One Foot in the Stirrup: Western Stories by John D. Nesbitt, and: Twin Rivers by John D. Nesbitt (review)

Reviews 83 small town life and the importance of family relationships, though small towns and families were not universally held enthusiasms—among writ­ ers, at least. Hemingway’s heroes make a point of indifference toward their families; they hardly seem to have any. Other major and popular writers—for example, Sinclair Lewis and H. L. Mencken—scathingly sat­ irized life in small towns, especially midwestern small towns. Aldrich was aware of the difference between her point of view and theirs and notes toward the end of A Lantern in Her Hand that the son Abbie is so proud of—a successful attorney and member of the state legislature—might be an object of satire for some writers. Sinclair Lewis won a Nobel Prize for his satires, but after seventy years it seems that Aldrich’s version of Main Street is at least as close to the truth as his. We can heartily thank Carol Petersen for bringing Aldrich’s fans this biography and these stories and for bringing, no doubt, new readers to the works of this admirable author. DOROTHY ZIMMERMAN Lincoln, Nebraska One Foot in the Stirrup: Western Stories. By John D. Nesbitt. (Torrington, Wyoming: RR Productions, 1995. 124 pages, $7.95.) Twin Rivers. By John D. Nesbitt (New York: Walker and Company, 1995. 188 pages, $19.95.) One Foot in the Stirrup is a collection of ten mostly adventure stories, set in generalized western locales. Often the stories feature an isolated individual who has a rough encounter. Someone out of his past wants revenge. Surprised, the hero has to defend himself. Then, sadder and maybe wiser, he moves on. In Nesbitt’s world the power of memory is strong. Though the early stories are fairly predictable, the last three are less so because the nature of the encounters changes. In “Flowers for Rebecca” Ned Porter moves into a shack and, finding flowers growing around, becomes curious about Mclver, “a queer old bird,” who had built it twenty years before. He uncovers a tale of love unfulfilled: the flowers helped compensate Mclver for his loss, and they also make Ned Porter a better man. “Spring Comes to the Widow,” set in New Mexico, features a cowboy who comes upon a baby, the sole survivor of a party who died from a poisoned well. Deciding to keep the baby, he marries a young Mexican widow with a baby of her own, and the four of them learn the 84 Western American Literature meaning offamilia. “Trails End” is, unusually, told from the perspective of an engaging huckster, who, after a fine run, is caught out and (maybe) gets away. The author, like his main character, possesses a sense of humor. He also has a deft touch at narrating incident. Written in succinct and often colorful language, his tales flow swiftly. Though time is rarely specified in them, they take place mostly in the violent “old” (pre-1900) West. Yet the perspective is “new” West. Even with his drifters moving from one hostile encounter to the next, Nesbitt avoids formulaic solutions. Nesbitt’s novel, Twin Rivers, takes place in 1880s Wyoming. Memories of the buffalo hunters are still fresh, and the open-range ranch­ er, though in conflict with sheepherders and barbed wire, is still king. Tourists (“pilgrims”) come in by rail for guided pack trips into the moun­ tains. The novel is firmly set in a landscape Nesbitt knows well (he teach­ es at Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington). He is good at evoking places he’s looked at carefully, not simply imagined, and he looks with a trained eye. The story begins with Clay defending a Mexican sheepherder, Tony Campos, against two heavies. Nesbitt uses this encounter to work out his two intertwined plot strands: the resolution of both Clay’s problem with a big rancher who wishes to steal his claim and his growing love for Lupita, Tony’s niece. He meets her at the Campos home, to which Tony has invit­ ed him for Sunday dinner. The extended Campos family quickly make their house a home for him. Nesbitt uses Twin Rivers to contrast two sets of values: Anglos, rep­ resented by Clay and the other cowpokes he...