Other editions of book This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind

A haunting, magnificently written memoir by Ivan Doig about growing up in the American West Ivan Doig grew up in the rugged wilderness of western Montana among the sheepherders and denizens of small-town saloons and valley ranches. What he deciphers from his past with piercing clarity is not only a raw sense of land and how it shapes us but also of the ties to our mothers and fathers, to those who love us, and our inextricable connection to those who shaped our values in our search for intimacy, independence, love, and family. A powerfully told story, This House of Sky is at once especially American and universal in its ability to awaken a longing for an explicable past.

National Book Award Finalist: A “beautifully written, deeply felt” memoir about growing up in the American West (Los Angeles Times). Ivan Doig grew up in the rugged wilderness of western Montana among the sheepherders and denizens of small-town saloons and valley ranches. What he deciphers from his past with piercing clarity is not only a raw sense of land and how it shapes us, but also of the ties to our mothers and fathers, to those who love us, and our inextricable connection to those who shaped our values in our search for intimacy, independence, love, and family. A powerfully told story, This House of Sky is uniquely American—yet also universal in its ability to awaken a longing for an explicable past. “Engrossing and moving.”—Time

This haunting, magnificently written memoir introduced an important American writer. Now, in its Fifteenth Anniversary Edition, Ivan Doig's preface provides stirring details of the making of this memorable book.Ivan Doig grew up in the rugged, elemental Montana wilderness with his father, Charlie, and his grandmother, Bessie Ringer. His life was formed among the sheepherders and characters of small-town saloons and valley ranches as he wandered beside his restless father. Doig's prose resonates as much with the harshness and beauty of the Montana landscape as it does with those moments in memory that determine our lives.What Doig deciphers from his past with piercing clarity is a raw sense not only of the land and how it shapes us but also of the ties to our mothers and fathers, to all those who love and loved us, to those who formed our values in our search of intimacy, independence, love, and family.This powerfully told story is at once especially American and quietly universal in its capacity to awaken a longing for an irretrievable past.

Masterfully crafted with lyrical and haunting language, Doig's memoir remains an enduring classic, a story to be savored by anyone who has ever loved a parent or been shaped by the land around them.This House of Sky is the moving chronicle of Ivan Doig's youth growing up in Montana. At age six, his mother died, leaving his father, rancher and cowboy, Charlie Doig, and maternal grandmother, the stalwart Bessie Ringer, to raise him. Times were hard; work was difficult; poverty always shadowed them. But drawing on their strong love and gritty determination, they find the strength to withstand these difficult circumstances. They are, Doig reflects, relics of an earlier time and a different lifestyle—uncomplaining, unquestioning, accepting the western land with all its hardships and beauty.