The Bower Atmosphere
A Biography of B. M. Bower
by Victoria Lamont
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Pub Date Mar 01 2024 | Archive Date Feb 29 2024
University of Nebraska Press | Bison Books
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Description
Discouraged by her editors from publicizing her identity as a woman, Bower’s important contribution to American mass culture faded from cultural memory after her death in 1940. Based on extensive research in Bower’s personal archives and publishers’ records, as well as interviews with some of her descendants, The Bower Atmosphere recounts the remarkable twists and turns of Bower’s life, from her beginnings on a Montana cattle ranch to her success as a writer of serial westerns, all the while contending with the conflicting pressures of editors, husbands, children, and her own creative aspirations.
Advance Praise
“This excellent volume . . . dramatically reframes the literary history of the western, confirming Bower’s foundational but heretofore unacknowledged role in establishing the genre; the western, Lamont proves, was never the sole province of male authors, its most genuine plots crafted by a woman whose gender was too long obscured.”—Jennifer S. Tuttle, coeditor of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: New Texts, New Contexts
“Victoria Lamont’s compelling biography—packed with verve, deep archival research, and the everyday dramas of B. M. Bower’s writing life—changes the story not only on one fascinating woman and her work but on larger assumptions, legacies, and lineages of western women writers.”—Christine Bold, author of The Frontier Club
“Meticulously researched, eminently readable. . . . Lamont traces a remarkable tale of Bower’s persistent creativity and remarkably varied contributions to early twentieth-century mass culture.”—Mary Chapman, author of Making Noise, Making News: Suffrage Print Culture and U.S. Modernism
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781496236210 |
| PRICE | $24.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 216 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Christina D, Educator
I had never heard of the author B.M. Bower before! She was one hundred years ahead of her time in many, many ways. Victoria Lamont writes a very well researched and unbiased biography of Bower. You really feel as if you are back in time to the old west with all of her adventures including stints in the early days of Hollywood. Historical And a fun read!
Michelle K, Reviewer
The Bower Atmosphere
A Biography of B. M. Bower
by Victoria Lamont
Pub Date01 Mar 2024
University of Nebraska Press |Bison Books
Biographies & Memoirs|. Nonfiction \(Adult\)
Netgalley and University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books have provided me with a copy of The Bower Atmosphere to review:
B.M. Bower was the first author to make a living writing Westerns. During the course of her literary career, Bertha Muzzy Bower published over sixty novels and hundreds of short stories. Her westerns were among the first adapted to film, and the exploits of her cowboys at the fictional Flying U ranch established a tradition that continues today. She began writing short stories in 1900, desperate for money so that she could end her unhappy marriage to a cowboy who worked for the McNamara ranch.
The Bower Atmosphere, a story of Bower’s remarkable life, is based on research in Bower’s personal archives and publishers’ records, as well as interviews with some of her descendants. She began on a Montana cattle ranch and went on to write serial westerns, dealing with the conflicting demands of editors, husbands, children, and her own creative ambitions while battling the conflicting pressures of her editor, husband, and children.
I give The Bower Atmosphere five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
