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The Boy Who Invented Skiing: A Memoir
In his memoir, THE BOY WHO INVENTED SKIING, Swain Wolfe captures a West that no longer exists--from growing up on ranches in the high country of Colorado and Montana to working underground as a miner for Anaconda Copper in Butte.
Swain Wolfe spent his childhood in magical places, exploring the mesas and tunnels of his father's tuberculosis sanatorium near the Garden of the Gods and later his step-father's six-thousand-acre ranch on a horse named Joe. Nature was his mirror, allowing him to escape his parents' failing marriage, his father's despair, and his mother's brutal second marriage.
As a young boy, Swain risked life and limb by strapping his galoshes to homemade, cross-country skis he found in the hayloft. Aided by milk barn brooms for poles, he invented a primitive form of downhill racing.
Family violence forced a move away from the mountains and wild rivers of Colorado to Missoula, Montana. Having defined himself in the natural word, he found the people in town as alien as they found him. He spent his life attempting to understand his intelligent, dangerously complex mother, who was far ahead of her time.
He discovered he could immerse himself in work as he had in nature. He learned to work with draft horses and saw the end of the era of horse-drawn farm equipment. He worked in lumber mills, led a crew into one of Montana's worst forest fires, and cut timber until the trees started talking to him. But it was mining thousands of feet below the earth's surface that changed his life.
Swain absorbed the skills of natural storytellers--ranchers, loggers, and miners--and tells the stories of the free thinkers, hardscrabble philosophers, desperate characters, spirited women and outsider artists who embodied the boom spirit of the West after World War II.
Swain Wolfe spent his childhood in magical places, exploring the mesas and tunnels of his father's tuberculosis sanatorium near the Garden of the Gods and later his step-father's six-thousand-acre ranch on a horse named Joe. Nature was his mirror, allowing him to escape his parents' failing marriage, his father's despair, and his mother's brutal second marriage.
As a young boy, Swain risked life and limb by strapping his galoshes to homemade, cross-country skis he found in the hayloft. Aided by milk barn brooms for poles, he invented a primitive form of downhill racing.
Family violence forced a move away from the mountains and wild rivers of Colorado to Missoula, Montana. Having defined himself in the natural word, he found the people in town as alien as they found him. He spent his life attempting to understand his intelligent, dangerously complex mother, who was far ahead of her time.
He discovered he could immerse himself in work as he had in nature. He learned to work with draft horses and saw the end of the era of horse-drawn farm equipment. He worked in lumber mills, led a crew into one of Montana's worst forest fires, and cut timber until the trees started talking to him. But it was mining thousands of feet below the earth's surface that changed his life.
Swain absorbed the skills of natural storytellers--ranchers, loggers, and miners--and tells the stories of the free thinkers, hardscrabble philosophers, desperate characters, spirited women and outsider artists who embodied the boom spirit of the West after World War II.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published June 13, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 7, 2023
A fascinating life.
For about a decade, I was a close friend of Swain Wolfe. I met him in Missoula, in a coffee shop called Butterfly Herbs, where he would go most mornings to read the paper and drink coffee. On a crowded morning, I shared his booth, and we started talking. He found out that I was a published writer and had an agent and asked me if I could refer him to her. Even though my agent never managed to help him, he and I became friends.
Swain was older than me and seemed wise. He loved telling stories of rough and tough days and nights, of working strange jobs, and of traveling around making movies. He and I had a lot in common and were good friends, but we drifted apart. Then he got sick, and whenever I saw him, he seemed like he was becoming a hermit. Then he died a few years ago. I had a copy of this book, 'The Boy Who Invented Skiing,' on my shelf for a few years but hadn't opened it until a few days ago. It's his autobiography from his childhood through his mid-life. I should have read it while he was alive because it is all the stuff that I never knew about. I wish I had read it when he was alive because right now, I would be going and finding Swain and telling him how great all the stories in this book are. They really are. They are the true sort of things that, when they happen, can crush someone or make them into a wildly interesting person. And the Swain I was friends with was the latter.
The Author's Note at the start of the book sums it up perfectly: "The events described are not metaphorical. There was drama enough without the need for fiction." Swain's life was dramatic, and this book captures the most interesting and lovely parts of a fascinating life.
