Will James: the cowboy author who invented himself and ended up in Billings
Will James wrote “Smoky the Cowhorse,” won the Newbery Medal and ran a ranch near Pryor. His western upbringing turned out to be partly a story he made up.
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Ivan Doig: the ranch kid from White Sulphur Springs who wrote Montana
Ivan Doig grew up working sheep and cattle around White Sulphur Springs and Dupuyer, then turned those years into “This House of Sky” and a shelf of Montana novels.
A.B. Guthrie Jr.: the Choteau newspaperman who named Montana’s sky
A.B. Guthrie Jr. grew up in Choteau, won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Way West” and wrote the novel that gave Montana its nickname, “The Big Sky.”