Letters from Yellowstone

Rating:
Summary: Turning back the hands of time
Review: Way back before she wrote the well-received PICTURES FROM AN EXHIBITION (2002), Diane Smith first examined the American West in this epistolary gem. Someone very dear to me gave me this book, so I would have enjoyed it anyhow, but as it turns out, it's a book i can recommend to anyone interested in either a good feminist read or a set of provocative opinions about the modern path of preservation and landscape culture. People who have read Rebecca Solnit's books, for example, might enjoy Diane Smith's somewhat lighter look at the same time period and subject.

They sell this book at Yellowstone National Park and I can see why! It takes one right back to the days when the Indian had not been subjugated entirely by the white conquerors and empire-builders, and the vista against which this action is laid is fairly overpowering with its beauty. Do yourself a favor and get into the time machine they call, "Letters from Yellowstone."