For about a decade, I was a close friend of Swain Wolfe. I met him in Missoula, in a coffee shop called Butterfly Herbs, where he would go most mornings to read the paper and drink coffee. On a crowded morning, I shared his booth, and we started talking. He found out that I was a published writer and had an agent and asked me if I could refer him to her. Even though my agent never managed to help him, he and I became friends.
Swain was older than me and seemed wise. He loved telling stories of rough and tough days and nights, of working strange jobs, and of traveling around making movies. He and I had a lot in common and were good friends, but we drifted apart. Then he got sick, and whenever I saw him, he seemed like he was becoming a hermit. Then he died a few years ago. I had a copy of this book, 'The Boy Who Invented Skiing,' on my shelf for a few years but hadn't opened it until a few days ago. It's his autobiography from his childhood through his mid-life. I should have read it while he was alive because it is all the stuff that I never knew about. I wish I had read it when he was alive because right now, I would be going and finding Swain and telling him how great all the stories in this book are. They really are. They are the true sort of things that, when they happen, can crush someone or make them into a wildly interesting person. And the Swain I was friends with was the latter.
The Author's Note at the start of the book sums it up perfectly: "The events described are not metaphorical. There was drama enough without the need for fiction." Swain's life was dramatic, and this book captures the most interesting and lovely parts of a fascinating life.
November 9, 2018
Aaron Hernandez's review fo The Boy Who Invented Skiing: A Memoir
Looks can be deceiving especially on books. The Boy Who Invented Skiing: A Memoir, by Swain Wolfe, is an example in book form. I finished it but it didn't live up to its expectation and at the same time confused me.
The memoir started off well explaining who the characters where and were it takes place. Which is in Colorado. The family was living in a small house and were very poor. Swain was very appreciative of his stuff but his parents were soon to get a divorce. The book lost me in the very first few pages and I did not know what was going on. There was a time in the book when Swain was in his room and he said that he saw a door that was never there before. He went into it saw people inside and he came right back out. He wrote that he fell asleep and woke up and the door was not there." I walked into my room and there I saw a door which had never been there before"(26) This confused me because it did not go along with beginning of the storyline which was about how his family's life was in Colorado. I had trouble understanding how these events where taking place.
Later on I got confused by how the mother acted. And at this point there was still no mention of skiing. Her actions where very unnecessary and her moods changed very fast. She was one of the most confusing characters that were introduced in the memoir. "Mother at this point had fell into severe depression. She was not vocal and soon was to leave father" (120). I did not know why the mother was introduced because she didn't have a big role in the memoir. She didn't say much but her thought process confused me. She made Swain leave his life in Colorado and move to Montana with her new boyfriend which was violent. Swain had a better life in Colorado than in Montana.
The story though did give me a picture of how different parts of America where in different states back in the early 20th century. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in the Western states of America and how life was in them in the 20th century. I would like to say that overall I don't recommend this book but you could always give it a shot at reading because you will never know if you enjoy it.
Looks can be deceiving especially on books. The Boy Who Invented Skiing: A Memoir, by Swain Wolfe, is an example in book form. I finished it but it didn't live up to its expectation and at the same time confused me.
The memoir started off well explaining who the characters where and were it takes place. Which is in Colorado. The family was living in a small house and were very poor. Swain was very appreciative of his stuff but his parents were soon to get a divorce. The book lost me in the very first few pages and I did not know what was going on. There was a time in the book when Swain was in his room and he said that he saw a door that was never there before. He went into it saw people inside and he came right back out. He wrote that he fell asleep and woke up and the door was not there." I walked into my room and there I saw a door which had never been there before"(26) This confused me because it did not go along with beginning of the storyline which was about how his family's life was in Colorado. I had trouble understanding how these events where taking place.
Later on I got confused by how the mother acted. And at this point there was still no mention of skiing. Her actions where very unnecessary and her moods changed very fast. She was one of the most confusing characters that were introduced in the memoir. "Mother at this point had fell into severe depression. She was not vocal and soon was to leave father" (120). I did not know why the mother was introduced because she didn't have a big role in the memoir. She didn't say much but her thought process confused me. She made Swain leave his life in Colorado and move to Montana with her new boyfriend which was violent. Swain had a better life in Colorado than in Montana.
The story though did give me a picture of how different parts of America where in different states back in the early 20th century. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in the Western states of America and how life was in them in the 20th century. I would like to say that overall I don't recommend this book but you could always give it a shot at reading because you will never know if you enjoy it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews