Calamity Jane

by Roberta Beed Sollid

Foreword by Vivian A. Paladin

Introduction by James D. McLaird

Afterword by Richard W. Etulain

"Reprinted here for the first time, [this book] remains today the most important study of the famous and notorious frontier woman."
—James D. McLaird

Available again after thirty-five years, this is a new edition of the classic study of the West's favorite "wild woman." Still the most authoritative factual source, this book separates the mythical romanticized Calamity depicted in dime novels and Hollywood films from the real, flesh-and-blood woman. With new scholarship to place it in historical perspective, Calamity Jane also includes thirty-one historical photographs.

226 pages, illus.

Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan

as told to Margaret Ronan

Edited by Ellen Baumler

"One of the most important personal recollections of Montana’s mining frontier."
—Mary Clearman Blew, author of Bone Deep in Landscape

A covered wagon on a dim road, the promise of a long journey, and the wonder of what lay ahead filled the shadowy spaces of Mary Sheehan Ronan’s earliest memories. By the time she was a married woman in her twenties, she was a well-seasoned pioneer, having crossed most of the country and retraced her steps back across a third of it. Ronan tells her story in this highly readable, entertaining account of one woman’s life in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. This detailed memoir recalls a girl’s growing up on the Montana mining frontier, her ascent to young womanhood on a farm in southern California, her experiences as a student in a Los Angeles convent school, her return to Montana as a bride, and her life on the Flathead Indian Reservation as wife of the Indian agent. The exhilaration of a forbidden sled ride, the creaking of the hangman's rope, her father giving the last of their water to his dying mule-these things Ronan remembers with vivid clarity. A highly readable, entertaining account, Girl from the Gulches’s unique perspective is a joy to read.

158 pages, illus., maps
paper, ISBN 0-917298-97-7, $17.95

Jeannette Rankin, America's Conscience

by Norma Smith

Preface by Joan Hoff

Introduction by Kathryn Anderson

Suffragist, social worker, first woman elected to the United States Congress, a lifelong peace activist, and a tireless advocate for political reform, Jeannette Rankin is often remembered as the woman who voted "No" to the United States' involvement in both world wars. Rankin's determined voice shines in this biography, written by her friend, Norma Smith.

168 pages, illus.
paper ISBN 0-917298-79-9, $17.95

Western History Classics

The Story of Mary Maclane, by Herself

by Mary Maclane

Introduction by Julia Watson

The Story of Mary MacLane shocked the literary world when it was published in April 1902. Within six months it had sold 100,000 copies, an astonishing number then and now. Within a few years it had been translated into 36 languages, and writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Hart Crane, and Gertrude Stein lauded it as an important influence in their quests for a new American style.

The author was a 19-year-old girl from the raw, masculine mining town of Butte, Montana. With the publication of Story, Mary MacLane became an overnight sensation. She was called the "Wild Woman of Butte," a Bohemian, a radical, a feminist, a rebel. Although MacLane went on to write other books, none had the impact of Story, which was—and is—fresh, frank, and funny. Readers are swept along in a breath-taking tour de force about life, love, and longing that is as powerful today as it was provocative when first published.

Copublished with Riverbend Publishing

256 pages, illus.
paper, ISBN 1-931832-19-6, $12.95

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Western History Classics

Tenting To-Night

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Originally published in 1918, Tenting To-Night-the lively story of best-selling author Mary Roberts Rinehart’s 1916 family camping trip through Montana’s Glacier National Park and Washington’s Northern Cascades-has been reprinted as part of the Western History Classics series. Including photographs of Rinehart, her companions, and majestic Glacier National Park, this humorous adventure about "roughing it" in the Northwestern wilderness is sure to charm readers.

Copublished with Riverbend Publishing

224 pages, illus.
paper, ISBN 1-931832-13-7, $19.95