Marmot Press

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History

Pitkin Past Times: 1879 - 84

By Freeda Brown, Revised by Clifford Caruthers

The first edition of Freeda Brown's Pitkin Past Times: 1879-84 (Gunnison: Wendell's, 1981) has long been a collector's item among Western Americana.

This second edition, revised by Clifford Caruthers, again provides unique insights into Pitkin's beginnings, early town activities, mining and railroading interests, infamous "sporting houses" and saloons, and prime businesses. Ms. Brown gleaned most of her information from copies of the Pitkin Independent, the Mining News, and the Town of Pitkin Records. Some of these articles and records are no longer available.

Handset Reminiscences: Recollections of an Old-time Printer and Journalist, Part 1

Handset Reminiscences: Recollections of an Old-time Printer and Journalist Part 2

By Jared (Jerry) B. Graham

A Facsimile in two parts

This anecdotal autobiography, long a classic in the archives of journalism and Western Americana, consists of much-traveled Jared (Jerry) Benedict Graham's colorful recollections of his experiences as an American journalist and adventurer. Born in Rochester, New York, in 1839 and orphaned at the age of four, he began newspaper work at 15 with the Rochester Advertiser, but soon followed Horace Greeley's dictum to "go west."

Graham's subsequent newspaper career included work in San Francisco, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. Among his newspaper friends were Mark Twain and Artemus Ward. (both of whom he met in Virginia City, Nevada).

Typical of his narrative style is the chapter "Four Years in Gehenna," which covers his time as editor of the Pitkin Independent during that town's more turbulent years as a mining and railroad center on Colorado's Western Slope. As might be gleaned from the title, his experiences in Pitkin (particularly his feud with rival editor Frank Sheafor), did not leave Graham with many fond memories of this segment of his life.

The chapter about Pitkin, Four Years in Gehenna, is on pages 198-253, in Part 2.

Pitkin

By Ray Moretz

In 1973, Ray Moretz wrote this short history of Pitkin, Colorado, and sold it out of his Silver Plume General Store. Ray was a leader in the Pitkin community, had a keen interest in local history, and had researched the sites of many of the original buildings. His booklet is an essential part of any collection of Pitkin's history.

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Richard G. Wallis has compiled a 48-page document containing 34 pictures of early Pitkin. This remarkable collection, with commentaries, provides fascinating glimpses into past Pitkin history and area activities.

A Pictorial History of Early Pitkin: 1

A Pictorial History of Early Pitkin: 2

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Poetry

Ghost Trails to Ghost Towns

Inez Hunt and Wanetta Draper are long-established Colorado historians and regional poets. Their Ghost Trails to Ghost Towns (1958) is a remarkable collection of poems that dwell on the courage and frailty of human endeavor along with the awareness that so many unrecorded experiences have died with those vanished residents.

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Literary Criticism

A Lardner Tradition: Baseball as Metaphor in American Fiction and Film

by Clifford Caruthers

Aeneas in Apacheria: Classicism in American Western Fiction and Film

by Clifford Caruthers

Pure Humor: Lardner's Nonsense Plays

by Roger Lathbury