One Hundred Horses
Barbara J. Barney Nelson, 2024, 318pp, ISBN: 979-8-218-45287-2
In One Hundred Horses this award-winning author has interwoven stage and screen plays to create a novel in dialog. A brief memoir and photograph album of inspiration introduce each of the six chapters. These family-friendly, realistic, dramatic cowboy romances include details about ranch, reservation, and border life; immigration, healthy food, horseshoeing, and a Shakespearian version of horse training. The author lived the life she writes about and provides authentic glimpses into traditional cowboy etiquette, universal rural values, and the rewards of hard work. Chapter tension tackles the pros and cons of patriarchy, feminism, pride, horse training, jealousy, trust, patience, respect, misrepresentation, reconnaissance, and injury. Characters include a chuckwagon cook, Mexican illegal, Hispanic school teacher, female horseshoer, casino boss, California farmer, Las Vegas rodeo stock contractor, Marine veterans, Native American ranchers, law officers, and cowgirls. Of course the cast also includes hundreds of horses who patiently and silently assist, challenge, and improve the humans in countless ways.
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Making Circles
University of Oklahoma Press, 2021, 304pp, ISBN: 978-0806168456
A memoir combining Barney Nelson’s authentic cowboy life with her 30-year career writing and photographing for horse and cattle magazines throughout the West. Along the way she introduces us to her friends, mentors, idols, horses, and cowboy philosophy.
“It belongs in all collections of books about Western culture; it particularly belongs in all university libraries featuring the studies of the West. It is a treasure trove of insight.” – Tom Bailey on Amazon 11 May 2021
Voices & visions of the American West
Texas Monthly Press, 1986, ISBN: 0877190496
Voices and Visions of the American West this coffee-table photography book features 100 of Nelson’s best insider images of cowboy life from across the West. The text is created using interview quotes from fifteen years as a cowboy/livestock freelance photographer/writer. The technique lets cowboys almost tell their own story without a filter.
“Beyond Wonderful: Barney Nelson is THE writer and THE photographer of the contemporary American West. Her VOICES and VISIONS OF THE AMERICAN WEST is a work of genius. All of her books are great.” –Blackbull on Amazon 28 January 2013
The wild and the domestic Rancher
University of Nevada, Reno Press, 2000, 200pp, ISBN: 0874173477
A scholarly analysis that juxtaposes animal stereotypes with personal essays from Nelson’s personal experiences with wild and domestic animals. Hunting, fishing, raising orphaned wild animals to pets (including a pronghorn) and handling wild cattle contrast with romantic and demonized views of reality.
“Her informed and loving voice for our responsible use of land, our responsibility for other species, and responsible living provides a vital and seldom articulated perspective on ranching and the rancher’s stewardship.” – Mary Clearman Blew
“Barney Nelson has written a stunning book . . . it is ‘time someone stuck up for the cows,’ as she says, and no one has done it better than Barney Nelson, who deserves to be ranked with the best writers of the century.” –Linda Hasselstrom
God’s Country or Devil’s Playground: An Anthology of Nature Writing from the Big Bend of Texas
Barney Nelson, Editor, University of Texas Press, 2002, 347pp, ISBN: 978-0292755802
A unique anthology combines the voices of cowboys, explorers, students; letters, diaries, newspaper articles, New York published novels, and more for an honest picture of the West Texas Big Bend country and life.
“The Edward Abbey entry is worth the price of the book alone. This is a great collection of writing about this very underappreciated National Park.” –W. Holston on Amazon 7 March 2006
The Last Campfire: The Life Story of Ted Gray, A West Texas Rancher
Texas A&M Press, 1984, 171pp, ISBN: 978-0890961735
The life story of Ted Gray’s rise from day-working cowboy to owning his own ranch is also a tribute to and covers the history of the o6 Ranch, one of Texas’ grand old big outfits that used a chuckwagon and carried a 100-head remuda while working its beautiful mountain grassland. Another experiment in voices, half of each chapter is Nelson’s historic summary and half is oral history in Gray’s own voice.
“Very informative account of the true nature of being a cowboy and building a ranch. I couldn’t put the book down.” – William R. Ward on Amazon 27 August 201958071
Here’s to the Vinegarroon!
Barney Nelson, Editor, Territorial Printer, 1989, 104pp, ASIN: B07KCH2WXW
An anthology of cowboy poetry from the Archives of the Big Bend and Bryan Wildenthal Library, Alpine, Texas. Long out-of-print this small paperback with cover art by Gary Morton has become a collector’s item. Nelson collected some of the best from Texas during the early days of the cowboy poetry revival. With a PhD in American literature, Nelson’s selections are also wide-ranging in style from free verse to sonnet to ottava rima. The collection includes headnotes on the authors and an extensive bibliography far beyond sources used.
The Flock
by Mary Austin, Afterword by Barney Nelson, University of Nevada, Reno Press, 2001, 328pp, ISBN: 0874173558
I discovered Mary Austin while pursuing a PhD at the University of Nevada, Reno and admired this long out-of-print book. Austin’s writing did for sheep and shepherds what I always tried to do for cows and cowboys. Rather than portray them as villains from a by gone era, she recognized the Basque shepherds as role models. I persuaded University of Nevada, Reno Press to republish it and wrote an extensive 52-page illustrated afterword based on my research in the Austin Collection at The Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
“The Flock is not about Austin, and yet we have such a strong sense of personal presence, in her voice and style, that we are made to think about the way a mind comes to understand and be changed by listening to the stories . . .” – Melody Graulich cover quote
Mary Austin’s Southwest: An Anthology of Her Literary Criticism
Chelsea Blackbird and Barney Nelson, Editors (the co-editor was my former English graduate student), University of Utah Press, 2005, 302pp, ISBN: 0874808200
This book was a labor of love with travel funded by two Sul Ross State University research grants, as we dug into obscure papers and publications housed in libraries like The Huntington, Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. Although Austin was sort of a Native American wannabe, she analyzed, preserved, and considered Indian “dance drama,” field workers’ “one-smoke stories,” horseback plays, and regional imagery important as early American literature. Her insights should be considered early American literary criticism.
“. . . reveals Austin’s breadth and keenness as a critic devoted to multiculturalism, gender issues, and the environment years before these became popular academic topics. In compiling and contextualizing Austin’s critical and theoretical essays, Blackbird and Nelson have done a wonderful service for today’s readers.” – Scott Slovic cover quote