Blog | Missoula Public Library

I look at books as little literary ecosystems. Montana’s rich literary heritage is a book fetishist’s dream. Consider this cluster related to Montana's contribution to the Harlem Renaissance ...

BORN TO BE is the rare reminisces of Taylor Gordon, a black man growing up in (and out of) early 1900s White Sulphur Springs, Montana. Gordon’s family was the only black family in the mining boom town, and as a boy he earned money working for the local madam and “sporting” men. He also chauffeured for the Ringling family (of circus fame, who had a ranch nearby). His stint as a Pullman car attendant opened up a new world of entertainment, patronage, sex and racism. Gordon became a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance, and traveled to Europe where he sang spirituals for monarchs.

Taylor Gordon makes a cameo in Ivan Doig’s memoir THIS HOUSE OF SKY: LANDSCAPES OF A WESTERN MIND -- one of Montana’s most beloved books. Doig’s description of White Sulphur’s saloon row is a boisterous diversion from his equally evocative treatment of the sheepherding life. We learn that Gordon lost his earnings – and some of his mental health – and retired to White Sulphur in time to entertain a young Doig. Gordon believed that his body could intercept radio signals and was known as a local eccentric.

While Doig’s memoirs are lyrical, his fiction can be an uphill grind for some readers. But the view from the top, if one sticks with it, is worth every word. Doig’s 2003 novel, PRAIRIE NOCTURNE, introduces us to Monty Rathbun, a character clearly inspired by Gordon’s life. We meet Monty working as a rodeo clown (his nickname is Snowball because he wears whiteface) on Montana’s Hi-Line, and follow his journey to a singing career in New York and beyond. The novel gets bounce with the KKK’s cat-and-mouse shenanigans, a mid-rehearsal earthquake in Helena, and a spin around the Harlem Renaissance. Monty’s moonlight serenade from a barge floating through Gates of the Mountains is one of my favorite Doig cinematic scenes.

FORUM: Taylor Gordon often insisted he did not experience racism growing up in Montana, and returned to White Sulphur to live out his last years. Nevertheless, Born to Be is rarely included in current discussions of Montana literature. While Montanans often think of themselves as independent outsiders, Gordon may have been a little too “outside” the comfort zone of his contemporaries. His use of ethnic idioms and his frank perspective on just about any topic – from rewriting the Bible to white curiosity over black sexuality – are not standard fare of the Western canon. By 1929 Gordon was penniless but brightly democratic: he credited everyone he knew – “the world’s greatest celebrities, artists, musicians, writers, bull-dikers, faggots, bankers, sweetbacks, hotpots, and royalty” – for teaching him that “life goes on … one thrill after another.” Surrounded by this diversity, he asked: “I wonder what I was born to be?”

DID YOU KNOW? When the Ku Klux Klan was active in Montana it was much more obsessed with purging the state of Catholics than African-Americans. ... Helena's black community once numbered in the hundreds, with African-American social clubs, saloons, churches, and an African-American newspaper.

by Karl Olson, Library Assistant