The Legend of Colton H. Bryant - Hardcover
From the bestselling author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight and Scribbling the Cat, the unforgettable true story of a boy who comes of age in the oil-fields and open plains of Wyoming; a heartrending story of the human spirit that lays bare where it is that wisdom truly resides
Colton H. Bryant was one of Wyoming’s native sons and grown by that high, dry place, he never once wanted to leave it. “Wyoming loves me,” he said, and it was true. Wyoming—roughneck, wild, open, and searingly beautiful— loved him, and Colton loved it back. As a child in school, Colton never could force himself to focus on his lessons. Instead, he’d plan where he’d go fishing later, or he’d wonder how many jackrabbits he might find on his favorite hunting patch, or he’d dream about the rides he would take on the wild mare he was breaking. “At my funeral, you’ll all feel sorry for making me waste so much time in school,” he said to his best friend Jake—and it was true.
Two things got Colton through the boredom of school and the neighborhood “K-mart cowboys” who bullied him: His best friend Jake and his favorite mantra, a snatch of a saying he heard on TV: Mind over matter—which meant to him: If you don’t mind, it don’t matter. Colton and Jake grew up wanting nothing more than the freedom to sleep out under the great Wyoming night sky, to hunt and fish and chase the horizon and to be just like Colton’s dad, a strong and gentle man of few words. When it was time for Colton to marry and make money on his own, he took up as a hand on an oil rig. It was dangerous work, but Colton was the third generation in his family to work on the oil patch and he claimed it was in his blood. And anyway, he joked, he always knew he’d die young.
Colton did die young, and he died on the rig—falling to his death because the drilling company had neglected to spend two thousand dollars on the mandated safety rails that would have saved his life. His family received no compensation. But they didn’t expect to—they knew the company’s ways, and after all as Colton would have said: Mind over matter.
In Scribbling the Cat, Alexandra Fuller brought us the examined life of a Rhodesian soldier; now—in her inimitable poetic voice and with her pitch-perfect ear for dialogue— she brings before us the life of someone much closer to home, as unexpected as he is iconic. The moving, tough, and in many ways quintessentially American story of Colton H. Bryant’s life could not be told without also telling the story of the land that grew him—the beautiful and somehow tragic Wyoming; the land where there are still such things as cowboys roaming the plains, where it’s relationships that get you through, and where a just, soulful, passionate man named Colton H. Bryant lived and died.
Colton H. Bryant was one of Wyoming’s native sons and grown by that high, dry place, he never once wanted to leave it. “Wyoming loves me,” he said, and it was true. Wyoming—roughneck, wild, open, and searingly beautiful— loved him, and Colton loved it back. As a child in school, Colton never could force himself to focus on his lessons. Instead, he’d plan where he’d go fishing later, or he’d wonder how many jackrabbits he might find on his favorite hunting patch, or he’d dream about the rides he would take on the wild mare he was breaking. “At my funeral, you’ll all feel sorry for making me waste so much time in school,” he said to his best friend Jake—and it was true.
Two things got Colton through the boredom of school and the neighborhood “K-mart cowboys” who bullied him: His best friend Jake and his favorite mantra, a snatch of a saying he heard on TV: Mind over matter—which meant to him: If you don’t mind, it don’t matter. Colton and Jake grew up wanting nothing more than the freedom to sleep out under the great Wyoming night sky, to hunt and fish and chase the horizon and to be just like Colton’s dad, a strong and gentle man of few words. When it was time for Colton to marry and make money on his own, he took up as a hand on an oil rig. It was dangerous work, but Colton was the third generation in his family to work on the oil patch and he claimed it was in his blood. And anyway, he joked, he always knew he’d die young.
Colton did die young, and he died on the rig—falling to his death because the drilling company had neglected to spend two thousand dollars on the mandated safety rails that would have saved his life. His family received no compensation. But they didn’t expect to—they knew the company’s ways, and after all as Colton would have said: Mind over matter.
In Scribbling the Cat, Alexandra Fuller brought us the examined life of a Rhodesian soldier; now—in her inimitable poetic voice and with her pitch-perfect ear for dialogue— she brings before us the life of someone much closer to home, as unexpected as he is iconic. The moving, tough, and in many ways quintessentially American story of Colton H. Bryant’s life could not be told without also telling the story of the land that grew him—the beautiful and somehow tragic Wyoming; the land where there are still such things as cowboys roaming the plains, where it’s relationships that get you through, and where a just, soulful, passionate man named Colton H. Bryant lived and died.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969 and in 1972 she moved with her family to a farm in Rhodesia. After that country’s civil war in 1981, the Fullers moved first to Malawi, then to Zambia. Fuller received a B.A. from Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her first book, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, was a national bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of 2002, and a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award. Her second book, Scribbling the Cat, was voted one of the top ten Best Nonfiction of 2004 by the Detroit Free Press, and one of the most best books of 2004 by the Rocky Mountain News and it won the 200 Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
Praise for Alexandra Fuller’s The Legend of Colton H. Bryant
“Incantatory.”
