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Only Good Bear Is a Dead Bear, A Collection of the West's Best Bear Stories
Only Good Bear Is a Dead Bear A Collection of the West's Best Bear Stories Author:Jeanette Prodgers For many today, the grizzly bear symbolizes the beauty and power of the natural world. But only in the recent past has the grizzly emerged as a cause celebre among conservationists, who argue that this magnificent animal is what puts the "wild" in wilderness. To early settlers of the American West, the grizzly embodied nature at its most s... more »avage and hostile, and for much of human history, "the only good bear was a dead bear." In this extraordinary collection, Jeanette Prodgers has assembled-from newspapers, national magazines, and classic reference works-stories by and about people who have encountered bears in every situation imaginable. Each story is fascinating, exciting, often brutal or hilarious in its own right, but as a collection these stories also document the behavior of bears-and people-as no scientific survey can. Besides the grizzlies that are chased, hunted, lassoed, drugged during hibernation, and baited with honey-smothered blasting caps, The Only Good Bear is a Dead Bear features a diverse and entertaining cast of characters: frightened settlers, confident children, fast-running eastern dudes, even a bison bull fighting to the death to protect his herd. Many of the stories are tragic, too, not only because they end in violence but because they portray ignorance and carelessness.« less