A Great and Tainted Genius
There’s the greatest writer of the last century and wanderings across the continents with gun and rod, and it begins in 1951 just outside Havana Way up in the Sawtooths, the day comes creeping on the wind. The aspens rattle and the stars fade as the first light hits...
Lowcountry Tales
A tangled tale from the Carolina Lowcountry where writing runs deep in the blood. Half-moon of July, a low tide at noon, glaring blight sun and nary a breeze to ruffle the waters of Port Royal Sound. Piney islands shimmer in distant heat waves, surf grumbles far...
Rambling Boy and an Island in the Sun
He was a rambling boy. They called him Kid Carolina. Dick Reynolds, officially Robert Joshua Reynolds Jr., born to wealth and privilege. He was the eldest son of the North Carolina tobacco magnate of the same name, the creator of Prince Albert pipe tobacco and Camel...
Buffalo Dream, Bison Nightmares
No time to fart or fumble, on my belly with a beast that had tried to kill a man only the day before. Willard Sumption had a buffalo ranch a little south of Aberdeen in that rolling country east of the Missouri breaks. Willard had one bad eye from the time two of his...
Whiskey and Palaver at the Dying of the Sun
“We had no lion tag and there was no game scout to give permission.” Moses threw another load of sticks upon the coals. The fire crackled, sparks flew and smoke rolled. Zambia, in the valley of the Great Zambezi. Out on the sandbars, hippos were grunting up dates,...
Fire & Iron Damascus Steel
Modern smiths keep an ancient art alive.
Battle of Sugar Point – Wild Rice Shoot-Out
They were among the most peaceable Indians, the papers all said, but they had a grievance. This is the story of the Battle of Sugar Point. Wild rice. It’s good alright, mighty good, cooked long and slow in moose broth, with maybe morel mushrooms and...
Panther: The Comeback Cat
“If called by a panther, don’t anther,” said Ogden Nash, and wildlife professionals are heeding his advice…for better or worse. Randolph County, Missouri. Farm country. November 2012. 2:00 a.m. A no-nonsense, kick-ass, bread baking, stew simmering, homesteading woman...