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Frontier Figures is a tour-de-force exploration of how the American West, both as physical space and inspiration, animated American music. Examining the work of such composers as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, Charles Wakefield Cadman, and Arthur Farwell, Beth E. Levy addresses questions of regionalism, race, and representation as well as changing relationships to the natural world to highlight the intersections between classical music and the diverse worlds of Indians, pioneers, and cowboys. Levy draws from an array of genres to show how different brands of western Americana were absorbed into American culture by way of sheet music, radio, lecture recitals, the concert hall, and film. Frontier Figures is a comprehensive illumination of what the West meant and still means to composers living and writing long after the close of the frontier.

This article discusses the way Cormac McCarthy (1933-) represents the “natural sublime” in The Border Trilogy (1992-1998), where the notion is by and large distinguished as a kind of nostalgic experience on the part of characters insofar as the writer foregrounds the unattainable “natural sublimity” of the Wild West as well as its charming pastoral scenes. Drawing on theories of the sublime, particularly those of Edmund Burke (1757), an attempt is made to shed light on the modality of the merging of the sublime with an inconsolable sense of pastoral loss. Foregrounding the characters’ desire to live a bucolic life, McCarthy dramatizes the very process of experiencing the sublime on their part. The modality of the protagonists’ response to this experience, it is argued, becomes an index of character. The essay also reveals the importance of style in representing the “natural sublime” in these novels, arguing that stylistically their rendering of the “natural sublime” approaches what could be called the “artistic sublime.” In this sense, the artistic representation of the object is no longer distinguished from the nature of the object in one’s sensation. The sublime, therefore, grounds consciousness in the subject, making that subject believe that sublimity is concerned with the way one apprehends the world or, simply put, the quality of a person’s experience. In The Border Trilogy, the writer foregrounds the “artistic sublime” by focusing on the loss of the pastoral vision. In this way, McCarthy presents wilderness as the ideal pastoral space of nature. En este trabajo se estudia la manera en la que Cormac McCarthy (1933-) representa la “sublimidad natural” en The Border Trilogy [“Trilogía de la Frontera”] [(1992-1998), donde esta noción se establece a partir de la experiencia nostálgica de los personajes, en tanto en cuanto el autor sitúa en primer plano la inalcanzable “sublimidad natural” del salvaje Oeste, así como sus fascinantes escenas pastoriles. La revisión de algunas teorías de lo sublime, en particular las de Edmund Burke (1757), permitirá entender cómo la sublimidad se combina con un sentido inconsolable de pérdida de lo pastoril. McCarthy recrea en primer plano el deseo de los personajes de una vida bucólica y, de este modo, escenifica su propio proceso de experimentación de lo sublime. El modo en que los protagonistas de estos relatos responden a esta experiencia es entendido en el artículo como un índice de caracterización. El artículo desvela también la importancia del estilo en la representación de la “sublimidad natural” y propone que la proyección estilística de esta deviene en “sublimidad artística.” Así, la representación artística del objeto no es percibida sensorialmente de forma distinta a su naturaleza. Lo sublime instala la consciencia en el sujeto hasta el punto de hacerle creer que la sublimidad es un modo de aprehender el mundo o, de manera más sencilla, es una cualidad experiencial de la persona. En The Border Trilogy, McCarthy ha llevado al primer plano la “sublimidad artística” centrándose en la pérdida de lo pastoril; de este modo, el autor representa la naturaleza salvaje como el espacio natural ideal.