—Carolyn See, The Washington Post
“African-bred Alexandra Fuller has a feel for wildness—of a country or of a man. With the breathtaking bravado of a western windstorm, Fuller charges straight inside the mind of an American innocent, a restless cowboy with cornflower blue eyes. . . . Set this real-life hero within a landscape of oil rigs in a culture of corporate greed, and you have The Legend of Colton H. Bryant, a loving, raging portrait of the untamed but endangered American West.”
—Cathleen Medwick, O, The Oprah Magazine
“[The Legend of Colton H. Bryant]—set in [Fuller’s] new home, the high plains of Wyoming—hangs so faultlessly on its high-altitude, big-sky, oil-drilling bones that it seems not so much to have been written as uncovered by the wind and weather of the American north-west.”
—The Economist
“Fuller creates an iconic cowboy from his friends’ and family’s memories. Her writing is poetry.”
—Sarah Peasley, Rocky Mountain News
“A latter day Silkwood, quiet and understated, beautifully written, speaking volume about the priorities of the age.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A gentle, understated book that effectively muckrakes at the same time it portrays a living and dying symbol of the oil rigs.”
—Dennis Lythgoe, Deseret News
“Moving . . . By the time Bryant meets his demise, you may just find yourself fighting tears.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“A poignant portrait of an extraordinary ordinary roughneck . . . Fuller nails dialogue and the disdain for self pity endemic in the West.”
—Johanna Love, Jackson Hole News & Guide
“Extraordinary . . . I still feel heartsick a few weeks after finishing it. . . . How can you read this tender, troubling book and go out and fill your car with gas, and not care about the men who risk their lives to provide that energy?”
—Jenny Shank, New West
“Fuller’s deeply moving celebration of Colton’s life is bursting with humor, love, and tragedy, like all that is best in life, and without ever having met him, you won’t soon forget Colton H. Bryant.”
—Ian Chipman, Booklist (starred review)
PENGUIN BOOKS
THE LEGEND OF COLTON H. BRYANT
Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969. In 1972, she moved with her family to a farm in southern Africa. She lived in Africa until her mid-twenties. In 1994, she moved to Wyoming with her husband. They have three children.
ALSO BY ALEXANDRA FULLER
Scribbling the Cat:
Travels with an African Soldier
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight:
An African Childhood
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
Table of Contents
Praise for Alexandra Fuller’s The Legend of Colton H. Bryant
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
FEED JAKE
Cast of Characters
PART ONE
A WESTERN
COLTON AND THE KMART COWBOYS
PRESTON AND COLTON, HUNTING
BILL’S PHILOSOPHY OF HORSE BREAKING
BILL AND COLTON
IN THE BEGINNING
CATTLE DRIVE
GOOSE HUNTING WITH JAKE, COLTON, AND CODY
JAKE
JAKE
JAKE AND COLTON
RUNNING FREE
BILL’S PHILOSOPHY OF HUNTING
LOOKING FOR COCOA
FIREWOOD
COCOA
GRADUATION
BULL RIDING
PARADISE ROAD
DRILLING ON THE RIGS
ANATOMY OF AN OIL PATCH
FLOW TESTING
THE ASTRO LOUNGE
TRAIN STOPPING
COLTON AND CHASE
KAYLEE’S PHILOSOPHY OF DRUGS
FIREWORKS
DRIVING ALL DAY
PATTERSON-UTI DRILLING
DRIVING ALL DAY AND NIGHT
MARRIED
DRILLING
THANKSGIVING
A SERIOUS LIFE
MARRIAGE AND ROUGHNECKING
THE DEATH OF LEROY FRIED
DAKOTA JUSTUS BRYANT
COLTON QUITS
COLTON WORKS IN EVANSTON
MINUS THIRTY-FIVE
PART TWO
THE DAY BEFORE VALENTINE’S DAY
CUMBERLAND CEMETERY
VALENTINE’S EVENING
FREE FALL
JAKE DRIVING ALL DAY
PATTERSON-UTI DRILLING
TOUGH ANGEL
RAINBOW
A MILLION-DOLLAR PERSONALITY
EVANSTON CEMETERY
COLT
JAKE AND COLTON
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
For Dakota and Nathanial
Because of C.H.B.
From Justice to Forgiveness
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPenguin Press HC, The
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 1615513825
- ISBN 13 9781615513826
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages224
- Rating
Other Popular Editions of the Same Title
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
The Legend of Colton H. Bryant
Published by
Penguin, New York
(2008)
ISBN 10: 1615513825
ISBN 13: 9781615513826
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: As New. First Edition. Book and jacket are in as new condition. Signed by the author on the title page. Seller Inventory # 62600
Buy Used
US$ 15.00
Convert currency