![[the cowboy girl cover.jpg]](cowboy girl cover.jpg)
"John Clayton's The Cowboy Girl is as meticulously researched as it is a bona fine page-turner," writes
Victoria Lamont in the journal Western American Literature.
"What sets The Cowboy Girl apart from standard works of western Americana, aside from the inherently sensational life of its subject,
is the way it weaves together details of both Lockhart's public and private life with insights about the
historical, social, and cultural developments of which Lockhart was a part. The result is a fascinating read...
a rare revelation of frontier mythology as lived experience."
The book, a narrative
biography of the novelist, journalist, publisher, and rancher Caroline
Lockhart (1871-1962), was
a finalist for a 2007 High Plains Book Award. It was named one of the best books of the year by the website NewWest.Net.
Lockhart was a fascinating woman: she broke
ground as stunt-girl reporter for the Boston Post and Philadelphia
Bulletin; traveled to New Mexico, Montana, Europe, Newfoundland, and
Spanish Honduras; moved to the newly-founded town of Cody, Wyoming, in
1904, where she knew Buffalo Bill; wrote seven bestselling novels, including
three that were made into films; and spent five years as editor/publisher
of the Cody Enterprise.
She was probably the first woman to float the
Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, and may have been the first
woman over Swiftcurrent Pass in what is now Glacier National Park.
![[High Plains Book Award finalist]](HPBA.jpg)
But through all that, Lockhart's lifelong quest
was to be a "cowboy girl" -- to re-create the magic of the Old
West despite the progress of the 20th Century. John's book tells the story
of that quest.
"The Cowboy Girl: The Life of Caroline
Lockhart," is published by the University
of Nebraska Press. Nebraska, publisher of the Bison Books imprint,
is one of the world's premier publishers of books on the American West.
Nebraska publishes a much wider range of books than most university presses,
including many titles that are well researched and thoroughly documented,
but targeted at popular rather than academic audiences.
ISBN: 978-0-8032-5590-4
Former page title: www.thecowboygirl.net
One of the best ways to learn more about the book is to read John's
interview with Jenny Shank. Another is to read the first chapter. Or you can:
Overview:
In 1901, Philadelphia's celebrity female journalist
stepped off a train in Blackfoot, Montana, and into a world of living
legends. The miners and frontiersmen, Indians and trappers Caroline Lockhart
met there inspired this beautiful, single, strong-willed woman to live
a life she'd only dreamed about in what remained of the Wild West.
This is the true story of a woman whose work
and life teetered between realism and romanticism, who wrote novels "like
a man" yet ran her businesses and love affairs like a liberated feminist.
Politely educated (she attended the Moravian Seminary for girls) and well-traveled
(her assignments took her throughout Europe), she chose to live out her
passions in a time when to bare one's ankle could ruin a girl for life.
As a Cody, Wyoming, newspaper publisher, she
founded the town's still-thriving Stampede rodeo, received critical praise
from the demanding H.L. Mencken, and saw three of her seven novels turned
into films. Yet she also infuriated neighbors and admirers with her cantankerous
crusades (she referred to novelist Zane Grey, for instance, as "that
tooth-pulling ass!"), and indomitable will. In this all-encompassing
portrait, the Cowboy Girl, Caroline Lockhart, emerges as a woman who remade
the fantasy of the West, in life and in words, and who keeps us spellbound
to this day.
Jump to:
Here's a collection of reviews of The Cowboy Girl:
"Clayton's
biography captures this woman who was often difficult to love but always
larger-than-life, and The Cowboy Girl is a striking portrait of a Western
woman who lived on her own terms throughout her long, extraordinary life."
-www.newwest.net,
Best Books of 2007
"So you want to know more of the real Old West?
Caroline Lockhart sure lived it. She had talent, guts, grit, and independence
-- yet she was so damned ornery that when I was growing up I knew a lot
of folks who walked the other side of the street when they saw her comin'! John Clayton
fully captures this complex and colorful gal in this lively, well-researched,
thought-provoking, wonderful book. I heartily recommend it." -former
Wyoming senator Al
Simpson
"explores the life of one of the West's greatest
proponents, journalists, novelists, and storytellers... What is it about
the image of open range, gunfights and cattle drives that still moves
us today? Clayton's story of Lockhart's long life is as much about answering
this as it is a story of a unique woman's life." -Big Sky Journal
"As an author, publisher,
adventurer, and entrepreneur, Caroline Lockhart is an important historical
figure crucial in the understanding of the cultural development of the
American West... Clayton presents a warm portrait of a woman of a woman
[with] strong spirit and independent vision... [a] little-known legend."
-Djamila
Ricciardi, Bloomsbury
Review
"essential to a better understanding
of the scope of characters that shaped the West." -State
of the Arts
"Clayton
not only offers a thorough assessment of the life of a fascinating and
underrated woman novelist but also delves deeply into the appeal of the
American West... [the book] has given Lockhart the absorbing biographical
treatment her remarkable life deserves."-Booklist
"a well balanced narrative biography of Lockhart, a woman obsessed
with the West and whose passions often overshadowed her better judgment.
