The Legend of Colton H. Bryant Hardback - 2008

by Alexandra Fuller

From the bestselling author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonightand Scribbling the Cat, the unforgettable true story of a boy whocomes of age in the oil-fields and open plains of Wyoming; aheartrending story of the human spirit that lays bare where it is thatwisdom truly residesColton H. Bryant was one of Wyoming's nativesons and grown by that high, dry place, he never once wantedto leave it. 'Wyoming loves me,' he said, and it was true.Wyoming roughneck, wild, open, and searingly beautiful loved him, and Colton loved it back. As a child in school,Colton never could force himself to focus on his lessons.Instead, he'd plan where he'd go fishing later, or he'd wonderhow many jackrabbits he might find on his favorite huntingpatch, or he'd dream about the rides he would take on the wildmare he was breaking. 'At my funeral, you'll all feel sorry formaking me waste so much time in school,' he said to his bestfriend Jake and it was true.Two things got Colton through the boredom ofschool and the neighborhood 'K-mart cowboys' who bulliedhim: His best friend Jake and his favorite mantra, a snatch ofa saying he heard on TV: Mind over matter which meant tohim: If you don't mind, it don't matter. Colton and Jake grewup wanting nothing more than the freedom to sleep out underthe great Wyoming night sky, to hunt and fish and chase thehorizon and to be just like Colton's dad, a strong and gentleman of few words. When it was time for Colton to marry andmake money on his own, he took up as a hand on an oil rig.It was dangerous work, but Colton was the third generation inhis family to work on the oil patch and he claimed it was in hisblood. And anyway, he joked, he always knew he'd die young.Colton did die young, and he died on the rig fallingto his death because the drilling company had neglected tospend two thousand dollars on the mandated safety rails thatwould have saved his life. His family received no compensation.But they didn't expect to they knew the company's ways, andafter all as Colton would have said: Mind over matter.In Scribbling the Cat, Alexandra Fuller brought usthe examined life of a Rhodesian soldier; now in her inimitablepoetic voice and with her pitch-perfect ear for dialogue she brings before us the life of someone much closer to home,as unexpected as he is iconic. The moving, tough, and in manyways quintessentially American story of Colton H. Bryant's lifecould not be told without also telling the story of the land thatgrew him the beautiful and somehow tragic Wyoming; theland where there are still such things as cowboys roaming theplains, where it's relationships that get you through, and wherea just, soulful, passionate man named Colton H. Bryant livedand died.