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.