Book
Description
"On Sarpy Creek" is a deeply
moving family saga about a small Montana farming community
in the decade after World War I. Many readers consider
it a small masterpiece, yet this book was 'lost' for decades
before being recently republished. The simple, unadorned
style and strong story make "On Sarpy Creek" a
true page-turner about life and love.
"An intriguing story that guarantees
hours of escape. The characters are well developed, interesting,
and fallible, and the ensemble makes for delightful reading." -Big
Sky Journal
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About
the Author
Not much is known
about Ira Stephens Nelson, author of “On Sarpy Creek”.
What is known is that he spent some time living in Montana
as a foster child. It is possible that he lived in the
Billings area, where Sarpy Creek is located. (Today there
is a highway exit off the interstate highway indicating
the location of Sarpy Creek.) He wrote his book in the
midst of the Depression, and it was originally published
in 1938. Perhaps because the country was shortly swept
up in World War II, there was never a second press run
and the book soon fell into obscurity. However, an excerpt
from the book appears in Joseph Kinsey Howard’s
1949 edition of “Montana Margins: A State Anthology” along
with a glowing review of the book.
It is not known what Ira Nelson did
with his life, or where he went, or who he knew. The facts
are skeletal: he traveled a lot. He married a woman who
had three daughters. He died in Georgia, where he was the
caretaker and maintenance man for an estate. He never published
any other works, though his stepdaughters say he tended
to write copiously.
A few years ago,
Scott Mainwaring was researching a literary project when
he happened across a review of “On Sarpy Creek” which was printed
in a teacher’s magazine published in the 1950s. The
review sparked his interest, and he found an original copy
of the book at the Montana Historical Society. At that
point, he became interested in republishing the book and
began to search for Ira Nelson in order to ask permission.
Several years passed without turning up news of Ira. Then,
he and his literary-minded friends hired a private detective.
The detective located a recent death certificate for Ira.
Ira had been alive during the prolonged search, but died
in 1994 just before contact was made. Tragically, he never
saw the republication of his book.
His stepdaughters, when contacted, never
even knew he had ever written a book.
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