Rick Bass

(1958-    )

Dubbed “Nature Writer” by bookstores and critics, Rick Bass’s works are concerned with the nature of the human heart and the heart of nature. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 7, 1958. The son of a geologist, Bass took an early interest in the natural world. He earned a B.S. at Utah State University in 1979 and worked as a petroleum geologist for several years. Bass has lived around the South and Southwest, including stints in Mississippi from 1979 to 1987 as a petroleum geologist in charge of prospecting for new wells, an experience that formed the basis for his book Oil Notes (1989). He currently lives and works in the Yaak Valley in Montana.

Bass is part of a recent trend in regional writing: Southerners writing about the West. The stories in Bass’s first short story collection, The Watch, which won the 1988 PEN/Nelson Algren Award in 1988, are generally set in Texas. His other works, however, concern the West.

In an article in the Bloomsbury Review, John Murray wrote, “Bass is characteristically Southwestern in independence, his restlessness, his humor, his vitality, his sunny outlook, his distrust of unchallenged authority, and his disclaim for affectation and pretense.”

Bass published his first novel, Where the Sea Used to Be, in 1998. His most recent fictional works include a short story collection, The Lives of Rocks (2006) and a novel, The Diezmo (2005). Much of his other recent works have been nonfiction, including The New Wolves (1998), Brown Dog of the Yaak: Essays on Art and Activism (1999), Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had (2000), The Roadless Yaak: Reflections and Observations About One of Our Last Great Wilderness Areas (2002), and Caribou Rising: Defending the Porcupine Herd, Gwich-’in Culture, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (2004).

—Katharine Mitchell

Article updated 12 Aug. 2007

Publications

Fiction:

• The Watch: Stories. New York: Norton, 1989.
• Platte River. (stories) Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books, 2007.
• In the Loyal Mountains: Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.
• The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness: Novellas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
• Where the Sea Used to Be. (novel) Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
• Fiber. (short story) Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.
• The Hermit’s Story: Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
• The Diezmo: A Novel. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.
• The Lives of Rocks: Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Nonfiction:

• The Deer Pasture. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1985. Reprinted by Norton, 1996.
• Wild to the Heart. New York: Norton, 1987.
• Oil Notes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
• Winter: Notes from Montana. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
• The Ninemile Wolves: An Essay. Clark City Press, 1992. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 2003.
• The Lost Grizzlies: A Search for Survivors in the Wilderness of Colorado. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.
• The Book of Yaak. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
• The New Wolves: The Return of the Mexican Wolf to the American Southwest. New York: Lyons Press, 1998.
• “Postwar Paris: Chronicles of a Literary Life.” Portfolio. The Paris Review 150 (Spring 1999).
• Brown Dog of the Yaak: Essays on Art and Activism. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1999.
• Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
• The Roadless Yaak: Reflections and Observations About One of Our Last Great Wilderness Areas. New York: Lyons Press, 2002.
• Caribou Rising: Defending the Porcupine Herd, Gwich-’in Culture, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sierra Club Books, 2004.

Other books:

• (edited by Rick Bass and Paul Christensen) Falling From Grace in Texas: A Literary Response to the Demise of Paradise. Wings Press, 2004.

Bibliography

Biographical Sources:

• Fritz, Jane. “Rick Bass: A Writer of the Wild Places.” Sandpoint Magazine (Winter 1997).
• Ruiter, David. “Life on the Frontier: Frederick Jackson Turner and Rick Bass.” JASAT 26 (October 1995): 66-73.
• Sherwin, Elisabeth. “Printed Matter: Save the Yaak pleads nature writer Bass.” (2 June 1996).
• Slovic, Scott. “An Interview with Rick Bass.” Weber Studies: An Interdisciplinary Humanities Journal 11.3 (1994): 11-29.

Reviews and Criticism:

• Baker, Jeff. “Rick Bass: Don’t Mess with Nature’s Ways.” Review of The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness. The Oregonian (15 December 1997).
• Bernstein, Richard. “Searching for Oil, and Maybe Love, in the Snow.” Review of Where the Sea Used to Be. The New York Times (1 July 1998).
• Ciolkowski, Laura. “Poetic Tales of the Balance Between Place and People.” Rev. of The Hermit’s Story. Boston Globe (20 Oct. 2002): D7.
• Conniff, Richard. “That Dog Will Hunt.” Review of Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had. New York Times Book Review (16 July 2000).
• Dixon, Terrell F. “Rick Bass.” American Nature Writers, Vol. 1: Edward Abbey to John McPhee. Ed. John Elder. New York: Scribners, 1996.
• Gorra, Michael. “Outside.” Review of The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness. New York Times Book Review (14 December 1997).
• Harshaw, Tobin. “In Short: Fiction.” Review of In the Loyal Mountains. New York Times Book Review (16 July 1995).
• Hegi, Ursula. “Splendid Isolation.” Review of Winter: Notes from Montana. New York Times Book Review (10 February 1991).
• Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. “Books of the Times: The Lure of the Outdoors, Then and Now.” Review of Oil Notes. The New York Times (24 July 1989): C16.
• ---. “Books of the Times: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolves?” Review of The Ninemile Wolves. The New York Times (30 July 1992).
• Leschak, Peter M. “No Trespassing.” Review of The Book of Yaak. New York Times Book Review (1 December 1996).
• Lowell, Susan. “Country Love and Naked Laundresses.” Review of The Watch. New York Times Book Review (5 March 1989): 11.
• McKinnon, Julissa. “Author Rick Bass shares a piece of the mountains in final reading of Earth Series.” The California Aggie Online (17 May 1996).
• McManus, James. “Geology Is Destiny.” Review of Where the Sea Used to Be. New York Times Book Review (2 August 1998).
• McNamee, Thomas. “A Wild Bear Chase.” Review of Lost Grizzlies: A Search for Survivors in the Wilderness of Colorado. New York Times Book Review (26 November 1995).
• Slovic, Scott. “A Paint Brush in One Hand and a Bucket of Water in the Other: Nature Writing and the Politics of Wilderness: An Interview with Rick Bass.” Weber Studies 11.3 (Fall 1994).
• Weltzian, O. Alan, ed. The Literary Art and Activism of Rick Bass. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2001.
• ---. Rick Bass. Boise State University Western Writers Series, no. 134. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1998.

Other:

• Rick Bass: Papers, 1982-1994. Southwestern Writers Collection, Texas State University.

Internet Resources

Web Sites:

• “Rick Bass, Mississippi Writer…” From Starkville (Mississippi) High School’s Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project web site.
• “Rick Bass.” Houghton-Mifflin Publisher.
• “Rick Bass.” Wikipedia article. (Important notice about Wikipedia articles.)