Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1998
Abstract
In July 1992, Newsweek ran an article titled “Don’t Fence Them Out,” a piece that explores the Intermountain literary renaissance of the past few decades. The article includes a sidebar describing places where there are “Too many writers,” listing “Albuquerque,” “Portland,” and “All of Montana.” The same sidebar includes four titles under the heading “Books walking off the shelves out West (but good luck finding 'em back East).” One of those works listed is Rick Bass’s The Ninemile Wolves (1992), his sixth book. Bass’s career substantiates the prideful claim reflected in the title of Montana’s centennial literary anthology, The Last Best Place (1988). The seminal fact in Bass’s life has been his move, with his girlfriend (now wife), Elizabeth Hughes, to the very northwest corner of Montana from Jackson, Mississippi, in the summer of 1987. For Bass, the Yaak River Valley is the Last Best Place. Before the move, he had been working as a petroleum geologist out of Jackson and had published two books of essays, The Deer Pasture (1985) and Wild to the Heart (1987). Since the move, he has published nine additional books and gained a national, if not international, readership.
Recommended Citation
Weltzien, O. Alan. Rick Bass. Boise, ID: Boise State University, 1998. Digital. Western Writers Series, 134.