Win Blevins

Land holds the stories of people, their legends, and their history. Yellowstone National Park is an extraordinary tale of people and the earth through time and this travel guide goes with you along the journey. Learn about the Indians who lived or traveled through Yellowstone, as well as the mountain men who were the first white people to discover Yellowstone, the government explorers who mapped it and fought to make it a park, the poachers and other explorers--foreign and domestic, high-born and low-born, who sojourned here. You will be led through all the travails, thrills, dramas, and serene satisfactions of the people over the park's history. Easy and enjoyable to read, this travel guide allows you to begin at whichever of the five park entrances you use and follow the park's story as you follow the road.

"Win Blevins has long since won his place among the West's very best." - Tony Hillerman For the first time, The 'Dictionary of the American West' includes all the voices of America's richly woven history of the West: Women, Mormons, Hispanics, Blacks, French-Canadians, mountain men, half-bloods, immigrants, cowboys, and missionaries--to show how western speech is actually a riotous mix of cultures and languages.Included are Spanish, Indian Pidgin English, and Chinook trade jargon. That's why words like 'tortilla', 'simpatico', 'bourgeois' and 'muckamuck' have become as much a part of American parlance as dogie, salty dog, smart-aleck, and grub. Among the thousands of carefully researched definitions, the reader will find the meaning of 'buck nun' & to 'ride circle;' as well as American Indian words such as 'sun dance', 'kachina' & 'medicine pipe'. This book is essential for anyone with an interest in the American West, in its history, facts & fables, idioms & mores. Highly informative and endlessly entertaining, and accompanied by black-and-white illustrations, the Dictionary of the American West explains more than 5,000 terms and expressions in passages that pack a crossbuck saddle's worth of American frontier history and wit. Win Blevins is an American author of historical fiction, narrative non-fiction, historical fantasy, and non-fiction books, as well as short stories, novellas, articles, reviews, and screenplays. He has written many books about the western mountain trappers, and is known for his "mastery of western lore." His notable works include Stone Song, So Wild a Dream, and Dictionary of the American West.According to WorldCat, the Dictionary of the American West is held in 728 libraries. Blevins has won numerous awards, including being named winner of the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement in writing literature of the West, being selected for the Western Writers Hall of Fame, being twice named 'Writer of the Year' by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, and winning two Spur Awards for Best Novel of the West.

"Win Blevins, that master yarn-spinner, has done it again with 'The Rock Child.' A wonderfully wild one which you don't want to miss." - Tony Hillerman. "Packed with drama, adventure, humor, the lore of American Indians and Tibetan Buddhists, plus unforgettable historical characters, this book is a dazzling tour de force and a deeply moving story. A wild mythic novel of the American West. The climax would satisfy the Buddha himself "- Library Journal An unlikely trio comprised of the Shoshone Indian Asie, a Tibetan nun, and Sir Richard Burton-the famous soldier and explorer-flees from the Utah Territory to California in 1862. The Destroying Angel of the Mormon Church, Porter Rockwell, pursues them relentlessly. The journey is jam-packed with unforgettable incidents and colorful characters, including a fledgling journalist named Mark Twain. In the end Asie discovers why he was named the Rock Child, what it means to be a man of color in America, what spiritual path will nurture him, who his people are, and the strength of love.Reviews"Blevins, whose book Stone Song fictionalized the life of the legendary Crazy Horse, has stated his aim is to write 'mythic novels of the American West.' He meets that goal in The Rock Child.The voices shift between an Indian-Anglo musical savant; Sun Moon, a virginal Tibetan nun shanghaied into American prostitution; and Sir Richard Burton, real-life explorer, linguist, and Arabian Nights translator. Joining Burton in rescuing Asie and Sun Moon from a dreadful fate is Mark Twain, a comedic catalyst that surprisingly few historical novelists have thought to exploit. Like Twain, Burton is well drawn. He's a cultivated, Sean Connery-type sinner who feels badly about his appetites, and the picaresque passages told from his perspective enliven this ambitious narrative." - Library Journal"A colorful novel set among the Mormons in 1862, featuring such real folks as Sam Clemens, Sir Richard Burton, Brigham Young, and Porter Rockwell, by the author of Stone Song, Win Blevins. Half-Indian Asie Taylor, a musical prodigy who has been accepted into the Church of the Latter-day Saints, drowns when his delivery wagon is overturned in a flash flood. He experiences an out-of-body experience, returns to life, and is amazed to see the scarred but beautiful face of Sun Moon above him. Sun is a Tibetan Buddhist nun who was kidnapped in Asia and shipped to America to be sold into prostitution. Tarim, the tavernkeeper who bought her, expects to resell her for a hefty sum."When Porter Rockwell, a Mormon known as the Destroying Angel (he seeks out and kills enemies of the church) buys Sun Moon, he attempts to satisfy his lust. Frustrated by his inability to do so, he disfigures her face. Sun Moon flees and falls in with Asie, who has decided to go in search of his origins and the meaning of his Shoshone name, Rock Child. Meanwhile, Rockwell is in pursuit of Sun Moon, determined to kill her-and anyone who gets in his way. "Tibetan-speaking Sir Richard Burton, a brilliant opium addict, is in Salt Lake City to persuade Brigham Young to form a separate Western Confederacy. Burton saves Asie and Sun Moon from Rockwell and joins their quest. For a while, Brigham Young gives them sanctuary from Rockwell, though Rockwell later follows the trio to San Francisco."'Life is a flabbergaster, ' says Asie Taylor, hero of Win Blevins's The Rock Child, a story that will flabbergast every reader who opens it. This is a rich, funny, fascinating, meaningful, and memorable novel from the author of that incredible masterpiece about Crazy Horse, Stone Song." -Rocky Mountain News"Win Blevins displays an antic imagination, not only in mingling actual and invented characters, but in melding gritty action-adventure with metaphysical musings." - Dale Wasserman, author of Man of La Mancha

Did you ever need to spell ""dogie"" (as in, get-along-little) or need to know what a ""sakey"" is? This is the book that can tell you how to spell, pronounce, and define over 5,000 terms relative to the American West.Want to know what a ""breachy"" cow is? Turn to page 43 to learn that it's an adjective used to describe a cow that has a tendency to find her way through fences where she isn't supposed to be. It describes some teenagers we know!Spend hours perusing the dictionary at random, or read straight through to get a flavor of the West from its beginnings to contemporary days. Laced with photographs and maps, the ""Dictionary of the American West"" will make you sound like an expert on all things western, even if you don't know a dingus from a dinner plate.Compiled of words brought into English from Native Americans, emigrants, Mormons, Hispanics, migrant workers, loggers, and fur trappers, the dictionary opens up history and culture in an enchanting way. From ""Aarigaa!"" to ""zopilote,"" ""the Dictionary of the American West"" is a ""valuable book, a treasure for any literate American's library."" - Tony Hillerman.

A collection of biographical accounts is a lyrical tribute to the mountain adventurers of early America, from the early nineteenth-century's John Colter, who escaped captivity by the Blackfeet; to Hugh Glass, who survived a grizzly attack and crawled three hundred miles to safety; to Kit Carson, who served as a guide for John C. Fremont's westward explorations. Reprint.

Look West to 40,000 years of Buffalo in culture and the natural world.