The Uphill Climb: Classic American Western Novel

Between 1906 and 1940, Bertha M. (B.M.) Bower wrote 68 novels set in the American West. Born Bertha Muzzy in Minnesota in 1871, Bower moved to Montana with her family when she was 17. She taught school in the Great Falls, area and, at the age of 19 married her first husband, Clayton J. Bower. She began writing short stories around 1900, but did not enjoy real success until her novel Chip of the Flying U was published in 1906. From that point forward she wrote and published regularly until her death in 1940. In 2000, B. M. Bower’s grandchildren gave her papers to the Western History Collections.