Cowboy Life: The Letters of George Philip

Synopsis

Rattlesnakes and ornery horses, the dreaded Texas Itch, midnight rambles in graveyards, trips to Mexico, and hard riding on the last open range: George Philip recounts all these adventures and more with wit and humor. As a young man, George Philip emigrated from Scotland to escape a harsh apprenticeship. In 1899, he arrived on the doorstep of his uncle, James ("Scotty") Philip, patriarch of one of South Dakota's foremost ranching families. For the next four years, Philip rode as a cowboy for his uncle's L-7 cattle outfit during the heyday of the last open range. But the cowboy era was a brief one, and in 1903 Philip turned in his string of horses and hung up his saddle to enter law school in Michigan. With a law degree in hand, he returned to South Dakota to practice in the wide-open western towns of Fort Pierre, Philip, and then Rapid City. In these candid letters, Philip tells his children that his life was an ordinary one, but his memoirs quickly dispel that notion. He provides fascinating insights into the development of the West and of South Dakota. His writing details the cowboy's day-to-day work, from branding and roping to navigating across the plains by stars and buttes as the great open ranges slowly closed up. Philip's tales emphasize the simple pleasures and hard work of cowboy life. "The range country was largely peopled by young boys and young men," he wrote. "They were not arrayed in the spangles so liberally shown in the movies. They slept beneath the stars or the clouds, when they could get to it, and the rest of the time, they were dirty and sweaty and tired." The places and characters of the range find life in Philip's mixture of humor, hard-nosed "horse-sense," and poignant reflection.

Copyright:

2007

Book Details

Book Quality:

Excellent

Book Size:

350 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780977795512

Publisher:

South Dakota State Historical Society

Date of Addition:

09/07/10

Copyrighted By:

South Dakota State Historical Society Press

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Westerns, Biographies and Memoirs, Social Studies, Sociology

Submitted By:

Kari G

Proofread By:

BookMouse

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.