Tony Hillerman by Fred Erisma, and: David Wagone by Ron McFarland, and: Joseph Wood Krutch by Paul N. Pavich, and: David Henry Hwang by Douglas Street, and: John Graves by Dorys Grow Grove

Abstract

82 Western American Literature so obviously a regional poet, though Nordstrom argues that his “North Ameri­ can Sequence” was “the first cohesive synthesis of the ecological metaphor in the Northwest.” However, the sequence was publishd as a whole only in 1964, and Snyder had already published Myths & Texts (1960), which surely has a slightly prior claim as ecologically-centered poetry. I do not find Nordstrom’s argument for Roethke as a Northwest regionalist convincing. But his readings of Stafford are very sound, especially on the subject of the “Indian poems.” Nordstrom often uses poems from Stafford’s uncollected chapbooks and quotes them in full, which is preferable to yet another discussion of, say, “Travelling in the Dark,” excellent as that poem is. The Snyder discussion is also based on perceptive readings of poems. The commentaries on these major poets are supplemented by a survey of other Pacific Northwest poets, like Duane Niatum, James Welch and David Wagoner. The book shows an easy familiarity with major theoretical statements on western poetry by William Everson and Thomas J. Lyon, and the scholarship is thorough. Readers concerned with western poetry will find the lengthy bibliographies indispensable: in addition to full listings on the three principal poets, categories include comments on contemporary western poetry and prose, and on early western writing, bibliographies on Native American writing and environmental and ecological issues, and a list of Pacific Northwest poetry anthologies. In short, Nordstrom’s book is both readable and informative, a starting point for further work in the field as well as a stimulating guide to a delightful body of poetry. BERT ALMON University of Alberta Tony Hillerman. By Fred Erisman. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series Number 87, 1989. 52 pages, $2.95.) David Wagoner. By Ron McFarland. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series Number 88, 1989. 56 pages, $2.95.) Joseph Wood Krutch. ByPaul N. Pavich. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series Number 89, 1989. 52 pages, $2.95.) David Henry Hwang. ByDouglas Street. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series Number 90, 1989. 52 pages, $2.95.) John Graves. By Dorys Grow Grover. (Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Western Writers Series Number 91, 1989. 52 pages, $2.95.) Over the years, students of western American literature have come to expect quality monographs from the Western Writers Series, published at Boise State University. Though the paperbacks are thin in size, they are always fat in scholarship, the bibliographies alone worth the small amount of change it takes to purchase them. Although each work disavows any attempt at complete­ ness, there is no question that the series has become an important part of Reviews 83 western studies, with our finest critics and historians having written them and scores of students having read them. Whether the subject is a major historical figure like Owen Wister or Bret Harte, or a person whose impact is less dramatic like Mabel Dodge Luhan, the books are always worthy; they seem always to have been handled by good editors and appear to help fill in the immense mosaic that is the American West. Writers represent the epicenter of the West; I do not think it would be stretching it to suggest that the Western Writers Series may some­ day be thought of as a series that helped shake and shape the western landscape. The latest five books (Numbers 87-91) will take their places as valuable works and the group represents the range of interests found in the series. Tony Hillerman, by Fred Erisman, examines the life and work of a New Mexican fiction writer whose publications now appear on the New York Times Best Sellers lists. Erisman shows that here is a writer who is going to be around for a long, long time, that Hillerman’ssouthwestern detective stories have that magic quality that attracts both the popular audience and the academic audience. Ron McFarland’s David Wagoner considers publications of a poet and fiction writer who makes his home in the Northwest. Wagoner, never as popular as Hillerman has become, is a man who has been extremely productive in a variety of genres. And even within his poetry, McFarland writes, there...