Riding the Rough String: Reflections on the American West

From one of the most highly-regarded journalists in America comes this unique series of profiles, meditations, essays, and explorations. For more than fifty years, Toby Thompson has been considering what it means to live and work in the West. Starting from a foundation of literary portraiture in which he profiles some of the most engaging writers in America—Gretel Ehrlich to Thomas McGuane, William Kittredge to Hunter S. Thompson, Tim Cahill to Gary Snyder—his wide-ranging curiosity embraces subjects as diverse as the history of the famous barroom lithograph, Custer’s Last Fight, the deeper meaning of Montana pickup trucks, wild nights of Livingston, Montana, in the 1970s, and the making of the film A River Runs Through It.For anyone interested in the literature and culture of the American West, Riding the Rough String is an essential publishing event.