Lonesome Land

With one of her quick changes of mood she rose, patted her hair smooth, caught up a wrap oddly inharmonious with the gown and slippers, looped her train over her arm, took her violin, and ran lightly down-stairs. The parlor, the dining room, the kitchen were deserted and the lights turned low. She braced herself mentally, and, flushing at the unaccustomed act, rapped timidly upon the door which opened into the office--which by that time she knew was really a saloon. Hawley himself opened the door, and in his eyes bulged at sight of her.

B. M.(Bertha Muzzy) Bower (1871-1940), the first woman to make a career of writing popular westerns like Chip of the Flying U, lived on a ranch in Montana and knew from experience Val's situation, her awakening and embrace of the unconventional. Originally published in 1912, Lonesome Land is an extraordinary novel, perhaps Bower's best. She was decades ahead of her time in taking on the subjects of divorce and spouse abuse. Pam Houston is the author of Cowboys Are My Weakness: Stories, winner of the 1993 Western States Book Award. She lives in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.