The article is based on the analysis by John G. Cawelti saying that the western formula cannot be attached to a single plot pattern but rather to a symbolic chronotope and its in:fluence on the type of a hero who operates within the chronotope. I use examples ofsome writings (M. Bird, F. Parkman, O. Wister, J. Altsheller, M. Brand, E. Haycox, Z. Grey and others) to demonstrate several narrative structures used in westerns: the schemes of chasing, revenge, an armed conflict between groups of characters (or a duel), the scheme of hunting for a treasure, the travel scheme as well as the scheme of a detective nove!, which may be incorporated into the western. I include a detailed analysis of Kari May' s nove! The Oil Prince (Der älprinz, 1893). I reveal the principles of the Mayesque serial fictitious universe (the principle of a returning character and hierarchical ranks of characters) as well as the literary-historical genesis ofthe Winnetou saga in the published short stories. Two types of stories can be identified within May's text corpus: the ones having the paratactic narrative structure (inherited from the picaresque nove!) and those having a centra! plot, which also include The Oil Prince. Its narrative structure is organized by the centra! motif of a fake oil lake trap (what the lake actually hides is the fact it does not hide anything: as there is no oil well, in fact). The narrative line of the bad guys is opposed by the narrative line of the positive characters, who want to save a banker' s life. Both narrative lines are interrelated by means ofthe manifold chasing/tracking narrative structure (several groups of characters chase each other) depicted by the altemate storyline composition switching between that ofthe good backwoodsmen and that of the bad guys. On the level of narrative point of view the altemate storyline composition is reflected in altemate focalization, which makes the model readers identify themselves altemately with either the good or the bad characters. Even jeopardizing the negative characters narrative line makes readers feel suspence and frustration. Both of the narrative lines are - on the microlevel - constructed as the solutions ofthe narrative problems ( e.g being captured - being freed, a tough situation - trick and so on): the positive characters deal with ad hoc tasks, problems, which they are faced with, using their common sense (phronesis) so as to assess and solve a particular situation, and their skills and physical condition. I include a detailed analysis of the trick pattem in the case of the Old Shatterhand character. On the other hand, the negative characters deal with being in danger by telling lies or killing In conlusion, I bring intertextual examples ofthe Mayesque fictional world in the proses by J. F. Cooper, F. Gerstäcker, G. Ferry, T. M. Reid, Ch. Sealsfield on the level of motifs, on the level of the hero construction as well as on the level of the narrative structure (the composition of altemate story lines ofthe positive and negatíve characters in F. Gerstäcker's work).

The article is based on the analysis by John G. Cawelti saying that the western formula cannot be attached to a single plot pattern but rather to a symbolic chronotope and its influence on the type of a hero who operates within the chronotope. I use examples of some writings (M. Bird, F. Parkman, O. Wister, J. Altsheller, M. Brand, E. Haycox, Z. Grey and others) to demonstrate several narrative structures used in westerns: the schemes of chasing, revenge, an armed conflict between groups of characters (or a duel), the scheme of hunting for a treasure, the travel scheme as well as the scheme of a detective novel, which may be incorporated into the western. I include a detailed analysis of Karl May´s novel The Oil Prince (Der Ölprinz, 1893). I reveal the principles of the Mayesque serial fictitious universe (the principle of a returning character and hierarchical ranks of characters) as well as the literary-historical genesis of the Winnetou saga in the published short stories. Two types of stories can be identified within May´s text corpus: the ones having the paratactic narrative structure (inherited from the picaresque novel) and those having a central plot, which also include the Oil Prince. Its narrative structure is organized by the central motif of a fake oil lake trap (what the lake actually hides is the fact it does not hide anything: as there is no oil well, in fact). The narrative line of the bad guys is opposed by the narrative line of the positive characters, who want to save a banker´s life. Both narrative lines are interrelated by means of the manifold chasing/tracking narrative structure (several groups of characters chase each other) depicted by the alternate storyline composition switching between that of the good backwoodsmen and that of the bad guys. On the level of narrative point of view the alternate storyline composition is reflected in alternate focalization, which makes the model readers identify themselves alternately with either the good or the bad characters. Even jeopardizing the negative characters narrative line makes readers feel suspence and frustration. Both of the narrative lines are – on the microlevel – constructed as the solutions of the narrative problems (e.g being captured – being freed, a tough situation – trick and so on): the positive characters deal with ad hoc tasks, problems, which they are faced with, using their common sense (phronesis) so as to assess and solve a particular situation, and their skills and physical condition. I include a detailed analysis of the trick pattern in the case of the Old Shatterhand character. On the other hand, the negative characters deal with being in danger by telling lies or killing. In conlusion, I bring intertextual examples of the Mayesque fictitious world in the proses by J. F. Cooper, F. Gerstäcker, G. Ferry, T. M. Reid, Ch. Sealsfield on the level of motifs, on the level of the hero construction as well as on the level of the narrative structure (the composition of alternate story lines of the positive and negative characters in F. Gerstäcker´s work).

Army scout, frontiersman, and hero of the American West, William F. \"Buffalo Bill\" Cody was also a shrewd self-promoter, showman, and entrepreneur. In 1888 he published The Story of the Wild West, a collection of biographies of four well-known American frontier figures: Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and himself. Cody contributed an abridged version of his 1879 autobiography with an addendum titled The Wild West in England, now available in this stand-alone annotated edition, including all the illustrations from the original text along with photographs of Cody and promotional materials. Here Cody describes his Wild West exhibition, the show that offered audiences a mythic experience of the American frontier. Focusing on the show's first season of performances in England, Cody includes excerpts of numerous laudatory descriptions of his show from the English press as well as stories of his time spent with British nobility—from private performances for Queen Victoria and the Prince and Princess of Wales to dinners and teas with the elite of London society. He depicts himself as an ambassador of American culture, proclaiming that he and his Wild West show prompted the British to \"know more of the mighty nation beyond the Atlantic and... to esteem us better than at any time within the limits of modern history.\"

Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward reviews the science that underpins the Bureau of Land Management's oversight of free-ranging horses and burros on federal public lands in the western United States, concluding that constructive changes could be implemented. The Wild Horse and Burro Program has not used scientifically rigorous methods to estimate the population sizes of horses and burros, to model the effects of management actions on the animals, or to assess the availability and use of forage on rangelands. Evidence suggests that horse populations are growing by 15 to 20 percent each year, a level that is unsustainable for maintaining healthy horse populations as well as healthy ecosystems. Promising fertility-control methods are available to help limit this population growth, however. In addition, science-based methods exist for improving population estimates, predicting the effects of management practices in order to maintain genetically diverse, healthy populations, and estimating the productivity of rangelands. Greater transparency in how science-based methods are used to inform management decisions may help increase public confidence in the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Between 1872 and 1886, before he achieved acclaim for his Wild West show, Buffalo Bill led a troupe of traveling actors known as a Combination across the country performing in frontier melodramas. Biographies of William Frederick Cody rarely address these fourteen rather obscure years when Cody honed the skills that would make him the world-renowned entertainer as he is now remembered. In this revision of her earlier book, Buffalo Bill, Actor, Sandra Sagala chronicles the decade and a half of Cody's life as he crisscrossed the country entertaining millions. She analyzes how the lessons he learned during those theatrical years helped shape his Wild West program, as well as Cody, the performer.

This essay offers object biographies of two examples of Lakȟóta beaded regalia that traveled with Wild West performers to France in 1889 and in 1911, respectively, as exemplars of Gerald Vizenor’s concept of survivance. By examining the production of the objects by women artists within the Lakȟóta community and visually analyzing their designs, this article highlights the regalia as an opposition to both settler colonial political suppression and enforced attempts of cultural assimilation. The article stresses that the beadwork’s materiality bears traces of its intended circulation and public display that are enacted when Lakȟóta individuals wore the regalia in the context of Wild West performance in France. Both when rooted in the Lakȟóta community and when circulating through Wild West shows, the objects evince Lakȟóta survivance. When the regalia was acquired by non-Native individuals in France, who projected new meanings onto the objects, the function of the regalia as a public statement of Lakȟóta survivance subtly continued to operate through generated revenue for the community and through the visibility of Lakȟóta culture through continued circulation.

Most journalists and academics attribute the rise of wildfires in the western United States to the USDA Forest Service's successful fire-elimination policies of the twentieth century. However, in Fire Management in the American West, Mark Hudson argues that although a century of suppression did indeed increase the hazard of wildfire, the responsibility does not lie with the USFS alone. The roots are found in the Forest Service's relationships with other, more powerful elements of society--the timber industry in particular.   Drawing on correspondence both between and within the Forest Service and the major timber industry associations, newspaper articles, articles from industry outlets, and policy documents from the late 1800s through the present, Hudson shows how the US forest industry, under the constraint of profitability, pushed the USFS away from private industry regulation and toward fire exclusion, eventually changing national forest policy into little more than fire policy.   More recently, the USFS has attempted to move beyond the policy of complete fire suppression. Interviews with public land managers in the Pacific Northwest shed light on the sources of the agency's struggles as it attempts to change the way we understand and relate to fire in the West.   Fire Management in the American West will be of great interest to environmentalists, sociologists, fire managers, scientists, and academics and students in environmental history and forestry.

In response to Judith Yaross Lee's introduction of a framework designed to probe the relationship between empire and American humor, this article analyzes John Kneubuhl's “The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo,” a 1966 episode of The Wild Wild West (1965-69). Kneubuhl (1920-92) was a Samoan American playwright who wrote for theater, television, and film. Like Mark Twain, he demonstrated a lifelong interest in the trope of the confidence man. In “The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo” he depicts protagonists and antagonists alike in the US borderlands as con artists contending for power. While agents Jim West and Artemus Gordon emerge as cultural impersonators who serve the ideology of Manifest Destiny, the Prince of the South Sea Coral Islands, a Polynesian aristocrat, deploys American hegemony in Oceania. Kneubuhl draws on conventions of the fale aitu, a Samoan theatrical genre, as well as his association with Sam Amalu, a Native Hawaiian humorist and con man known for his elaborate pranks and swindles. As a site of contest between what Lee terms “neocolonial hybridity” and “postcolonial discontinuity,” “The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo” exemplifies Kneubuhl's unique trickster aesthetics.