Read the West Book Club: The Big Sky

Originally published more than fifty years ago, The Big Sky is the first of A. B. Guthrie Jr.’s epic adventure novels set in the American West. Here he introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins and Dick Summers: traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, traders, guides and explorers. The story centers on Caudill, a young Kentuckian driven by a raging hunger for life and a longing for the blue sky and brown earth of big, wild places. Caught up in the freedom and savagery of the wilderness, Caudill becomes an untamed mountain man whom only the beautiful daughter of a Blackfoot chief dares to love.

Read the West Book Club meets monthly. Select books available for purchase in The Museum Store (15% discount for Museum members). Refreshments provided. $9; $6 for Museum members. Register by May 18.

NOTE: Read the West Book Club selections may include content not suitable for all readers. Language and descriptions ascribed by the creators of certain works may be considered derogatory, offensive or graphic in nature. Outdated language and depictions are products of their time and do not reflect the views and values of the National Cowboy Museum. Language and societal norms shift, and the Museum seeks to reflect on such changes and our understanding through program discussions of literary selections.