Distinctly Montana Magazine

www.DistinctlyMontana.com 43 Last Best Books ON A BENEDICTION OF WIND: POEMS AND PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE AMERICAN WEST by CHARLES FINN & BARBARA MICHELMAN Poetry and photography make lovely bedfellows in the new book from Havre poet Charles Finn and Missoula photographer Barbara Michelman. The slim but weighty volume pairs poems with photographs, juxtapositions that are sometimes jarring, sometimes apropos, and invariably thought-provoking. At their best, neither the poem nor the photograph are primary. In those instances, as in the triumphant poem "Celebration Day," featured alongside one of Michelman's many beautiful images of birds, the image and the text achieve something to- gether they could not have done on their own. As such, it's highly recommended even for those who think they don't like poetry. Finn and Michelman might just make a convert of you. THE MIDDLE KINGDOM UNDER THE BIG SKY: A HISTORY OF THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE IN MONTANA by MARK T. JOHNSON "With the discovery of precious metals in the early 1860s," Mark T. Johnson writes in the fascinating The Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky, "the world came to Montana." In Montana's early history, so many Chinese immigrants ar- rived in Montana that they comprised some 10% of the popula- tion. They mined, worked on the railroad, and operated laundries, restaurants and other businesses all while enduring the spite of those who felt like newspaperman Thomas Dimsdale when he wrote that the Chinese were "a social horseleech" who "can never be made into a citizen." Yet become citi- zens many of them did, including some whose descendants still live and prosper in Montana to this day. Johnson's book tells the story of the Chinese immigrant experience in Mon- tana in the late 19th century, drawn from a cache of recently translated material from the Montana Historical Society. These intimate let- ters and voices illus- trate a story as ex- pansive as the West itself, rife with injus- tice and prejudice, like a 1909 attack on a Chinese temple in Billings, but also with moments of beau- ty, such as the proud family portraits of the Lamb family who worked as physicians and Christian missionaries in Butte. Johnson has written a book that should become a new es- sential in the canon of Montana history, as its publication complicates and enriches our understanding of the Treasure State's story. JOHNSON HAS WRITTEN A BOOK THAT SHOULD BECOME A NEW ESSENTIAL IN THE CANON OF MONTANA HISTORY

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