Aldo Leopold, and H. L. Davis. Many native indian authors are included. Highly recommend if you need an introduction to great western writers.

[Marilynn Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

After about 1/4 of the book I gave up. Just not enough stories I liked to keep going. I guess the “pioneer spirit” and depressing stories just don’t resonate with me right now.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Editor William Kittredge has done a remarkable job of bringing together this great collection of Western writers representing a vast swath of American terrain, covering prairie, mountains, desert, and Pacific Rim. At 600 pages, his book is an introduction to over 70 writers from the journals of Lewis and Clark and the collectors of Native American chants and tales to the writers of late 20th century fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Some are well known and easily associated with the West: Wallace Stegner, A. B. Guthrie, Louise Erdrich, John Steinbeck, Edward Abbey, Maxine Hong Kingston, Raymond Carver, Larry McMurtry, Ken Kesey. Many are lesser known and deserving of a wider audience, such as James Galvin, Sherman Alexie, and Linda Hogan. As someone less familiar with the poetry inspired by the region, I appreciated selections from a wide range of poets, including the influential Montana poet Richard Hugo.

Describing the experience of reading this book is like trying to sum up a year traveling in another country. There are several familiar works: Wallace Stegner's great story "Carrion Spring," set on the northern plains during the spring thaw after a horrific winter kill; the opening of Ivan Doig's wonderful Montana memoir "This House of Sky"; Terry Tempest Williams' chilling essay on the rising incidence of breast cancer in her family after above-ground nuclear testing in 1950s Nevada; childhood memories of homesteading in the Nebraska Panhandle, from Mari Sandoz' book about her father, "Old Jules"; a discourse on water from Gretel Ehrlich's essays about ranching in Wyoming, "The Silence of Open Spaces."

There's also Edward Abbey's account of summer work as a park ranger in Utah's Arches National Monument from "Desert Solitaire"; a poignant memory of fishing in Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It"; a brief scene featuring the joyous prankster McMurphy, later immortalized by Jack Nicholson, from Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"; a section about a man who stakes a claim on the Wyoming-Colorado border from James Galvin's brilliantly written memoir-novel, "The Meadow"; the evocation of a ghost town and the Nebraska prairie in the opening pages of Wright Morris' novel "Ceremony in Lone Tree"; and one of the many humorous recollections of frontier cowboy Teddy Blue Abbott, as he remembers his friendship with Calamity Jane.

And there are wonderful discoveries. I liked Rick Marinis' short story "Paraiso: An Elegy" about two couples from El Paso on a car trip; Richard Nelson's account of deer hunting in Alaska from "The Island Within"; Raymond Carver's memories of his alcoholic father in "My Father's Life"; Larry McMurtry's demythologizing memories of his cowboy-rancher uncles in "Take My Saddle From the Wall: A Valediction"; Mary Clearman Blew's harrowing memoir of marriage to a wildcat oilman with a terminal pulmonary illness, from "All But the Waltz"; David Long's story of a ranch family's disintegration, "Lightning"; and John Haines' description of nightfall in a remote Alaska cabin in "The Stars, The Snow, The Fire." Among the poets, I found the Hawaiian/LA voice of Garrett Hongo, the dark vision of Robert Wrigley, and the thoughtful ruminations of Montana poet Greg Pape.

Altogether there are voices of all kinds between the covers of this book. You get a sense of great diversity bound together by a vast landscape. There are a few themes that run through most of these selections, which are also common to literature about the West: freedom, loss, and isolation. The expansiveness of the West has traditionally permitted a kind of liberation from what is restrictive and claustrophobic in the settled East. The flip side of that freedom, of course, is the isolation that comes with living lives beyond the reach of other people. Meanwhile, expansion into the West has meant the loss of what was pristine and unexploited; it's meant the loss of Native American cultures; and as the West evolves, it has meant the loss of the frontier itself. Even as we have discovered the West, it is disappearing.

Kittredge's book has captured all that, as well as one can in 600 pages. I heartily recommend his book to anyone interested in the real West, what it was and what it is. As the editor of this anthology, Kittredge has graciously not included anything from his own pen; so I'll recommend his well-written memoir of growing up on a ranch in Oregon, "Hole in the Sky." Two other collections of Western writing I can recommend are "Northern Lights: A Selection of New Writing from the American West," edited by Deborah Clow (currently out of print) and "The Big Sky Reader," edited by Alan Jones (also currently out of print).

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not your typical cowboys and indians western writing. The editor attempts to find the "true" stories of the western United States, starting with ancient stories and Native American myths. One of my favs was "The Girl Who Married the Bear" by Catharine McClellan. The highlights from Part II were from the Lewis and Clark's journals, Norman Maclean's "A River Runs through it," and Larry McMurtry's "Take My Saddle from the Wall." Of course the survival story from Ed Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" was extraordinary. Raymond Carver's story about his father was honest and beautiful and Gretel Ehrlich's "On Water" spoke directly to Wyoming's water challenges. Terry Tempest Williams's expose on the nuclear testing chemical drift into Utah was jaw-dropping and Barry Lopez gives some simple prescriptions on how we can be kinder to the earth and to each other. A lot of heavy hitters in this compilation but also a lot of excerpts from books that didn't come with a beginning or end making it hard to access and easy to forget. The one's I mentioned were amazing though.

[AC]

Perfect preparation for my Utah adventure: St. George, my base with hiking Zion and, fingers crossed, Bryce too.