Yesterday I mentioned the charlatan rainmaker and the need for his services in bone dry Montana. Fernando commented on the subject and I feel compelled to make a book recommendation.
The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology is a fine introduction to the literature of the state. Montana is quite foreign from the rest of the nation - its isolation from people and commerce combined with its close connection to nature has produced some remarkable literature (Montana has more published authors per capita than any other state and must rank very high in photography and art).
William Kittredge and Annick Smith edited the work, which was roughly timed for the centennial of statehood. The volume moves begins with native cosmologies and through time with sections by Osborne Russell, James Audubon and Lewis and Clark set next to some Native American talks during the same piece of space-time. It progresses moves settlement and Butte to contemporary pieces by the likes of Norman MacLean, Ivan Doig and Sandra Alcosser.
I can think of no better literary introduction to what is special about that place. I shouldn't get started on this as there are so many great pieces.
A word of warning - the volume is both addictive and large. If you chose to read it, set a significant amount of time aside.
The other book that needs to be read is John McPhee's Rising From the Plains - part of a wonderful series on the geological history of America.
The book winds its way through three threads - one in geological time, another about one hundred years ago and one set in current time. The places described are similar (but not identical) to many in Montana and the deep connections of the place with geology are explored using his geopoetry.
4:56:39 AM 
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