COLLECTION
Wallace McRae Cowboy Poetry Collection
Identifier
1039 (local)
Date
1970 - 1985 (Inclusive dates)
Summary
Collection consists of a stenographer's notebook and a series of videotaped television shows. The notebook (approximately 45 pages) contains about 25 handwritten (pencil) drafts and fragments of poems by sixth generation rancher, Wallace "Wally" McRae of Forsyth, Montana, a National Heritage Award winner and prominent and important figure in the cowboy poetry renaissance of the late twentieth century. McRae is also a spokesperson for the cultural and occupational heritage of cowboys and ranching families, environmental issues, and arts in rural America. Many of the poems in the notebook appeared later in McRae's published books including "Up North Is Down the Crick" (1985), "It's Just Grass and Water" (1986), "Things of Intrinsic Worth" (1989), and "Cowboy Curmudgeon" (1992). In addition to poems (including "Reincarnation," McRae's most well-known piece and others like "The Lease Hound," "Baling Syndrome," "The Old Men in the Lobby," "On Rural Relocation," etc.), the notebook contains a few miscellaneous notes relating to beef prices, agriculture, and rancher-hunter relations. The series of 23 Beta format videotapes documents a Sacramento (CA) television program called "The West," hosted by McRae between 1989-1992. --Gift of Wallace McRae, 2003
Extent
1 (notebook)
23 (videotapes)
Language
English (Languages)
Other Subject Headings
cowboys--poetry (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
ranching (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
West (U.S.) (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
American poetry--West (U.S.) (Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH))
Temporal Coverage
1970 - 2002
Geographic Coverage
Montana (state) (Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names)
Wallace McRae (Photo by Kevin Martini-Fuller)
