Ghostwest: Reflections Past and Present

Literature of the American West Series

by Ann Ronald

Our sense of place is permeated by ghosts from the past. In GhostWest , Ann Ronald takes the reader to historical sites where something once happened. Using the metaphor of hauntings, she reflects on how western history, literature, and lore continue to shape our visceral impressions of these sites. In chapters both lyrical and thoughtful, passionate and humorous, GhostWest covers sites in seventeen western states, including the Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana, Willa Cather’s Nebraska prairies, and the Murrah Building bombing site in Oklahoma. Through these settings and their phantoms, the author mulls questions of why we find such ambience and artifacts so compelling. Volume 7 in the Literature of the American West series

Genres: History

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Stephen Trimble has received significant awards for his photography, his non-fiction, and his fiction, and the breadth of those awards mirrors the wide embrace of his work: The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for photography and conservation; The National Cowboy Museums Western Heritage Wrangler Award; and a Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater, Colorado College, honoring his efforts to increase our understanding of Western landscapes and peoples and his choice to remain a stubborn generalist. Environmental historian James Aton has said: Trimble's books comprise one of the most well-rounded, sustained, and profound visions of people and landscape that we have ever seen in the American West.

As writer, editor, and photographer Trimble has published twenty-two books."

Reviews

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short essays regarding historical envents in each state west of the Missouri River. What made this interesting to me is that I have been to the site or have knowledge of over half of those she chose to write about.