Mile High Mile Deep - Hardcover

Richard, O'Malley K

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0944439543 ISBN 13: 9780944439548

Publisher: Clark City Press, 2004

Synopsis

Mile High Mile Deep may be the richest, most vivid first hand account there is of life in Butte, Montana during the 1920's. Often referred to these days as Butte, America, this tough, proud, gritty town of some thirty-odd thousand souls today, was once home to nearly four times that number, making it the Wild West's only real city. It was made up of ethnic districts as diverse as New York or Chicago, so that early in this century the air was filled with a dozen tongues, as the Irish, Italians, Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Cornishmen, Montenegrins, Yugoslavs, along with others, poured in to mine for copper.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

First published by Mountain Press in 1970 and in print nearly continuously through several editions by different publishers, Mile High Mile Deep is once again available through Mountain Press. Part memoir, part novel, Richard Kilroy O’Malley’s compelling coming-of-age story captures life in Butte in the 1920s, when the city was a lusty, two-fisted copper camp. Written with sensitivity and feeling, this wonderful book brings to life the Irish, Scandinavians, Slavs, Cornishmen, Syrians, Greeks, Finns, and Italians who scratched a living in the boisterous mining city. First as observers and then as participants, Dick and his friend Frank see and feel the stark power of the mines—a mile high in the blue sky of Montana, but a mile deep, too, in the sweat and gloom of the underground shafts that trapped and destroyed.

About the Author:

Richard K. O'Malley was born in Portland, Oregon, and moved to Butte when he was eight. He worked in the mines as a young man, and went on to become one of America's most respected journalists for The Associated Press, both here and abroad. In this memoir, written in Paris during the 1960's when he was Chief of Bureau there, he applies his flawless craft to the purpose of telling this amazing tale in the voice of a teenage boy, and in so doing, literally sweeps us along on a most remarkable voyage. If you are only going to read one book in this lifetime about Butte, Montana, this is the one.

About this edition

• Publisher: Clark City Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0944439543
• ISBN 13: 9780944439548
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 263