Thursday, August 21, 2014

The Wild West, reimagined

A historical writer from Dane who delves into the lives of Germans and Americans during World War II has published his eighth book, and it has nothing at all to do with that war. “This book was fun,” said Arthur Rathburn, about “Return to Sierra Valley,” a western set in 1869-72. Rathburn literally returned to the valley himself, where he grew up before moving to Germany, as he wrote and researched his latest book. Growing up in a town full of loggers, railroad workers and cattle ranchers, Rathburn heard a number of stories, and the book is loosely based on those. He discovered a journal of a member of the Church family, and based the characters on those cattle ranchers. Cal Church, the book’s hero, is a purely fictional character, Rathburn said. But about half of the other characters are real, he added. The book follows Cal, a young man, as he leaves his small town of 50 to head east on the Continental Railroad. “He had never been anywhere other than his own isolated valley,” Rathburn said...more

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