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Literary Butte: A History In Novels & Film

Known worldwide as the “Richest Hill on Earth,” Butte, Montana, lured immigrants from every part of the world to sweat in the copper mines that powered America in its Gilded Age. Dozens of writers celebrated this “wide-open town” with impassioned novels of the rugged souls who braved the western frontier at the edge of the Continental Divide.

They wrote of the opulence of success and the agony of broken dreams. They cataloged the clash between labor and capital as Butte boomed from a crude village of mules and men to prestige as Montana’s biggest city with towering buildings of brick and iron. In Literary Butte, award-winning author Aaron Parrett surveys the wealth of literature that has come from the town that calls itself “Butte, America.”

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Aaron Parrett is also the author of MONTANA: Then and Now . He is on the faculty at the University of Great Falls, where he teaches literature and philosophy. His work has appeared in many books and journals, most recently in The Complete Montana Gothic and The Old-Time Herald. He was born in Butte at St. James Hospital.

Aaron Parrett

Chérie Newman is a former arts and humanities producer and on-air host for Montana Public Radio, and a freelance writer. She founded and previously hosted a weekly literary program, The Write Question, which continues to air on several public radio stations; it is also available online at PRX.org and MTPR.org.
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