Author of The Big Sky series, The Way West, and the screenplay for the classic Shane, among many other timeless stories of frontier mountain men, icon of Western literature A. B. “Bud” Guthrie Jr. brought a blazing realism to the story of the West. That realism, which astounded and even shocked some readers, came out of the depth of Guthrie’s historical research and an acuity that had seldom been seen in the work of Western novelists. In Under the Big Sky, the latest in his celebrated series of biographies of Western writers, Jackson J. Benson details the life and work of this true giant on the Western literary landscape.

 

The small Montana town that figures in several of Guthrie’s books is clearly patterned after the town where he grew up, Choteau, on the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains. Benson illuminates the critical details of Guthrie’s upbringing and education, the influence of his intellectually inclined father, his work as a newspaperman in Kentucky, and his time at Harvard University. Animated by the observations of friends, family, and fellow authors, this intimate account offers rare insight into the life and work of a remarkable writer and into the making of the literary West.

Jackson J. Benson is an emeritus professor of English at San Diego State University. He is the author of several books, including The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography; The Ox-Bow Man: A Biography of Walter Van Tilburg Clark; and Wallace Stegner: His Life and Work (available in a Bison Books edition).

"In this caring yet objective account of the novelist's life, Jackson J. Benson uncovers the passions and demons in Guthrie's life away from the desk, lending the biography meaning for general readers as well as writers."—Washington Post

"A welcome biography of the Western novelist and environmentalist."—Kirkus Reviews

"Guthrie was a man of ideas who was quick to question and eager to learn what prompted settlers to step outside the confines of their secure lives. Benson's biography follows Guthrie's own personal quest for transcendence."—ForeWord

"Benson's biography provides a thorough, well-written, lively, and authoritative account of A.B. Guthrie, Jr.'s life."—Richard W. Etulain, Oregon Historical Quarterly

“Author of The Big Sky and the screenplay for Shane, Bud Guthrie was one of the giants of Western American storytelling. Under the Big Sky, Guthrie's biography by Jackson Benson, tells another fascinating story, that of Guthrie's life and the passions that drove him.”—William Kittredge, author of Hole in the Sky and The Willow Field

“Jackson Benson has written major biographies of John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, and Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Now he gives us a masterful portrait of A. B. Guthrie Jr., thereby filling yet another important gap in the literary history of the American West.”—Page Stegner, author of Adios Amigos: Tales of Sustenance and Purification in the American West