It’s the early 1970s in northern Wyoming ranch country … not exactly an accommodating time and place for a gay man.
But that’s exactly the situation third-generation rancher Jim Gustafsson faces as he fears the end of his ranch’s legacy―he is struggling to come to terms with the fact that his only son, Howard, is gay, but also with his son’s requirement that his partner, David, moves in to stay and work with them on Arrowhead Ranch.
Gustafsson and his neighbors have always expected cowboys to be manly men who love to perform the hard, physical labor of herding, feeding, watering, doctoring, branding, calving, and castrating cattle. They have also expected them to love only women.
David and Howard must prove they are willing and able to do the hard work, but face the even harder task of confronting prevailing prejudices of those around them.
Ranch Legacy is the debut novel by Earle Kirkbride, who turns 95 years old on its release date. The story follows two families that cope in unpredictable ways with the predictable challenges of LGBTQ+ issues and ranch life in the 1970s in the rugged West.
Earle Kirkbride was born on a dairy farm in upstate New York in the 1920s and started his education in a one-room country schoolhouse. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy just before his 18th birthday, and after discharge, earned a chemistry degree from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. After exploring several occupational fields, his professional life was linked for decades to the U.S. Navy, first as a technical writer at the Naval Ordnance Test Station at China Lake, California. He eventually became head of the Technical Information Division and was the first Director of Navy Technical Information at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. When he retired in 1985, he was presented the Navy Civilian Service Award.After retirement, Earle traveled extensively and indulged his interest in cowboy life. He volunteered for assignments with the U.S. Forest Service and was able to play cowboy in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Utah. During this time, he wrote ranch-related magazine articles and a nonfiction book about his late wife's experiences in Japan as the first American woman to be part of a team auditing the assets of the Bank of Japan immediately after World War II. Ranch Legacy is Earle's first novel, and it reflects his love for the people and places of the American West.
