author
James W. Whilt
A real-life cowboy, guide, and poet of the American West, this writer turned years in Montana and Glacier country into vivid, approachable verse. His work is closely tied to the Rocky Mountains, earning him the nickname "The Poet of the Rockies."
1 Audiobook
Rhymes of the Rockies
by James W. Whilt
About the author
James William Whilt was an American cowboy poet born in Minnesota in 1878 who later made his life in Montana. Reliable sources identify him as a western writer known as "The Poet of the Rockies," a label that fits the strong sense of place running through his work.
His poetry drew heavily on lived experience. Project Gutenberg’s notes on Rhymes of the Rockies describe a writer shaped by life as a timber cruiser, packer, trapper, and guide, and the book itself is dedicated to the Rocky Mountains and Glacier National Park.
That background helps explain the direct, outdoorsy feel of his poems: they come from someone who knew the landscape firsthand, not from a distance. He died in 1967, leaving behind verse that preserves a picture of Rocky Mountain life in the early twentieth century.