FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 7, 2007

New Book about cowboys in South Dakota perfect for Father’s Day

PIERRE, S.D.—Help your father ride across the wide-open South Dakota range with the newest book from the South Dakota State Historical Society. With Father’s Day just around the corner, Cowboy Life: The Letters of George Philip would make a perfect gift.

George Philip recounts the real cowboy life in 21 letters written to his children 40 years after he hung up his saddle for the last time. Philip rode for the L—7 outfit when rules meant little, and nothing but the odd tree broke the view of the landscape. His letters detail hard rides and hi-jinks in the early 1900s.

During his years as a cowboy, Philip traveled the South Dakota range from Fort Pierre south to the Nebraska border, north to the Grand River, and west to Rapid City. His letters take the reader galloping into rattlesnake country on ornery horses, where they can share the dreaded Texas Itch and take midnight rambles in graveyards and trips to Mexico.

Philip does not romanticize life on the range; instead, he tells it as it was—boils and all. He provides fascinating insights into the development of the West, South Dakota and the cowpuncher’s existence, from branding and roping to navigating across the plains by stars and buttes. Cowboy Life mixes humor, hard-nosed “horse-sense,” and poignant reflection, injecting people and places with life and making us yearn for bygone years.

Cathie Draine, Philip’s granddaughter, provides the introduction to the book, offering insights into Philip’s later law career and his character. The book also features 20 pen-and-ink drawings from award-winning Black Hills artist Mick B. Harrison. In an afterword, Richard W. Slatta, author of Cowboy: The Illustrated History and Cowboys of the Americas, places Philip’s experiences within the wider context of ranching in South Dakota in the years of the open range.

Available for $25.95 plus shipping and tax, Cowboy Life can be purchased from most bookstores, or ordered directly from the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.  Visit www.sdshspress.com or call (605) 773-6009.