It is a fascinating story." -Western
Writers of America's Roundup
Magazine
"Lockhart was a
driven woman, adventurous and spirited, but a banshee if you were on the
wrong side of an issue or her personal life... Clayton presents the full,
complex woman. Actress, reporter, world traveler, magazine and novel author,
newspaper editor, rancher... she was a "cowboy girl" of her
own making. " -Pete Warzel,
Montana Quarterly
"It is Clayton's
language skills and consolidation of his comments with Lockhart's own
words that make The Cowboy
Girl such a pleasure to read."
-Patty Myers, Wyoming
Library Roundup
"Lockhart's biography is both gripping and funny, tearful and joyous."
-SIROW Newsletter, Southwest Institute for Research on Women at the University of Arizona
"Clayton should be commended for bringing Lockhart out of obscurity.
She was an incredible woman who lived outside traditional female roles of her time."
-Mary Madden, Kansas History
"Whether or not you like Lockhart's fidelity or character on a personal level,
Clayton has crafted a strong, enlightening account of her life as a self-described Cowboy Girl."
-Journal of the West
"John Clayton's lively account of Caroline Lockahrt is a welcome biography that will be of interest to western historians, women's historians, literary scholars, and general readers... an enjoyable and readably window into the world of a woman we should all know better."
-Oregon Historical Quarterly
"John Clayton
had his work cut out for him when he took on the challenge of writing
a biography of a colorful and almost forgotten writer and cattle queen.
The result is a thoroughly entertaining portrait." -Lorna
Thackeray, Billings
Gazette
"Not only does Clayton's sensitive and powerful
writing fill Lockhart's character out with the grit and depth of her temperament,
but the vivid episodes reveal her to be a valuable writer." -Lively
Times
"looks at the myths and contradictions that
shape the complicated place called the West, while telling the passionate
and cantankerous tale of Lockhart's long life." -Bozeman
Daily Chronicle
"Lockhart's rough-and-tumble
demeanor and true-grit ambition allowed her to chew up and spit out anything
the Old West had to offer." -Magic
City Magazine
"as fascinating a Westerner
as I've ever read about."-Jenny Shank, www.NewWest.net
"This larger-than-life Western woman deserved
a good biography, and John Clayton has written one." -Bill Croke, Washington Times
"As biographies go, this
is no doubt the best I have read in years." -Linda Wommack, True
West
"a fascinating story of
a driven, adventurous, lusty, at times abrasive and even murderous woman." - www.NewWest.net
"Mr. Clayton's grasp of
his subject and her environment is masterful, and that is no mean feat."-Jim
Larson, Billings
Outpost
"an
absorbing story of a talented but difficult woman always torn by her conflicting
ambitions of fame, power, domestic bliss and a country life." -Joan Hinkemeyer,
Rocky Mountain News
"Lockhart doesn't need
to be a mythic or even likable figure to impress. She was extraordinary
despite her faults. Maybe even because of them." -Jay Stevens, Missoula
Independent
"The
Wyoming legend, Caroline Lockhart, is immortalized in [this] new biography."
-Casper
(Wyo.) Journal
"Clayton's book follows the true story
of Lockhart, Philadelphia's celebrity female journalist from the early
20th century. Sent out west on a newspaper assignment, Lockhart met miners
and frontiersmen, Indians and trappers and was inspired to live the life
of her dreams in what remained of the wild West." -Laramie
Boomerang
"What a great service John Clayton has done
us in rescuing Caroline Lockhart from oblivion in this insightful and
highly readable biography. I was fascinated from beginning to end with
this story of a woman who not only wrote stories of the West, but lived
and loved it."-Mary
Clearman Blew, author of All
but the Waltz
"A fresh and highly original portrait of that
quirky, irascible writer of the range, Caroline Lockhart. Like the author
herself, Clayton's work winds through a landscape both factual and fantastic;
in the end he manages to shine light not merely on one unforgettable woman,
but on the appetites and yearnings that have driven many of our most cherished
notions of the American West."-Gary Ferguson, author of The Great Divide: The Rocky Mountains
in the American Mind
"Expertly researched and wonderfully written,
this biography of Lockhart expands the genre to a meditation on frontier,
feminism, and the vagaries of literary hubris. Clayton has rendered a
riveting portrait of a woman both troubled and brave; a character caught
up in the fiction of her own life."-Mark Spragg, author of An Unfinished Life
"A very interesting, well-written, and well-documented
look at an early Western woman writer who has not previously received
the recognition she deserves. Caroline Lockhart is such a complex figure-talented,
beautiful, energetic, and often headstrong, but also conniving, insecure,
and mean spirited-that she will be of interest to readers who have never
heard of her work. I stayed up late to finish it because I couldn't put
it down!"-Sue
Hart, Montana State University-Billings
The best way to get "The Cowboy Girl" is through your local bookstore. The University of Nebraska Press has great
distribution, so if your local bookstore
isn't carrying the book (ISBN: 978-0-8032-5590-4), they can surely order it for you.
If you would prefer to order online, please use this link.
You could also support one of the author's favorite bookstores, such as Bozeman's Country Bookshelf,
Red Lodge Books, or Casper's Wind City Books.
