Mark Lee Gardner has written many books and articles on the American West, including interpretive guides for the National Park Service on subjects ranging from George Custer to Geronimo. As a historian and consultant, he has worked with museums, historic sites and humanities councils throughout the West. He has been a visiting professor in the Southwest Studies department at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. His new book is To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West, published by Morrow on February 9. He lives with his family in Cascade, Colo., and can be visited at songofthewest.com.
On your nightstand now:
A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears by Antonino D'Ambrosio. This book combines my interest in Johnny Cash with my fascination for songwriter and Dylan mentor Pete LaFarge (who grew up not far from where I live in Colorado).
Favorite book when you were a child:
There were lots, but I distinctly remember my mother reading to me Jack London stories and Treasure Island. When I was quite a bit older, I asked for The Charles M. Russell Book by Harold McCracken for Christmas. At that time, it was an expensive coffee-table book of $22.50, but it was chock full of stunning reproductions of the cowboy artist's best-known oil paintings and sketches. I still have all three books in my library.
Your top five authors:
Mark Twain; Edward Abbey, especially The Brave Cowboy; Evan S. Connell, for Son of the Morning Star, a brilliant book; Owen Wister, his short stories originally published in Harper's Monthly. I'm still on the hunt for the number five spot.
Book you've faked reading:
I know I bought some Cliffs Notes in college, but I can't now recall what they were for.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Man-eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett. These tales of man-eating tigers are real nail-biters, and Corbett is a superb storyteller. This is the only book I've read that I would put in the category "impossible to put down."
Book you've bought for the cover:
Hillbilly Hollywood: The Origins of Country & Western Style by Debby Bull. Okay, I bought it for the contents, too, but what caught my eye was the fantastic cover, complete with glued-on red-and-silver plastic gemstones. If I only had a rhinestone suit by Nudie Cohen to go with it....
Book that changed your life:
There was not one book that changed my life, but there was one library card that did. I grew up in a rural Missouri town of only 500 people, and we didn't have much of a library. My parents paid some sort of annual fee so that our family could use the library in another county 14 miles away, which gave me unlimited access to countless wonderful books.
Favorite line from a book:
"There ain't anything that is so interesting to look at as a place that a book has talked about."--Huck Finn in Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
