This book offers a unique look at a little-known aspect of immigrant culture in California and Nevada during the first half of the twentieth century. The years 1920 to 1950 represented the high point of the sheep industry in the western U.S. The mountain meadows of the Sierra Nevada were an important source of summer forage, and Basque sheepherders, many recently arrived from the Pyrenees, were primarily responsible for tending the flocks.The shepherd's life among the aspen groves was isolated and solitary, and it led many herders to utilize the trees as a means of self-expression. Using simple tools such as pocket knives or nails, the herders turned to the white bark of the aspens. On this living canvas, they etched a remarkable series of carvings, recording everything from their own names to observations of the natural world around them, memories of the Basque Country, and not surprisingly, erotic fantasies. Over time, the living and perishable nature of the medium subtly altered the sheepherders work, and eventually doomed it. Most of the carvings are now lost.

Basque Aspen Art of the Sierra Nevada

Arts & Photography

Earl, Jean Moore

Earl, Phillip

History & Criticism

Baobab Press

Take one long-married and occasionally exasperated couple getting along in years, their well meaning daughter and precocious grandson, a clueless dog, an independent minded cat, plus assorted other quirky but endearing characters and you have the world of Pickles, Brian Crane's beloved comic strip that takes a wiry but good-natured look at the foibles of family and friends.

How Come I Always Get Blamed for the Things I Do?: A Pickles Collection

Comics & Graphic Novels

Crane, Brian

Comic Strips

The sonnet is one of the oldest poetic forms in Western literature, adopted with immortal success by poets as diverse as Dante, Shakespeare, and Robert Frost. In the hands of William Wilborn, the sonnet becomes a powerful vehicle to explore the poignant ironies of history and daily life, the urgencies of love and age, and the heartbreaking truths that lurk behind encounters with art and beauty. These masterfully crafted poems give the ancient sonnet a fresh vibrancy and relevance suitable for the voices and experiences of our time.The range of Wilborn’s poetic scrutiny is vast, from Anne Frank,up in her attic, working late,To finish knowing why she had been there,Before she heard the jackboots on the stairto the pain of euthanizing a beloved dog:We live too long for love of our own kind,And you too briefly for our endless needand the stoic courage of an old man whofishes in green gabardineStill waters with a heedful hook.Wilborn is a mature and wise poet, fearlessly fishing in the waters of modern life to retrieve the evasive moments that define the human condition.

All She Wrote: Sonnets

Literature & Fiction

Wilborn, William

Poetry

Getting old is not for sissies. But as Brian Crane’s crotchety but endearing seniors Earl and Opal Pickles do it, it can be humorous and often touching. For over twenty years, Crane’s comic strip, Pickles, has been delighting readers around the world. This sixth collection continues the adventures of grandparents Earl and Opal; their precocious grandson, Nelson; quirky family members and friends; and the family’s dog and cat, who offer their own distinctive views of the goings-on. Crane’s view of the foibles of a long-married, often cantankerous couple and their extended family and friends is wry, honest, and always warmhearted.

Oh, Sure! Blame It on the Dog!: A Pickles Collection

After publishing The Iris Deception, the third of his Jack Ross detective novels, in 1996, Bernard Schopen's literary voice went quiet. Nearly two decades later that voice makes a distinctive return with Calamity Jane, a novel that takes a hard look at the realities of rural and ranching Nevada while also examining the enduring myths of the West. Calamity Jane is not a detective novel, but there are mysteries here and fans of Schopen will recognize connections to his earlier work. Set somewhere in the arid basin and range wilds east of Reno and north of Las Vegas, Calamity Jane is told through the private journal of retired high school English teacher Winnifred Westrom, long-time resident of Blue Lake and a keen observer with a stake in the story. This is grown-up fiction, asking serious questions about the fate and future of the West and exploring ideas as big as the Great Basin it inhabits. At the same time, it is storytelling worthy of the Western movies and pulp fictions it admires. Bernard Schopen in Calamity Jane is an old dog up to new tricks.

Calamity Jane

Schopen, Bernard

United States

Our Nevada: Baby Animals takes young readers on an adventure across Nevada’s contrasting landscapes, introducing them to a variety of young creatures who call the great state of Nevada home.

Our Nevada: Baby Animals

Photography & Video

Roger Arthur Smith’s spectacular debut, Echoes, asks, what happens when your fundamental nature is challenged, not by the many evils without, but by an unexpected awakening within?It’s 1960 in Hawthorne, Nevada, a desert town so secluded that the U.S. Navy stores munitions nearby. While the Cold war lumbers on, the town’s gossip mills and marriage-eligible bachelors and bachelorettes play a game of cat and mouse, a pastime, that if nothing else, manages to while away the hours. Attorney Will Dubykky keeps a watchful eye over Hawthorne, and it comes as no surprise that his interest is piqued by the sudden appearance of a strange boy. Why is this boy disfigured? Why does he have difficulty speaking? Why can’t some people seem to see him? As one of the initiated, Dubykky has an inkling; the boy is evil, an echo sent to rectify the wrongs of an indulgent murderer. The echo’s mission? Tempt, trap and eliminate the human monster that spawned it. If all goes according to evil’s intent, the echo will die fulfilling its destiny. This fatal sequence has persisted as long as evil itself, but before the dark circle can be closed, riddles must be solved. In a town this small, who is capable of committing a string of heinous crimes undetected? And, when the time comes will this echo, more naïve and innocent than any echo Dubykky has ever encountered, fulfill its gruesome destiny? Echoes, is a wildly entertaining, gloriously absorbing exploration of humanity, evil, and the stark environs in which both exist.

Echoes (Echoes, 1)

Smith, Roger Arthur

Getting old is not for sissies. But as Brian Crane’s crotchety but endearing seniors Earl and Opal Pickles do it, it can be humorous and often touching. For over twenty-five years, Crane’s comic strip, Pickles, has been delighting readers around the world. This seventh collection continues the adventures of grandparents Earl and Opal; their precocious grandson, Nelson; quirky family members and friends; and the family’s dog and cat, who offer their own distinctive views of the goings-on. Crane’s view of the foibles of a long-married, often cantankerous couple and their extended family and friends is wry, honest, and always warm-hearted.

25 Years of Pickles

<div>The days are cold. Winter is coming fast to the Nevada Mountains. The white ducks need a warm spot to sleep; so does the old mountain lion. Like children who want to snuggle with their moms the ducks find a purrrfect spot to sleep. And the old mountain lion gains something he never had before.</div>

Ducks Ducks

Children's Books

Animals

Nevada Grown: A Year in Local Food is a celebration of Nevada's thriving food culture and an invitation to discover how rich and diverse the bountiful harvest Nevada's hardworking and talented farmers deliver. We invite you to source your ingredients from local farms to find out how delicious turnips and beets are when they're young, tender, and fresh from the field. Rediscover the taste of beef and pork raised on local ranches. Relish the flavor and freshness of locally produced eggs and honey. Try Nevada-grown dates and pistachios. See why Fallon cantaloupe is considered the best in the nation. Delight in kohlrabi cakes, sorrel soup, and kale salad. Be brave and add sunchokes and fennel to your farmers market list. But most of all, enjoy your culinary journey around our state.

Nevada Grown: A Year in Local Food

NevadaGrown

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Baobab Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Baobab Press