Book Notices

Angles of Darkness: A Drama in Three Acts

By Arthur Conan Doyle, Edited and with an introduction by Peter Blau (New York: Baker Street Irregulars in cooperation with the Toronto Public Library, 2001. x + 191 pp. $35.00.)

A facsimile of an unfinished play by the creator of Sherlock Holmes and five scholarly essays comprise this volume. The play closely resembles Arthur Conan Doyle's novel A Study in Scarlet, and an essay by Utahn Michael Homer explores the Mormon subplot—centered around fiendish Danite deeds— in both Homer describes the literary, Masonic, and Spiritualist sources that influenced these works. He also details Doyle's first visit to Utah some forty years after writing the novel and play (and the crowd that, despite his negative writings about Mormonism, filled the Tabernacle to hear him speak), his belief in Spiritualism, and his growing appreciation of Mormonism's similarity to Spiritualism and of Joseph Smith's abilities as a medium.

When Montana and I Were Young: A Frontier Childhood

By Margaret Bell. Edited and with an introduction by Mary Clearman Blew (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002 xxxii + 253 pp $24.95.)

A box of papers found in a garage turned out to be a remarkable memoir of an unusual childhood In the care of a sadistic and shiftless stepfather, young Peggy did a man's work, acquired great skill at ranching and horsemanship, and endured horrific abuse.Yet instead of playing the victim, she "learned to take the blows without collapsing" (242) and grew tough, eventually breaking free and creating the life she wanted As an adult in the 1940s she tried to get her vivid narrative published, but that had to wait until the manuscript's rediscovery. Its appearance now is a victory for those who struggle to let the female voice, too often silenced, be heard

Newe Hupia: Shoshoni Poetry Songs

By Beverly Crum, Earl Crum, and Jon P. Dayley (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2001 xii + 276 pp Paper, $24.95.)

The songs in this volume celebrate centuries of the Shoshoni hunting/gathering lifeway in the Great Basin Included are an introduction, Shoshoni and English versions, comments on each song, photos, a CD, and a glossary

These are spare poems: "Little dark gosling, / Little dark gosling / White wings at its side, / White, in the red water, / Fluttering / White wings at its side, / White, in the red water, / Fluttering." The editors compare the songs to minimalist writing or haiku and point out that their power lies in helping the listener pay attention to the world, in "making the familiar vivid and alive" (1). However, to the Shoshoni who consider almost all aspects of the natural world as sacred, their power lies further; one of the traditional functions of the songs is to invoke puha, or supernatural power

River Runners' Guide to Utah and Adjacent Areas

By Gary C Nichols (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2002. 206 pp. Paper, $16.95.)

Utah's rivers, so central to its past and present, are here described from an on-the-water perspective. Both beginner and expert paddlers can use this reference to learn of dozens of river trips, difficulty ratings, access points, and particular dangers and obstacles.

Magnificent Failure: A Portrait of the Western Homestead Era

By John Martin Campbell, with an introduction by Kenneth WL Karsmizki (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001 xiv + 183 pp $29.95.)

Speaking about his family's homestead in Ne w Mexico, the anthropologist Jesse Jennings once told the author/photographer, "Campbell, when we arrived on that place, we came in two big wagons, each pulled by a four-horse team. And -when -we left that place, we walked" (32).Those who made a success of their homesteads were a minority; some five million of the seven million men, women, and children who took up homesteads failed, in large part because the system did not take into account the dry nature of the West The photos of homestead landscapes on these pages—structures, implements, fields, haystacks—speak of the -work, hopes, and drought-battered lives of thousands of families.

Tough Times in Rough Places: Personal Narratives of Adventure, Death, and Survival on the Western Frontier

Edited by Neil B. Carmony and David E. Brown (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2001. 304 pp. Paper, $14.95.)

Some of the great legends of the West inhabit these fifteen, mostly firsthand, narratives Custer, the Donner Party, Fremont, Billy the Kid, Pancho Villa, Geronimo, and more are here. John D. Lee gives his "Confession" again, and James White gives his account of his voyage on a lashed-together log raft down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Little-known people and stories add balance to the "legends." The editors introduce each account, but do not analyze. Instead, they caution the reader to understand and allow for bias in the fact that participants, not objective observers or researchers, tell these adventurous stories.

Ghost West: Reflections Past and Present

By Ann Ronald (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. 256 pp. $29.95.)

History "haunts" the present Beneath the surface of today lie events, people, and stories in intermingled layers. Here, Ann Ronald writes about places that are pregnant with these unseen stories: Moun t Rushmore , Glen Canyon, Death Valley, Tucson, and Re d Cloud, to name a few. She writes about the interpretations we give these places no w and ho w the past both remains obscure and affects our understandings.