Barbara Van Cleve

She was raised on a ranch in the lee of the Crazy Mountains, where in a good year, the grass grows as high as a horse's belly. Ranching families dwelt there precariously in a world both beautiful and treacherous, only a drought or late-spring blizzard away from ruin. But even after Barbara Van Cleve left to teach college English in Chicago, the land called to her, and she returned each summer to Montana to train horses and ride the high country.

She was raised on a ranch in the lee of the Crazy Mountains, where in a good year, the grass grows as high as a horse's belly. Ranching families dwelt there precariously in a world both beautiful and treacherous, only a drought or late-spring blizzard away from ruin. But even after Barbara Van Cleve left to teach college English in Chicago, the land called to her, and she returned each summer to Montana to train horses and ride the high country.