For this Bison Books edition, James Welch, the acclaimed author of Winter in the Blood (1986) and other novels, introduces Mildred Walker's vivid heroine, Ellen Webb, who lives in the dryland wheat country of central Montana during the early 1940s. He writes, "It is a story about growing up, becoming a woman, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, within the space of a year and a half. But what a year and a half it is!" Welch offers a brief biography of Walker, who wrote nine of her ...

John Davis has a "dull aching sense of missing out, of not getting anywhere." His relations with his wife, Serena, are shallow and unsatisfying. In the late 1930's, he tries to rekindle their marriage by bringing her to a special place from his past, the

In the tranquil countryside of the English South Downs, William Henry Hudson weaves a captivating tapestry of rural life in "A Shepherd's Life." Through the eyes of a humble shepherd, we embark on a journey into the heart of nature, where the rhythms of the seasons and the timeless wisdom of the land intertwine. Hudson's lyrical prose paints vivid portraits of the shepherd's daily existence, from the solitude of the open fields to the camaraderie of the sheepfold. As we follow the shepherd...