Regarding Willingness
Chronicles of a Fraught Life
Published on 14. January 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
202 pages
978-1-7360894-0-8 (ISBN)
Description
2020 Montana Book Award Honor Book
"(These) stories should be required reading." -Montana Book
Award Committee
Tom "Harp" Harpole was a horse logger working from remote
mountain camps and living in wall tents until an accident suggested a change of
lifestyle. He took to his other avocation - writing, and studied abroad in
Ireland. He began publishing stories in periodicals such as Smithsonian Air
& Space, Sports Illustrated, Crocodil, Montana Quarterly, Whitefish Review,
and more. In 1986 his story "The Last of Butch" (Faber & Faber, London) was
selected as The Best Short Story in the British Isles. His work has been
short-listed for the National Magazine Award twice, and translated into six
languages. He has been a guest reader on NPR more than a dozen times. Harpole
writes in a voice that uses his natural wit and humor to shed light on a
life of stories that bring readers to the edge of danger. "Tom Harpole is what
you might call a thinking man's Evel Knievel," - Aaron Parrett, author of Montana: Then & Now
Certain magazines that assigned Harp feature articles knew early
on that he would try anything that involved physical/emotional risks. He
regarded himself as a Survivor's
Euphoria aficionado. His
willingness and perspective on dalliances with danger range from an N.F.L.
record, to horse logging, to skydiving with Russian cosmonauts, to getting a
black bear stoned, to his compassion as a volunteer EMT in rural Montana, to
protesting Gorbachev in 1990, to driving ice roads above the Arctic circle, and
more. This book is a collection of sixteen of his most popular stories.
"(These) stories should be required reading." -Montana Book
Award Committee
Tom "Harp" Harpole was a horse logger working from remote
mountain camps and living in wall tents until an accident suggested a change of
lifestyle. He took to his other avocation - writing, and studied abroad in
Ireland. He began publishing stories in periodicals such as Smithsonian Air
& Space, Sports Illustrated, Crocodil, Montana Quarterly, Whitefish Review,
and more. In 1986 his story "The Last of Butch" (Faber & Faber, London) was
selected as The Best Short Story in the British Isles. His work has been
short-listed for the National Magazine Award twice, and translated into six
languages. He has been a guest reader on NPR more than a dozen times. Harpole
writes in a voice that uses his natural wit and humor to shed light on a
life of stories that bring readers to the edge of danger. "Tom Harpole is what
you might call a thinking man's Evel Knievel," - Aaron Parrett, author of Montana: Then & Now
Certain magazines that assigned Harp feature articles knew early
on that he would try anything that involved physical/emotional risks. He
regarded himself as a Survivor's
Euphoria aficionado. His
willingness and perspective on dalliances with danger range from an N.F.L.
record, to horse logging, to skydiving with Russian cosmonauts, to getting a
black bear stoned, to his compassion as a volunteer EMT in rural Montana, to
protesting Gorbachev in 1990, to driving ice roads above the Arctic circle, and
more. This book is a collection of sixteen of his most popular stories.
Reviews / Votes
"These tales will make you marvel, maybe wipe a tear, and quite likely blow some coffee out your nose. Harpole was lucky enough to survive his life and that makes us lucky, too." - Scott McMillion, editor of Montana Quarterly"In the self-effacing tradition of Tim Cahill's work, his adventures, sometimes unanticipated, are always told with a rough and ready heart." - Betsy Gaines Quammen, author of American Zion
"In this breathtaking collection of essays, Harpole proves that he is a gifted storyteller. Just don't try any of this at home." - Chris La Tray, author of One-Sentence Journal, winner of the 2018 Montana Book Award, and the 2019 High Plains Book Award
"This collection of stories will make you laugh, cry and think; which is pretty much all you can ask of a good book." - Dave Ames, author of True Love and the Wooly Bugger
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 139 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-7360894-0-8 (9781736089408)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
In 1970, Tom (Harp) Harpole and his cousin Jerry put together a horse logging show in western Oregon through most of the 70's, while he studied for a Forestry Engineering MA at OSU. He got banged up falling timber in western Montana in the early 80's and he and his wife Lisa took the Work Comp settlement and headed to Ireland with their wee ones, Flannery and Derry. Harp studied Latin, Greek, and English writing and was selected to be the first American to participate in the Irish National Writer's Workshop. Two years later, back home, he began writing for a living at the age of 40 and did well, working for glossies such as National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian Air & Space, plus more. Magazine assignments took him to six continents over a twenty-three-year career. He also spent several hundred days, two weeks at a time, teaching writing workshops in 80+ bush schools all over Alaska.
Certain magazines that assigned Harp feature articles knew early on that he would try anything that involved physical/emotional risks. He regarded himself as a Survivor's Euphoria aficionado. His willingness and perspective on dalliances with danger range from an N.F.L. record, to horse logging, to skydiving with Russian cosmonauts, to getting a black bear stoned, to his compassion as a volunteer EMT in rural Montana, to protesting Gorbachev in 1990, to driving ice roads above the Arctic circle, and more.
Certain magazines that assigned Harp feature articles knew early on that he would try anything that involved physical/emotional risks. He regarded himself as a Survivor's Euphoria aficionado. His willingness and perspective on dalliances with danger range from an N.F.L. record, to horse logging, to skydiving with Russian cosmonauts, to getting a black bear stoned, to his compassion as a volunteer EMT in rural Montana, to protesting Gorbachev in 1990, to driving ice roads above the Arctic circle, and more.
Content
Foreword by Loren Haarr .......................................................
Disarming and Decimating Myself ......................................
The Last of Butch ...................................................................
A Matter of Degrees ...............................................................
Damned Bear ...........................................................................
Black Ice ....................................................................................
Falling Out of the Cold War ..................................................
Free-falling with Frightful Franklin ......................................
90 P.S.I. ......................................................................................
Bare Bones Barnstorming ......................................................
Hoping the Trash Holds .........................................................
Treed ..........................................................................................
Choking Near to Death: The Auto-Heimlich .....................
The Gall Bladder of that Man ...............................................
My Dog Frank and My Cat Chuck .......................................
A Sled, a Cow, the Future .......................................................
Marching in Moscow for What it's Worth ...........................
Acknowledging Praise .....................................................................
Disarming and Decimating Myself ......................................
The Last of Butch ...................................................................
A Matter of Degrees ...............................................................
Damned Bear ...........................................................................
Black Ice ....................................................................................
Falling Out of the Cold War ..................................................
Free-falling with Frightful Franklin ......................................
90 P.S.I. ......................................................................................
Bare Bones Barnstorming ......................................................
Hoping the Trash Holds .........................................................
Treed ..........................................................................................
Choking Near to Death: The Auto-Heimlich .....................
The Gall Bladder of that Man ...............................................
My Dog Frank and My Cat Chuck .......................................
A Sled, a Cow, the Future .......................................................
Marching in Moscow for What it's Worth ...........................
Acknowledging Praise .....................................................................