Wyoming Arts Council

BBCW curators collaborate on updated version of historic book

Featured News | September 24, 2015

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Article by Nancy McClure at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody:

After a trip to northwest Wyoming in 1899, Ernest Thompson Seton published Wahb: The Biography of a Grizzly through a series of three articles for Century Magazine, and then the story appeared in book form in 1900.

More than a hundred years later, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Curators Jeremy Johnston and Charles Preston have collaborated on a revised edition of Seton’s book. The co-authors share their endeavor on Thursday, September 24, 2015, 2 p.m. in the Center’s Coe Auditorium. The talk is free to the public. Afterward, Johnston and Preston sign copies of their book at the Center’s Museum Store, where the book is available for purchase in both softcover and hardcover editions. The Center of the West produced the hardcover version of Wahb, and it is available only through the Museum Store, on site or online.

Seton’s story details the life of a fictional grizzly bear named Wahb and his struggles to survive in the Yellowstone region. Although classified as fiction, Seton based this story on various bear stories, many from this area. Seton’s work was very popular but raised concerns among other naturalists—including President Theodore Roosevelt—about its accuracy in depicting grizzly bear behavior.

Preston’s and Johnston’s new edition combines “Seton’s classic tale and original illustrations with historical and scientific context for Wahb’s story, providing a thorough understanding of the setting, cultural connections, biology, and ecology of Seton’s best-known book,” writes University of Oklahoma Press, the book’s publisher.

“On Thursday, I’ll discuss information we’ve learned about grizzly bear biology and ecology since Seton’s time,” Preston explains, “the changing status and management of grizzly bears through the 20th and early 21st centuries, as well as the current status and pending delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly bear population.”

Johnston adds, “As a historian, I’ll share how Seton’s book influenced the public’s perceptions of grizzly bears within the Yellowstone region and how this popular work shaped local bear tales.”

For more information, contact Johnston at jeremyj@centerofthewest.org or 307-578-4032, or Preston at cpreston@centerofthewest.org or 307-578-4078.

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