Jackson Hole, Wyoming by David J. Saylor, and: The Tetons and the Yellowstone by Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall (review)

264 Western American Literature If Mrs. R could only have been frankly consistent about herself, this book would have been the classic it now almost is. One by one the three sons return to Illinois for their education, and in1912 the parents follow them.Mrs. Roberts never does explain whether they ‘make their fortune’ in Alberta; since the boys do get to school, I suppost some success can be assumed. From reading the chronicle I would surmise that the Roberts left more of value behind them than ever they removed. It is unfortunate for Alberta that none of them stayed. R u dy W ie b e , University of Alberta Jackson Hole, Wyoming. By David J. Saylor. (Norman: University of Okla­ homa Press, 1971. 268 pages. $4.95) The Tetons and the Yellowstone. By Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall. (Los Angels: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1971. 95 pages. $8.95) These books trade on wilderness, on the frontier, on the wild West. Their reason for being is to crystallize the interest we modem tourists have in wild country, in little hidden valleys where somehow, we hope, the pace and quality of life are different from the monochrome urban grayness we know too well. They hope to return us, however briefly, to when society was small-scale and untamed land was all around. Northwestern Wyoming, perhaps better than any other locale in the West, retains this Shangri-La mystique. The towns are small (though some are growing ominously— Jackson’s population has nearly tripled in the last decade), the local culture is recognizable, and, most important of all, there are thousands of square miles of legally protected wilderness. Saylor’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming is a workmanlike survey of early ex­ ploration, pioneer settlement, and recent history. It does not deal with wilder­ ness, but with social history. Saylor has taken pains with his documentation, and his judgments are balanced. His book is a sober look at how people in­ teract— how "locals” who have been hidden away for several decades react when the great force and drift washes into their valley: The town’s Old West spirit is being buried in a graveyard of service stations and "gas for less” signs. Where settlers were once content to eke out a living and enjoy twelve months of clean air and charm­ ing scenery each and every year, most residents today are caught up in a three-month, hell-bent pursuit of the almighty dollar. In a modern world where wealth, not happiness, seems to be the watch­ word, the sentiments of Jackson’s businessmen can be understood, though hardly condoned. Strong words, these for a book which will be prominently displayed and sold in the many stores of Jackson. Though Saylor obviously regrets the passing of the real Jackson Hole and the coming of the billboard caricature, he finally doesn’t go much beyond lament. If a man sees only "charming scenery,” he isn’t far enough into the Reviews 265 place to save it. The conventional-Romantic view (coming from the effete East, of course) is powerless. We need an esthetics, a consciousness of the land, which goes beyond the vacation-time pastoral. The Adams-Newhall book attempts to frame just such a consciousness. It treats the social history, but also tries to get into the wilderness, to show the real heart of the country. The cycle of the seasons is treated almost poetic­ ally by Miss Newhall, and Ansel Adam’s photographs, especially when they are comparatively ordinary pictures of woods and ponds and not the great vaulting scenery shots, are deep and reflective. The book is handsome, and it tries hard to be more than that. Unfortunately, the writing has a few precious places. Speaking of In­ dians being “superb swimmers,” Newhall writes, More than one white party in a canoe has been surprised by sud­ den and unexpected propulsion from below, and has looked down on mermaids, black hair swirling around them, pushing the dugout to the beach, and then laughing, curving like fish and vanishing under water. This is the never-never West. And I don’t know any naturalists who have reported moose attacking beavers by...