Bohemians West

“[Sherry Smith’s books] read like the best fiction, character-driven page-turners.”-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States “Bohemians West is not your typical biography, reading comparable to a romantic dual history of two extraordinary individuals. The author captures the spirit of the atypical romance, reflecting on the times in which they played out. . . . Superb work.”-San Francisco Book Review “Bohemians West is written in a wholly accessible style that does not forsake critical analysis. Only the most gifted and seasoned of historians can pull off such a feat.”-Peter Boag, Oregon Historical Quarterly “Bohemians West is written with Élan for general readers. But it also reflects Smith’s impeccable scholarship; historical context weaves tightly through tales of radicalism and romance.”-Susan Lee Johnson, Western Historical Quarterly “An unconventional biography that reads like fiction, Sherry Smith’s Bohemians West traces a twentieth-century sojourn with alternative romance. Although the portrait of America’s decades-long transformation through modernity may draw interest on its own-with the complex interplay of new radicals, old conservatives, industrialism, war, and impending recession-it is the even more complex magnetism between Sara Bard Field and Charles Erskine Scott Wood that makes each page turn itself.”-Pacific Historical Review “[A] nuanced, well-written portrait. . . . Readers will find the radical relationship at the center of this fine-grained account both frustrating and fascinating.”-Publishers Weekly “This is a wild, alluring tale of radical sex meeting up with radical history during the most radical decades of the twentieth century-told with admirable sympathy for both of its larger-than-life principals.”-Vivian Gornick, author of Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life “This irresistible story weaves a tale of passionate love together with one woman’s efforts at liberation within a compelling portrait of progressive culture in the early twentieth-century American West. What arises in these pages is a uniquely complex portrait of the sexual revolution, both its ideals and contradictions. And to say Bohemians West makes history come alive is an understatement. You won’t want to put this book down.”-Susan Griffin, author of Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her “In his youth one member of this remarkable couple met Ulysses Grant; in her old age, the other talked with the man who introduced Zen Buddhism to America in the 1950s and ’60s, Alan Watts. In between, an amazing collection of people passed through their lives, from Clarence Darrow (who introduced them) and Lincoln Steffens to Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman. Sherry L. Smith does a splendid job of bringing this cast of characters to life.”-Adam Hochschild, author of Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes “This is a beautiful book. It works not only because Sara Bard Field and Erskine Scott Wood are compelling, brilliant and flawed, fearless and naive, but because Sherry Smith cares about getting them right-the intimacy of their love and lives, and the complexity of their time, their passions, and the American West they inhabited and influenced.”-William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West