New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1996. Near Fine/Near Fine 1996 1st printing Cover bright, minimal wear Pages clean bright tight, top edge green remainder mark Looks unread Dust Jacket bright, very minor shelfwear to edges, very lt scuffs From Publishers Weekly: In the summer of 1973, Rawlins (Sky's Witness: A Year on the Wind River Range), rebelling against his Mormon family over the Vietnam War, took a job herding sheep in Wyoming's Salt River mountains. Twenty years later, he returned and?using the journal he kept in 1973?has reconstructed those two and a half months on the trail without trying to reinterpret that time from a new perspective. The vivid descriptions of the mountains are breathtaking, and his wry observations on the rigors, and the very real dangers, of a greenhorn's life with a couple thousand uncooperative sheep are refreshingly unromanticized. Rawlins's moments of philosophical introspection, however, are more of an acquired taste: 'Life is all we have. And a bear can kill so easily. I'm not a bear. It's a lonely thing to know.' He also writes poetry and liberally quotes Homer and other classical writers from an anthology he brought along. Rawlins has an increasingly testy time with the other herder on the job (an old friend); his brother drops by (and is chased by a bear); his girlfriend shows up (for a bit of sex and to end their relationship); a chance encounter with some Basque shepherds reveals how amateurish Rawlins's operation actually is. But he learns his job, how to cook, round up wayward sheep and load a skittish pack horse. Toward the end, he sums up this way: 'And after 47 days of... boredom, hunger, accident, storm, terror, mud, darkness, frost, fever, and snow, I felt as if the Devil himself couldn't kill me.' Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. . First Edition, First Printing. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.