Toby Thompson’s American West

Jul 19, 2012 | Events

Elk River Books welcomes writer Toby Thompson who will present excerpts from his new book, Riding the Rough String: Reflections on the American West, published by the newly resurrected Bozeman-based boutique publisher Bangtail Press, on Thursday, August 16 at 7 p.m.

Thompson is a journalist, author and part-time Livingstonian whose new book is the culmination of five decades spent absorbing the culture of the new rural West. Riding the Rough String is “[a] unique series of profiles, meditations, essays, and explorations … considering what it means to live and work in the West. His wide-ranging curiosity embraces subjects as diverse as the history of the famous barroom lithograph, Custer’s Last Fight, the deeper meaning of Montana pickup trucks, wild nights of Livingston, Montana, in the 1970s, and the making of the film A River Runs Through It.”

Thompson has written three other books: Positively Main Street: Bob Dylan’s Minnesota, Saloon: A Guide to America’s Great Bars, Saloons, Taverns, Drinking Places and Watering Holes, and The 60’s Report. His work has been published in magazines ranging from Vanity Fair and Esquire to Gray’s Sporting Journal and the New York Times. He teaches creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Penn State. Bill Kittredge says of Thompson’s latest effort, “Toby Thompson has it right. Riding the Rough Stream is a fine sport and an all-day pleasure.”

Thompson’s reading will be followed by a reception and signing. The event is free, open to the public and will take place at Elk River Books, 115 E. Callender St. in Livingston.

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