The Fiddleback Book: Lore of the Line Camp [Hardcover]

Owen Ulph; T. H. Watkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

This collection of essays, first published in 1981, has become a classic of cowboy lore, filled with unforgettable characters, acid wit, and cosmic good humor.(Introductory essay by T. H. Watkins)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...it is absolutely one of the best, most insightful pieces of writing on the real cowboy that I have ever seen." -- Charles Backes, Denver Post

"...the best book on the cowhand's life since Andy Adams' The Log of a Cowboy [1903]." -- T.H. Watkins

About the Author

DR. OWEN ULPH was for thirty years a professor of European History at Reed College. Educated at Stanford University, he taught at a half-dozen universities. Between teaching stints, he worked as a cowhand in the Fiddleback Mountains of Nevada. He retired to his own ranch in the Ruby Mountains, Nevada, where he died in 2003.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 186 pages
• Publisher: Browntrout Publishers (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563137410
• ISBN-13: 978-1563137419
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,919,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cowboy's take on cowboy life., October 7, 2002

By 

William C. Nicholson (New Castle, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fiddleback: Lore of the Line Camp (Paperback)

The professional reviewers of this work are correct in their high opinions. In this work, Dr. Ulph, a Professor of History at Reed College, shares observations of the life of a cowpoke. Although the book is based on historical lore, Dr. Ulph infuses the text with his personal knowledge based on owning an eastern Oregon ranch on which he poked cows for many years. His sometimes cynical observations on the realities of this difficult life are quite appropriate, even if they may offend some readers who want romance rather than reality in their depiction of the old west.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for fakers . . ., August 1, 2004

By 

Paul F. Starrs "geography fan" (El Cerrito, CA, and Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fiddleback Lore of the Line Camp (Paperback)

If you're a wannabe, go elsewhere. If you think cows are "icky," then likewise. If your appreciation of horses is wholly based on English riding lessons you got in your teens, buy Anne McCaffrey novels (some of which I like, too), and don't bother with this. It's a book by someone who thought, while he was in the saddle, and it shows.

But if you're interested -- and that's your business -- in reading about buckaroo life in the 1950s on a huge ranch in really really really remote Nevada (Zoolander reference deliberate), then read Owen Ulph's book. The salty language, though authentic, makes this not for those under the age of 13 (that should handle most of the reviewers whose comments I've read so far). Test your brain (and vocabulary; Owen was a professor at Reed College for thirty years), and test your empathy. This is classic literature, in the spirit of Tom Watkins (who wrote the introduction), and in the spirit of Owen, himself, who died in late 2003. Just 'cause he's dead doesn't make this any better a book -- but it was great to begin with.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reality 10, Myth 0, July 2, 2010

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fiddleback: Lore of the Line Camp (Paperback)

I don't get the reviewers who not only disliked this book but took the time to slam it here. Agreed, it's not for coffee-table reading (though I would have loved to see photos of the cowboys featured in it and the Fiddleback); it's meant to present a subject you can sink your teeth into. A bit self-indulgent, maybe. Ulph loves to indulge his vocabulary. But the humor and wit that often result make the reading of his long sentences a delight. I had to read some parts twice to get his point, but so what?

Ulph wants you to think and question. He's challenging every assumption people make about cowboys. He argues that the heroic character traits exhibited by real cowboys have been vulgarized by the popular media. Just to understand his analysis of the terms "gumption" and "maverick" is to get a whole history of ideas embedded in the culture. And you get a better grasp of how the use of that second word has worked so effectively by a candidate for public office.

I don't recommend this book for readers who don't want to consider ideas they may disagree with. I don't buy everything Ulph says myself. But laugh out loud I did several times as I read, because the cowboys he writes about are the real deal. I've looked for a book like this for a long time and am glad I found it.