LAKE COUNTY — A former Lake County resident recently published her first book that began as research for an article and ballooned into a 10-year project.
Jane Lambert, 67, grew up on a Scotts Valley ranch where she was exposed to Charlie Russell, a painter of the Old West whose works on cowboys, Indians and life in the West during the late 1800s and early 1900s garnered enough attention for him to be dubbed, “the cowboy artist.”
“I discovered him as a child and had his paintings on my wall,” Lambert said.
Her love of Russell”s art and the Western novels of Will James inspired “Charlie Russell, The Cowboy Years,” which Lambert has essentially published on her own.
A fifth-generation Lake County resident from the Hendricks family, Lambert graduated from California State University, Fresno and taught at Kelseyville High School for 12 years. She said she was integral in the formation of the school”s Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter.
In 1981, she decided to move to Stevensville, Mont. after falling in love with the area while visiting. She said she taught a year of agriculture before retiring on her ranch, where she tends to her horses and mules and puts up hay.
After retiring, she took on some freelance writing jobs. One assignment in 2001 was on the Charlie Russell museum in Great Falls, Mont. While during research, she said she found a lot of misinformation about Russell”s horses.
“It began to take on a life of its own,” Lambert said. Over the course of 10 years, the book evolved into a chronicling of Russell”s 11 years on the open ranges of late 1800s Montana working as a cowboy.
The book is a thorough documentary of Russell and life in the Old West at that time, complete with Russell”s paintings and historical photographs. Following the time period of the book (1882 to 1893), Russell gained fame as the “cowboy artist” for his paintings.
Lambert said she enjoyed the experience of writing the book.
“It felt wonderful to finish,” she said.
Sinking $12,000 of her own money into the project, she was able to find two experienced editors, sisters Nancy Morrison and Linda Grosskopf, to help her. Lambert said Grosskopf has been the editor of “Western Ag Reporter,” an agricultural magazine in Billings, Mont., for many years and has significant experience with ranching, riding and editing pieces about the Old West.
Lambert said she was “lucky” to find a publisher on her own in Mountain Press Publishing, from nearby Missoula. She said they have worked with her and handle printing arrangements as well as wholesale marketing and distribution to libraries, tourist destinations and stores. Lambert said she handles direct sales on her own.
The first pressing of the book was 2,000 copies, Lambert said, of which less than 150 are left. Because of that, she said a second pressing has commenced.
“It feels successful,” she said. She said she is now in the black with enough money to finance the book”s second pressing and have money left over.
“It”s a good feeling,” she said.
Currently, the book is being regionally distributed, she said. Because of the national distribution of “Western Ag Reporter,” where the book has been featured, it has sold across the country. She said she has shipped books as far away as Alaska, Florida, New York and Hawaii, though nothing out of the country thus far.
In addition to being featured in “Western Ag Reporter,” the book has been reviewed in “Range” magazine and “Rural Montana,” with many Western-themed magazines considering it for review.
Lambert said she has done a couple of book signings. The most fun one, she said, was a recent Friday at the High Country Bar in Stevensville.
“Charlie Russell sold all of his early art in bars,” she said. There was a beer distributor featured that night who sold “Charlie Russell Red” beer in a sort of cross promotion. “You could come and have a drink with Charlie Russell,” she said. She sold 73 books that night.
In addition to becoming an author after moving there, Lambert fell in love with her neighbor and has been married to him for the last 30 years.
“It all worked out coming to Montana,” Lambert said.
To purchase a copy of “Charlie Russell, The Cowboy Years,” send a check or money order for $24 (includes shipping and handling) to: Jane Lambert, 677 Pine Hollow Road, Stevensville, MT 59870. To use a credit or debit card, call Mountain Press Publishing at 1-800-234-5308.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
