Friday, August 26, 2011

Mine and Everett's Mesa Verde

Article/issue of the Four Corner's arts perspective 
got me thinking about Cortez. This image hung on my
bedroom wall for years. Great article about the art at 
I once wrote a chapter for a Mesa Verde memory book about Everett Ruess and how his life impacted mine -- by influencing my move to Cortez, Colo.

Today, I had an invite to attend a Mesa Verde Museum Association event and flinched when I couldn't attend: I love Mesa Verde. I love its history. I love that it marks the beginning of my married life.

In short: there is no Ruess media I want to discuss today. I would rather reminisce about Mesa Verde.

I find it a bit ironic that I'm now living in the "land of enchantment." I'm not feeling very enchanted here. Not after living in the shadow of the former capital of the American southwest.

I miss the tourists. I miss the archaeologists. And I actually miss Cortez politics and the weekly onslaught of letters to the editor from the same three cranky Repubs and Demos.

The brand of politics I experience in northern New Mexico is one of hegemonic boredom. There is rarely a letter to an editor -- with any hint of civil discord.

Am I the one who will rock the boat? Not likely. My voice, like Everett's, echoes in the desert with a small hope of someday finding an audience. And for what purpose? To be a famed writer like Wallace Stegner or perhaps a Pulitzer winning reporter? Not likely.

My dreams are sometimes food (to quote the new Cookie Monster). And at the moment, my dreams feel like the time Everett's burrow floundered in the Mancos River.

When I stood ...

(to be continued)


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Ruess-pert weighs in on "Selling Everett Ruess" and "Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing Afterlife"

When Gary James Bergera used the Everett Ruess quote "the murderous pain of living"as the title for his insightful article into the causes of Everett Ruess' disappearance -- I was disappointed.

It wasn't because I didn't like how Bergera wrote or even what he wrote. It was that he wrote it first.

When I discoverd Bergera's Utah Historical Quarterly article for my master's thesis about Everett, I was still very much a Ruess novice. And in his article, Bergera outlined points about Everett's life that I've been thinking and wanting to articulate for quite some time.

He beat me to the punch and my thesis ended up going in a different direction.

In short, Bergera theorized that Everett was bi-polar and that it led to his mysterious disappearance in the southern Utah wilderness in 1934.

And now Bergera has weighed in on the two most recent books about Everett. His review is a very welcomed point-of-view because he actually knew a little about the Everett Ruess saga before expressing his opinion about David Robert's and Philip Fradkin's new books. Most of the reviews I've read thus far don't offer that kind of credibility.

Wait, did I just say saga? Strange. I rarely, if ever, use that word to describe Everett.

However, as I see the conversations that are expanding on this blog's mirror Facebook group, Everett Ruess Disciples (not the Everett Ruess blockprint group).  I'm beginning to think that the short life and mystery of Everett Ruess is now reaching saga status.

Here is a screen shot one discussion that is expanding the Everett Ruess myth and makes me think the Everett Ruess discussions will never end:


I love that my little Facebook group (195 members encounting!) is enabling the Ruess experts (i.e. Ruess-perts), the Ruess family, and Everett Ruess layman alike -- to discuss someone who has touched the hearts and minds of many people.

There are subtleties to the Disciples discussions most people can't see. Bergera saw them in the new books about Everett Ruess and he pointed it out in his review. I appreciate that.

Writing history can be a sloppy and sometimes political process.

New media (Facebook and this blog included) may muddy the Ruess mystery at first, but I believe it will only help us discover the truth about who Everett is and why the story continues to inspire our investigations as Everett Ruess Disciples.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

The Mystery of Everett Ruess: Repackaged "Vagabond for Beauty" only worth having as a collectable.

I am still working to finish my review of "Selling Everett Ruess" by the end of the week.

If I were a professional freelance journalist it would have been done by now. Fortunately, I am taking care of my two young boys until school starts and then it is off to being a full time middle school science and journalism teacher.

