Missoula – God’s country – From ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac “During the depression,” said the cowboy to me, “I used to hop freights at least once a month. In those days you’d see hundreds of men riding a flatcar or in a boxcar, and they weren’t just bums, Read More
Robert V. Finch – Forgotten Playwright Robert V. Finch (1909 – 1959) of Dillon, Mt., was a prominent western playwright during the late 1930’s & 1940’s. He attended the University of Montana and was a student in H. G. Merriam’s writing classes, apparently graduating in 1933. To this day, he Read More
Missoula-Born Writer, Hector Chevigny, Continues Career in East Hector Chevigny, former resident of Missoula, who made a successful career for himself in the literary and radio worlds, has cornered more fame in the last few months as a figure in writing circles. Mr. Chevigny, who has been living in New Read More
H. G. Merriam Letter to Pulitzer Prize Winner H. L. Davis. It has been suggested that in The Frontier we publish more experimental work of a sophisticated nature. In my judgment that cannot be an important function of The Frontier. I don’t believe that our country has reached that stage, Read More
One of Missoula’s First Novels – The Pine Tree Shield by Elizabeth Canfield Flint (1943) Local Matron’s Book to Be Off Press in March – Missoulian 11/22/1942 “The Pine Tree Shield” Is Novel Based on Life of Forester. A small boy working in the broad fields of his father’s farm Read More
A Sailing Poet A long time ago, more years than I like to recall, the late French Ferguson ran a column in The Missoulian, called the Oracle. French had a good thing going there – sometimes 90 per cent of the column was written by contributors, of which he had Read More
11/27/17 Books, Rules and The Escaping business I was asked a few years ago, what books do I read. I didn’t quite know how to answer that. When I see people being queried about what they are currently reading, I am often surprised at how easily they seem to be Read More
A poem by Norman Wicklund Macleod – 1941* We Played the Flatheads at Arlee From miles around the Indians came to see us Play basketball against the Flatheads at Arlee. The stakes were high and the floor narrow – The Indians wore their black hair parted, Drawn back sharp Read More
“Butte, just at sunset, was a strangely beautiful city; a single street like a flight of giant steps ascending the mountain side, brightly lit, as if some temple site to the deity, the smelters flaming about the mines high upon both sides. It impressed me as of an overwhelming grandeur Read More
Dorothy Dodds Baker – Scandalous Author – Better than she thought One of her novels, Young Man with a Horn, was made into a movie in 1950 starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day and Hoagy Carmichael. Dorothy Dodds Baker (1907–1968) was born in Missoula, Montana, in 1907 and raised Read More