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Timber Line
From the back of the book: They were an unlikely but invincible team, the speculator and the bartender who joined forces to run the DENVER POST. But out of their partnership came one of the most sensational and profitable newspapers in America. Sensationalism, slapstick and sentimentality were the keynotes. For forty years Bonfils and Tammen ruled their Rocky Mountain empire, chronicling murders, wars, pioneering and gold strikes and shaping the course of history when they uncovered the Teapot Dome Scandal.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
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44 people want to read
About the author
Gene Fowler
66 books9 followersGene Fowler (born Eugene Devlan) was an American journalist, author, and dramatist, known for his racy, readable content and for the speed of his writing. After a year at the University of Colorado, he took a job with The Denver Post. His assignments included an interview with the frontiersman and Wild West Show promoter Buffalo Bill Cody. He established his trademark impertinence by questioning Cody about his many love affairs.
Fowler left Denver for Chicago, then moved to New York where Fowler worked for the New York Daily Mirror, New York Evening Journal and as managing editor of the New York American and The Morning Telegraph. His work included more than a dozen screenplays, mostly written in the 1930s.
Fowler left Denver for Chicago, then moved to New York where Fowler worked for the New York Daily Mirror, New York Evening Journal and as managing editor of the New York American and The Morning Telegraph. His work included more than a dozen screenplays, mostly written in the 1930s.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 18, 2022
A hugely entertaining account (much of it possibly factual) of journalism as practiced at the early Denver Post by a cast of eccentrics and moral lepers. Feel free to skip the material about Fowler's boyhood at the beginning, which seems to have been taken from a different and much worse book. (Update: It reads like a section that didn't make the cut for "A Solo in Tom-Toms," which is, in fact, a very different but also excellent book.)
December 22, 2021
Fowler, Gene. Timber Line: A Story of Bonfils and Tammen. 1933. Comstock, 1974.
Gene Fowler (1890-1960) grew up in the high country of Colorado, was a reporter at the Denver Post from 1914-1918, moved to New York where he became a familiar figure in the New York newspaper world. In New York, he met the famous people in the entertainment industry of the time. Encouraged by friends in the movie industry, he moved to Hollywood and finished his career as a script writer. His son, who shares his name, became a successful film editor. He was not of the school of journalism that says stick to facts, no matter how dry. He is supposed to have said that he never let facts get in the way of a good story. Timber Line is a nostalgic look at the early history of the Denver Post and the late-frontier culture that produced it. The protagonist of the story is Frederick Bonfils, a promoter who came to Denver with a nest-egg derived from a dodgy lottery he ran in Kansas. Together with Harry Tammen, a curio shop operator from Denver, he bought the Post in 1894 and turned it into the most successful and most sensationalistic newspaper in the West. They ran large headlines in red ink and used an endless array of promotional gimmicks, pranks, and games to sell papers. For example, when a rival paper put on an opera, they hired a newsboy to stand outside the hall and disrupt the performance by whistling louder than the aria. At one point they bought a circus that competed ruthlessly with the Ringling Brothers. Libel suits and claims of fraud were a way of life. Fowler tells stories illustrating the post-frontier world in which the paper developed—how he made an enemy of Buffalo Bill by running a story about the women in his life. He tells sensational stories about shootouts and cannibalism in the winter Rockies. Timber Line is a lively read, but I wish I knew how much of it I could trust. There is an excellent 2012 review of it in the Columbia Journalism Review (Rocky Mountain fever - Columbia Journalism Review (cjr.org)). As far as I know, there is no commercial ebook edition, but the book is worth a trip to the library. If you are visually impaired, there is an audio edition on Bard. 4 stars.
Gene Fowler (1890-1960) grew up in the high country of Colorado, was a reporter at the Denver Post from 1914-1918, moved to New York where he became a familiar figure in the New York newspaper world. In New York, he met the famous people in the entertainment industry of the time. Encouraged by friends in the movie industry, he moved to Hollywood and finished his career as a script writer. His son, who shares his name, became a successful film editor. He was not of the school of journalism that says stick to facts, no matter how dry. He is supposed to have said that he never let facts get in the way of a good story. Timber Line is a nostalgic look at the early history of the Denver Post and the late-frontier culture that produced it. The protagonist of the story is Frederick Bonfils, a promoter who came to Denver with a nest-egg derived from a dodgy lottery he ran in Kansas. Together with Harry Tammen, a curio shop operator from Denver, he bought the Post in 1894 and turned it into the most successful and most sensationalistic newspaper in the West. They ran large headlines in red ink and used an endless array of promotional gimmicks, pranks, and games to sell papers. For example, when a rival paper put on an opera, they hired a newsboy to stand outside the hall and disrupt the performance by whistling louder than the aria. At one point they bought a circus that competed ruthlessly with the Ringling Brothers. Libel suits and claims of fraud were a way of life. Fowler tells stories illustrating the post-frontier world in which the paper developed—how he made an enemy of Buffalo Bill by running a story about the women in his life. He tells sensational stories about shootouts and cannibalism in the winter Rockies. Timber Line is a lively read, but I wish I knew how much of it I could trust. There is an excellent 2012 review of it in the Columbia Journalism Review (Rocky Mountain fever - Columbia Journalism Review (cjr.org)). As far as I know, there is no commercial ebook edition, but the book is worth a trip to the library. If you are visually impaired, there is an audio edition on Bard. 4 stars.
February 28, 2023
This is a great book for anyone wanting to know a little history of Denver! I couldn't put the book down after starting to read it. I have read several of Gene's books ever since I started researching my family history and finding Gene in our family tree as cousins. His journeys and exploits were particularly a joy to read about. Since I grew up in Denver and hearing about the Fowler's from my grandmother, I really enjoyed reading Timber Line. It transported me back to the day of what it was like to be a newspaperman and reporter.
December 1, 2016
As I remember, this is a straight-forward historical overview of the Denver Post, Bonfils, Tammen, and the other leading characters of that era. Apparently not a meticulously accurate book, but it captures a time and a place. I want to read it again.
March 20, 2021
A very interesting read about the founders of the Denver Post and their adventures.
November 24, 2025
good, about the founders of the denver post
June 1, 2008
This is one of the most entertaining books on journalism I have ever read, and I could probably say the same with regards to books on the City of Denver. Fowler's bar stool narrative of the early days of The Denver Post may (or may not) be factually challenged, but it is a ripping good yarn that captures the succeeds in capturing the spirit of its age.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews