"The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar" is the brainchild of a man who loved to write, but hated learning the rules."
Samuel G. Freedman, the New York Times
A Fearless Adventure in Grammar, Style, and Usage
Conquer new frontiers with this fresh & outrageous take on grammar! The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar - with its fresh, witty, and humorous style - turns the stuffy old grammar book format on its head, delightfully reminding you that grammar can actually be fun.
Whether you are a writer, professional, student, or just an adventurous soul, The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar is the perfect trail guide to lead you safely through the tangles and gorges of the grammar wilderness.
Seasoned throughout with colorful stories, clever anecdotes, and offbeat words of wisdom, The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar relives the rollicking, riotous days of the old West and the long-lost lore of the mountain man.
Mount up, and keep a sharp eye. Keep your steel keen and your powder dry. Where we go, few follow.
"In writing this book, I have attempted to make each line of text, each rule of grammar, and each example fresh and new and original. But a noun is a noun and a verbal is a verbal, and festooning them in gaudy finery can neither add nor detract from their essence. American grammar and construction—the essential stuff—is staid and stately, elegant, sensuous, raw, and beautiful."
Gary Spina
Gary Spina has taught English in the New York City, Washington, D.C., and Rosebud County, Montana. The Mountain Man's Field Guide to Grammar utilizes the author's own unique classroom techniques for simplifying and clarifying complex grammar and usage rules.
"When I was a boy, I was a terrible student," Spina says. "I was especially proficient at failing English. By some fluke of fate I grew up to become an English teacher and writer. I never forgot what it was like to sit in a classroom and suffer through dull grammar lessons. I swore I'd make my lessons fun."
Gary Spina has ventured half way around the world and back again. Along the way, he has encountered many of the interesting characters who now people his writing. He has wandered amid adventurers in Alaska. He has lived among the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indians in Montana, where he taught Honors English at an Indian High School. It was there, between the Powder, the Tongue, the Yellowstone, and the Big Horn Rivers, where his "Mountain Man" manuscript came together in a flesh-on-bone grammar book of western lore and modern American usage.
