Betsy gaines quammen biography

Historian & Writer

Author of American Zion & True West, Gaines Quammen collects stories to make sense of a place defined by colonization, extraction, rebellion, myth, beauty, and land.

Betsy Gaines Quammen voted Bozeman’s Favorite Local Author

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True West voted Bozeman's Best Local Book

“In telling the stories that comprise True West, Betsy Gaines Quammen reminds us that in order to keep this fractured country together we must meet our fellow Americans where they are, on their own terms.”

—Beto O’Rourke, author of We’ve Got to Try

“People think they ‘know’ the West but they’re usually wrong.

That’s because there’s no region of our country more steeped in fallacy, fake news, and fable. Betsy Gaines Quammen, a wry and wise observer, takes us on a ride across the modern West—and along the way, disentangles reality from centuries of myth and mystique.”

—Hampton Sides, New York Times bestse