Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 33 A HISTORY OF MONTANA IN 101 OBJECTS: ARTIFACTS AND ESSAYS FROM THE MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY There's some- thing intoxicat- ing about paging through A History of Montana in 101 Objects—you come away with quite a different sense of Montana's histo- ry than you tend to get from a more traditionally presented history book. Yes, there are objects representing some of the big, dramat- ic moments in Montana history. Still, even those, such as the uniform of a WWI nurse from Mon- tana, are touched by some of the pathos of or- dinary life. Other objects are al- together stranger, like the enormous so-called "dinosaur gun" made by some of the builders of the Fort Peck Dam or the dangerous-sounding "electric bathrobe" once owned by wealthy Hele- na businessman Thomas Cruse. Still others, such as legendary cowboy Ted- dy Blue Abbot's chaps or Evelyn Cameron's cam- era, connect us to prominent Montanans of the past. The book is a pleasure to dip into at random, or to explore via its thematic groupings of objects, such as "Montanans at Work" or "Imagining Montana," and is an artfully presented, elegant reminder that the history of Montana is complex, di- verse, sometimes mundane, often fascinating, and, most im- portantly, ongoing. LIFE LIST BY MARC BEAUDIN WITH MONOTYPES BY STORRS BISHOP In a poem devoted to the wa- terfowl the anhinga, Beaudin calls the bird "a terrible god of its world/ of one small pond teeming/ with supplicant fish," just one of the many star- tling metaphors found in the collection Life List. Each poem is accompanied by the genus and species of a bird, and the book's division into ostensibly geographic sections like "Birds of the Eastern United States," "Birds of the Western United States," and "Birds of Europe," along with evocative monotypes by artist Storrs Bishop, produce an idiosyncratic field guide to modern life, reflected in, in- spired by, or suggestive of birds. Author Marc Beaudin of Livingston says in his introduc- tion that he's always been fascinated by birds, but this spry anthology, though winged and even sometimes soaring, has a lot more on its mind than ornithology. FOUR MILES WEST OF NOWHERE: A CITY BOY'S FIRST YEAR IN THE MONTANA WILDERNESS BY JOHN PHILIPS Philips, the former edi- tor of Car and Driver, retired to Montana after many years of writing. Like so many oth- ers, he found the state got under his skin. And, unable to resist bringing all that journalistic experience to bear, he decided to write about his experiences. With a knowing, humorous voice, he explores some of the things about Montana that surprised him, challenged him, or made him laugh. If he oc- casionally pokes a little fun at us Montanans, that's ok; we can take it. But what comes through most of all is Philips's admiration for our hard-won wisdom, small-town kindness- es, and, of course, our stalwart resistance to letting a little snow and ice keep us down. Check out an excerpt from Four Miles West of Nowhere on page 42! Last Best Books

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