| Review |  |
| Author | Saunders, Richard L., Editor |
| Title | A Yellowstone Reader: The National Park in Folklore, Popular Fiction, and Verse |
| Publication | Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press 2003 |
| ISBN | 0-87480-756-5 (pbk: alk. paper) $17.95 |
| Reviewed by | Bob Hook, University of Idaho Library |
Richard Saunders, curator of Special Collections and Archives at the Paul Meek Library, University of Tennessee at Martin, started the research for this book while at Montana State University, Bozeman. His goal was to present “a definitive record of Yellowstone in fiction to date” (p xi). The works he chose for reproduction in the reader are those he deemed “emblematic of a particular literary genre or subgenre … [those which] illuminate distinct periods in Yellowstone cultural history of tourism … those in which Yellowstone figures most prominently … [and those which] even an interested reader would find difficult to secure in the original” (p xi). All the others appear, by genre, in the annotated bibliography. In the preface he sounds a note of caution: “Don’t get wrapped up in trying to follow the geography or the ‘history’ that is presented in these stories, as virtually none of it is real” (page xiv). He also warns that things the modern reader might find racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive are part of these historical documents. “… [T]he language some may perceive as disparagements or slurs cannot be censored without smugly sacrificing an informed understanding of the time or culture on the altar of modern cultural arrogance” (p xv).
Saunders introduces each selected work with information about the author, the story or poem, and the society and times in which the work emerged. Notes appear at the end of the book.
The poetry is interesting and includes everything from
descriptive narratives to comic historical poems. Saunders’ choice of fiction covers
a broad spectrum. It ranges
from dime novels such as Diamond Dirk by Prentice Ingraham to pure
fluff like Chaperoning Adrienne by Alice Harriman-Browne to
better-known literature such as Owen Wister’s “Bad Medicine.” The tall tales include anecdotes
from people like the tour guides who had to field questions such as what
makes the Yellowstone River so crooked or whether the ice is hot when the
hot springs freeze in the winter or what the eagles do with their nests
when they leave for the winter. The fiction (prose and verse) makes for fun reading, and it can be
the vehicle for insights into social conditions and values of a particular
era.