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Bryan Ney

Author’s trip to Montana’s gold rush towns

9 July 2017 by Bryan Ney Leave a Comment

… [Read more...] about Author’s trip to Montana’s gold rush towns

Filed Under: Events

Montana Book Festival

27 July 2016 by Bryan Ney 1 Comment

September 25, 2016: I will be participating in a panel discussion of Indie publishing at the Montana Book Festival September 25, 2016. I am really looking forward to this trip, especially because in the days prior to the panel discussion I will be enjoying a tour of Bannack and Virginia City, Montana with Charlotte Orr, great-granddaughter of James Fergus. It was the Fergus family that took Jane in the night that she was begging in the streets with her siblings. Charlotte is the Fergus family … [Read more...] about Montana Book Festival

Filed Under: Events

Calamity Jane comes to Montana

8 July 2016 by Bryan Ney Leave a Comment

Martha Canary/Calamity Jane’s youth is sparsely detailed in her own autobiography, and little known from other sources. Biographer Duncan Aikman writes in "Calamity Jane and the Lady Wildcats" what he found by going to her hometown in Missouri some years after her death, when there were still individuals alive who remembered her family. From this we hear mostly of her mother’s wild ways, and we learn (p. 24) that they departed for the gold fields “with their covered wagon, two horses, three cows … [Read more...] about Calamity Jane comes to Montana

Filed Under: Essays

Theories as to the Origin of the nickname “Calamity”, and Other “Stretchers”

8 July 2016 by Bryan Ney Leave a Comment

My novel, "Calamity Jane- How the West Began" gives an explanation for how Martha Canary got her nickname; that it came from a well-documented episode of her and her siblings being taken in by the Fergus family after being neglected by their parents. Is that where the name comes from? There is no evidence to support my story, but I will explain here why I think it lies within the realm of possibility. Late in her short life, an autobiography was ghostwritten for the illiterate Martha Canary, … [Read more...] about Theories as to the Origin of the nickname “Calamity”, and Other “Stretchers”

Filed Under: Essays

The Unforgiven, and Some Thoughts on Symbolism

8 July 2016 by Bryan Ney Leave a Comment

The actual history of the arrest and trial of Plummer and his gang is too complicated to present in my novel. First there was the trial and execution of Ives, then over days and weeks the pursuit of other gang members and their execution by military-like tribunals, and finally the arrest and execution of Plummer and two others of his gang. This essay is for readers of my novel who are interested in how closely my novel follows history in detailing Plummer's execution, and a note on accidental … [Read more...] about The Unforgiven, and Some Thoughts on Symbolism

Filed Under: Essays

The Hiltebrandt Murder: Plummer Throws Cold Water on a Chase

8 July 2016 by Bryan Ney Leave a Comment

Hiltebrandt’s murder in “Calamity” is based on a striking historical episode that shows how the bad guys held sway in the 1860's frontier. The following account from Langford in "Vigilante Days and Ways" (pp. 33-4), tells a tale of a place that was, as Lo tells us, worse than Bannack: “In a state of society where the majority of the people depend upon vicious pursuits for a livelihood, want and destitution are the natural elements. Increase of crime in all its forms follows. All through the … [Read more...] about The Hiltebrandt Murder: Plummer Throws Cold Water on a Chase

Filed Under: Essays

A Nurse of Undaunted Spirit

27 April 2016 by Bryan Ney 1 Comment

Frontier Montana was a most difficult place to practice medicine.  “Medicine” at this time entailed a lot of surgery, and a surgeon, often finding both hands in a wound, has need of an assistant.  A girl by the name of Sarah Waddams had this role for Dr. Glick.  For the sake of story, Martha Canary/Calamity Jane is given that role in my novel, "Calamity Jane- How the West Began".  Here is the real back story. Henry Plummer, prior to becoming Sheriff himself, goaded then-Sheriff Hank Crawford … [Read more...] about A Nurse of Undaunted Spirit

Filed Under: Essays

Revisionist History

27 April 2016 by Bryan Ney Leave a Comment

My novel, "Calamity Jane- How the West Began", is fiction, told from the viewpoint of a teenager who wasn’t actually there at the time.  That aside, I take the history behind the story very seriously.  In the twenty or so years since I bought Langford’s "Vigilante Days and Ways" at a Hollywood used bookstore, I have read and reread every single published contemporary account of the events.  All of these accounts portray Plummer was the leader of a gang that practiced mayhem and murder in Montana … [Read more...] about Revisionist History

Filed Under: Essays

Kustar’s Pies Backstory, or Humor on the Montana Frontier

27 April 2016 by Bryan Ney Leave a Comment

It could be said that the story "Calamity Jane- How the West Began" was not so much written as it was woven together from historical anecdotes.  The pie episode in Kustar’s bakery is an example of this.  Here is that anecdote as presented by Langford in "Vigilante Days and Ways" (pp. 190-191): “A singular genius known as “Slippery Joe,” whose character reflected the twofold qualities of bummer and loafer, hung around the saloons and restaurants in the early days of Bannack.  He worked when … [Read more...] about Kustar’s Pies Backstory, or Humor on the Montana Frontier

Filed Under: Essays

Urchins of Frontier Montana

27 April 2016 by Bryan Ney Leave a Comment

The adults of frontier Montana faced danger and violence on an almost daily basis. The burden of this comes through in their writings, though with a dash of humor. Children's lives were much different, however. For instance, the trial of Ives (the basis of the trial scene in my book) was a grim affair where the two sides threatened each other with guns. Langford, in "Vigilante Days and Ways" (p. 299), describes that at the same time: “The urchins of the neighborhood were dodging in and … [Read more...] about Urchins of Frontier Montana

Filed Under: Essays

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