{"id":4034,"date":"2008-03-25T00:20:16","date_gmt":"2008-03-25T05:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/"},"modified":"2008-03-25T00:20:16","modified_gmt":"2008-03-25T05:20:16","slug":"william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/","title":{"rendered":"William Kittredge: An Essayist from out West"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Tonight I fly up to Grand Rapids and tomorrow I speak at chapel to the seminarians; in the afternoon we will have a conversation with the seminary faculty about the next generation of students. I look forward to seeing my friends at GRTS.<\/em>
\nIf you like open space or if you worry about developments \u2014 housing or otherwise \u2014 gobbling up prairie space, or if you live in the West and are tired of watching great spaces reduced, I have a writer for you. His name is William Kittredge, an earthy, story-telling, essayist from southeastern Oregon. Living in that place is at the heart of his melancholy, which he took with him over to Missoula, Montana, to the University where he taught creative writing for years. The newest collection of his essays is called The Next Rodeo<\/a>\"\"<\/em>.
\n\"kittredge.jpg\"<\/a>
\nIt\u2019s not easy to summarize a mood or a style, and Kittredge\u2019s essays are filled with both. Here are some samples, and some of these are taken from an earlier collection called Owning it All<\/a>\"\"<\/em>. Some essays are found in both volumes.
\n\u201cLooking backward is one of our main hobbies here in the American West, as we age.\u201d
\n\u201cThis country fosters a kind of woman who never seems to bother about who is she is supposed to be, mainly because there is always work, and getting it done in a level-eyed way is what counts most. \u2026 These women wind up looking 50 when they are 37 [and I loved this turn] and 53 when they are 70. It\u2019s as though they wear down to what counts and just last there, fine and staring the devil in the eye every morning.\u201d
\nA quote from his father: \u201cThey\u2019ll never see it [the Bitterroot Valley of Montana] the way we did.\u201d The son ruminates: \u201cI wonder what he saw.\u201d
\nWhen he feared a fight might break out in a tavern, someone tells him that \u201cthings are going to get real Western here for a minute.\u201d
\nFrom someone who seems to know: \u201cCountry music, all that worn-out drifter syncopation, turned out to be another lie, a terrific sport but a real thin way of life.\u201d
\nAnd if you need to feel some fellow-melancholy about space being filled up with homes and K-Marts, here\u2019s one for you: \u201cLeaning on the tailgate of my Ford pickup, I became aware that this valley, where I had always thought of myself as living, had gone silent in some terrible way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tonight I fly up to Grand Rapids and tomorrow I speak at chapel to the seminarians; in the afternoon we will have a conversation with the seminary faculty about the next generation of students. I look forward to seeing my friends at GRTS. If you like open space or if you worry about developments \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1732],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-issues"],"yoast_head":"\nWilliam Kittredge: An Essayist from out West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tonight I fly up to Grand Rapids and tomorrow I speak at chapel to the seminarians; in the afternoon we will have a conversation with the seminary faculty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"William Kittredge: An Essayist from out West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tonight I fly up to Grand Rapids and tomorrow I speak at chapel to the seminarians; in the afternoon we will have a conversation with the seminary faculty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-25T05:20:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/\",\"name\":\"William Kittredge: An Essayist from out West\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-25T05:20:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-03-25T05:20:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Tonight I fly up to Grand Rapids and tomorrow I speak at chapel to the seminarians; in the afternoon we will have a conversation with the seminary faculty\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/03\/25\/william-kittredge-an-essayist-from-out-west\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"William Kittredge: An Essayist from out West\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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