I will say that I am planning to test out some ideas I have for multi-disiplinary school lessons using Ruess as the modus operandi to learning in my honor's science class.

In other news ... 

"Everett Ruess: His short life ..." by Philip Fradkin has just arrived from Amazon.com and I can't wait to review it as soon as possible.

I did a quick perusal of this book's index, but alas my name was not mentioned. I do think some of my research influenced its content so that's not a good first impression (I've always believed you can judge a good book by it's index).

I will say that "Everett Ruess: His short life ... " is being marketed fairly well because the promotions (i.e. press releases?) appear to rely on big name reviewers, Fradkin's past work, and the fact it comes from the University of California Press.

Similar things can be said of "Selling Everett Ruess" by David Roberts.

The marketing of both these books remains my primary interest in Everett so it is interesting to see how these publications are received by the press and public.

Speaking of new books about Everett ...

I finally read W.L. Rusho's afterword to the updating of "Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty." The book is now titled "The Mystery of Everett Ruess." It has new pictures. A new look coupled with a new beginning and ending.

Rusho's updating to "Vagabond" (found now as POD -- print on demand -- from Gibbs Smith, Publisher) is pretty good, but I don't know that it is worth the money. I like the vagabond title for Rusho's original editing work much better than the updated version -- despite its having a Google friendly title. It is definitely something avid Everett Ruess fans will want on their shelf.

After reading the afterword in "The Mystery of Everett Ruess" I was reminded of my interview with Bud Rusho for my master's thesis research. He had some interesting things to say about David Robert's dealing with Everett Ruess. Much of those sentiments were only alluded to in his afterword to "The Mystery."He told me the same story about digging up the "grave" of Everett that he included in his last book. He showed me pictures of the trip, too.

Rusho mentions my thesis in his afterword to "The Mystery," but does not include its title, author or any other detail. This leaves me to wonder what -- or if -- he thought about my research. I gave Rusho a copy my thesis at an event at the University of Utah when a symposium was held to discuss the initial "solving" of the E.R. mystery in 2009.

The Everett Ruess "cold case" was reinstated a few months after it was solved and Rusho has since passed away.  And I really wish he were still around to offer his critique of the new E.R. books that emerged this summer. I have always appreciated Rusho's matter-of-fact approach to the Everett Ruess story. However, that impression has changed a bit from reading "Finding Everett Ruess" and I will elaborate on that in my forthcoming book review of Robert's book.

One irony I love about Rusho's last book is that the www.gibbs-smith.com site says Rusho "confronts the truth" -- of Robert's reporting about Everett Ruess in National Geographic Adventurer -- "in a new epiloque."

There are truths about the people who are selling the Everett Ruess story for money and political purposes. That story needs to be told to Ruess fans around the world and it isn't being told by Roberts or Rusho. My thesis is too academic for a mass audience. I do get the feeling Fradkin is going to touch on this subject a little bit with his new book but since my name isn't mention I doubt it will included details I think important to the Everett Ruess myth.

And until the references to my thesis stop being too cryptic for a journalist from the Wall Street Journal or L.A. Times to investigate, it seems the truth's I uncovered in my thesis will remain untold to the masses.

So what am I to do? I don't feel like writing letters to the editor. And I want to make my own money "Selling Everett Ruess," too.

I don't need to make a lot of money. I just want to make enough to make it possible for me to be a vagabond like Ruess -- without the poverty of friends, family and money -- as evidence that the same people who read the existing and new Ruess books also get "the rest of the story" (thanks Paul Harvey).

This is hard for me to say. I've never set out to make money off of Everett's story but I've tired of Gibbs Smith flaking on his offers to publish my research. He says he wants to publish it. We have meetings and exchange emails about my book's content. He says that he has read my thesis but I doubt it. My thesis includes some not-so-flattering things about Gibbs Smith and other people with ties to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and those promoting Everett Ruess as a wilderness icon.