B. M. (Bertha Muzzy) Bower was the first woman to make a career of writing popular westerns. And what a career it was—more than sixty novels published from 1904 to 1940, the year of her death, and still more posthumously. In the western orbit, Bower was—and still is—a star. Her first, Chip of the Flying U, lays out a ranch in Montana and introduces the Happy Family, the bunkhouse gang that reappears in her later books. Chip is the typical woman-shy cowboy, but he is also a gifted artist (reputedly, Bower based the character on Charles M. Russell, who illustrated Chip ). Della, a doctor, is the young woman who disrupts his solitary life. The result as a quality ranch romance. Chip of the Flying U was a great success that led to several movie versions, one of them casting Hoot Gibson as Chip. Today’s readers who grew up watching westerns on television will appreciate Bower’s cinematic style. After living much of her life in Chouteau County, Montana, she moved to Los Angeles, close to the movie industry that increasingly fascinated her.

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The boisterous and bow-legged Happy Family of Montana rides high in this sequel to Chip of the Flying U . Originally published in 1910, The Happy Family is, like Chip, cinematic in its fast action, unusual in its emphasis on human relationships, unique in its warmth and humor. Here are the cowpokes who endeared themselves to generations of readers—Andy, Weary, Irish, Pink, Happy Jack, Big Medicine, and the rest. They were so popular that their creator devoted a series of novels to their wrangling on the rangeland and in the ranchhouse. These stories play out in the badlands, on the edge of the Rockies. Andy Green, "not famous ever for clinging to the truth," encounters Miss Verbena Martin, who is dedicated to the self-improvement of cowboys and is a character worthy of Mark Twain. Riding a red roan at a contest in Great Falls, Andy hangs on to his honor and pride by the seat of his pants. In another story, there is a crisis concerning the French cook Patsy, whose specialty is heavy pie and not floating island. All this fun has a western flavor, the smell of sage, and the feel of cowhide.

Excerpt from Flying U Ranch The Coming of a Native Son The Happy Family, waiting for the Sunday supper call, were grouped around the open door of the bunk-house, gossiping idly of things purely local, when the Old Man returned from the Stock Association at Helena; beside him on the buggy seat sat a stranger. The Old Man pulled up at the bunkhouse, the stranger sprang out over the wheel with the agility which bespoke youthful muscles, and the Old Man introduced him with a quirk of the lips: "This is Mr. Mig-u-ell Rapponi, boys - a peeler straight from the Golden Gate. Throw out your war-bag and make yourself to home, Mig-u-ell; some of the boys'll show you where to bed down."

Book by Bower, B. M.

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Excerpt from The Heritage of the Sioux Old Applehead Furrman, jogging home across the mesa from Albuquerque, sniffed the soft breeze that came from opal-tinted distances and felt poignantly that spring was indeed here. The grass, thick and green in the sheltered places, was fast painting all the higher ridges and foot-hill slopes, and with the green grass came the lank-bodied, big-kneed calves; which meant that roundup time was at hand. Applehead did not own more than a thousand head of cattle, counting every hoof that walked under his brand.

Two days before the Fourth of July a small procession of three automobiles lifted a ribbon of fine gray dust from the road that wound eastward along the edge of the Bear Paw foothills. Far back toward Dry Lake the haze was still slowly settling to earth when the last car passed through the high gate of the Flying U fence and a small, slight man got out and pulled the gate shut, hooked the chain around the post and into a link worn smooth with much use and climbed back beside the driver.

Book by Bower, B. M.

Book by Bower, B. M.

Western Fiction

B. M. Bower used only her initials to sign these Western stories that have vast appeal because of her sense of humor, the strong ties of loyalty and family among her characters, as well as the authentic quality of her cowboy characters. In the title story, "Law on the Flying U," young Chip Bennett meets an old friend dodging the law and introduces him to Weary Davidson, the Flying U foreman, as a stranger in need of a job. Bertha Muzzy Bower was the first woman to make a career of writing Western fiction and remains one of the most widely known. Her first novel, "Chip of the Flying U," was initially published as a magazine story in 1904, and was an immediate success. Bower went on to write thirteen more books about the "Flying U. " Kate Baird Anderson is an artist, writer and voracious reader with many interests who is currently working on B. M. Bower's biography and Western novel reprints, and editing Bower's short stories, as well as those of grandfather Bertrand W. Sinclair, a noted Canadian author in the 1920s.