John Clayton's Blog

One of the first Montana writers I ever encountered was Jim Robbins. In the mid-1980s I would read his dispatches from the Rocky Mountains in the Boston Globe. I was jealous. Here was a guy who got to live in the Rockies and write for a living. At the time I wondered why I couldn't do that. Eventually I stopped wondering and pursued my own path out here.

In the years since I've followed Robbins' career -- from the Globe to the New York Times, to a book on the environmental politics of the Yellowstone ecosystem and several on medical technology. I've also met him in person and once even played basketball with him. (Really nice guy. Pretty good mid-range jump shot.)

So I was delighted to see his new essay in the LA Times Magazine. One of Robbins' best qualities has always been to convey the thoughts and feelings of people who live in the West to those who live on the coasts. So while I myself didn't find anything new in the essay, I did find myself saying, "Yup, that's it. That's what we've been struggling with."

In his conclusion Robbins admits, "I don't know what the answer is." I sometimes go a step farther: fearing there is no answer. But hey, here's a guy who is effectively articulating a question, for an important (and paying) audience. Twenty years later, the word "jealous" no longer fits my attitude toward Robbins. "Appreciative" or "Thankful" may be closer.

I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com

The background of this story hints at a growing feeling I've had in the last several months: if I was a young, impoverished, aspiring artist, I would move to Butte.

It's hard for longer-term Montanans to accept. Butte has long been the tough industrial precinct of the state, like a wayward if happy-go-lucky schoolmate, prompting good humor but not necessarily envy. Missoula -- and to a lesser extent Livingston -- have been the art colonies. Those two towns attracted artists because 20 years ago they were places with a low cost of living and a high degree of architectural and community character. But these days those qualities apply to Butte, while Missoula and Livingston (and several other Montana locales) are too expensive for the starving-artist type.

Evidence is in the art produced -- and it was on great display at the gala Thursday event at September's Montana Festival of the Book. During that lengthy evening, dozens of literary types stood up to rhapsodize about Butte -- and there was so much going on that organizers didn't have to call on Paul Zarzyski for his legendary poem "Why I Like Butte."

Today plenty of others like it just as well.

I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com

A friend once told me that when he met the writer Bill McKibben, he thought of me. Reading an interview with McKibben (pdf) in the current issue of "The Sun," I realize what a compliment that was. (In truth, I also realize some of the more superficial similarities: raised in suburban Boston, writing for newspapers in high school and college, noticing the Boston Globe byline of Gordon McKibben, Bill's father.)

Just in the excerpt available online, McKibben shows a fascinating mix of big thoughts and small vocabulary words (and I'd like to add my cheers for the passing of "sustainability"), as well as an articulate diplomacy. He's not railing against alleged corporate or political evil, but he does want to encourage us to consider our own change. (In the rest of the piece he does get a little more boldly political -- which is to say, more predictable and thus less interesting.)

I'm also delighted to note that this interview represents the biggest-yet publication of the wonderful Montana writer Alexis Adams, who has collaborated with me on some more-prosaic technical reports in the past. I'm looking forward to more from her.

I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com