Bertha Muzzy Bower

Bertha Muzzy Sinclair or Sinclair-Cowan, née Muzzy (November 15, 1871 – July 23, 1940), best known by her pseudonym B. M. Bower, was an American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West. Her works, featuring cowboys and cows of the Flying U Ranch in Montana, reflected "an interest in ranch life, the use of working cowboys as main characters (even in romantic plots), the occasional appearance of eastern types for the sake of contrast, a sense of western geography as simultaneously harsh and grand, and a good deal of factual attention to such matters as cattle branding and bronc busting." She was married three times: to Clayton Bower in 1890, to Bertrand William Sinclair (also a Western author) in 1905, and to Robert Elsworth Cowan in 1921. However, she chose to publish under the name Bower.

Biography Early life Born Bertha Muzzy in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, to Washington Muzzy and Eunice Miner Muzzy, Bower moved with her family to a dryland homestead near Great Falls, Montana, in 1889. That fall, just before her eighteenth birthday, she began teaching school in nearby Milligan Valley. The school was a small, hastily converted log outbuilding, and she taught twelve pupils. Her experiences as a teacher informed the characters of schoolma'ams who appear frequently in her in the writings, notably in The North Wind Do Blow (1937), in which a young, eastern-born schoolma'am teaches her first term in central Montana. After one term as a schoolteacher, Bower returned to her family's homestead.

In the meantime, Bower's first marriage had deteriorated. After Bower had published Chip of the Flying U, her husband had begun to call her "my little red-headed gold mine." The final break came after he arrived home in a drunken rage. With Sinclair's help and with money from the sale of Chip of the Flying U, Bower moved to Tacoma, Washington, to stay with her brother Chip and his wife Elvina. The divorce was finalized in 1905. Clayton took custody of Bertha Grace and Harry, while Bower moved back to Great Falls and took custody of Roy. Throughout this difficult time, Bower continued to advance her career, signing her first short-story writing contract for Popular Magazine in January 1905.

Writing career Bower began writing to "save my sanity" after moving to Big Sandy with her first husband. Seeking financial independence from Clayton, she began sending stories to publishers in 1900. She regularly wrote new material while continuing to send out her old stories once a month. Bower published her first short story, "Strike of the Dishpan Brigade," locally in 1901. Her first short story to be published nationally, "Ghost in the Red Shirt," appeared in Lippincott’s Magazine in 1904.

Later that year, Bower published her first Western novel, Chip of the Flying U, as a serial in Popular Magazine by Street & Smith. The book introduced readers to the fictional Flying U Ranch and the "Happy Family" of cowboys who lived there. The story line centers on a cowboy named Chip and his relationship with Dr. Della Whitmore, a self-reliant doctor from the East who "can shoot a coyote, laugh off a hazing, doctor a horse, and turn cowboys into pediatric orderlies." Their relationship begins coldly when Della takes credit for a painting done by Chip. But they fall in love after Della restores credit to Chip and after Chip rescues Della from a runaway horse.

Bower went on to write 57 Western novels. She died in July 1940 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 68. By the time of her death, her books had sold more than two million copies, not counting her many short stories and articles.

According to Elmer Kelton, Bower's sales dropped when it was revealed that she was female.

Hollywood Several of Bower's novels were turned into films. Chip of the Flying U was adapted for film four times; however, each of these films significantly altered Bower's narrative. Bower also collaborated with director Colin Campbell, writing stories and screenplays for seven Westerns under the name Bertha Muzzy Sinclair, including the 1921 film The Wolverine. She developed friendships with Gary Cooper and Tom Mix. Mix starred in the first adaptation of Chip of the Flying U (1914) as well as in three other films written by Bower: When the Cook Fell Ill (1914), The Lonesome Trail (1914), and Weary Goes A’Wooing (1915). Bower used her experiences working within the studio system as the source material for several novels, including Jean of the Lazy A (1915), The Heritage of the Sioux (1915), The Phantom Herd (1916), and The Quirt (1920).

Reviewers praised Bower for her use of "chaste English," her "true-to-life fiction," her "real background of life among the bow-legged brethren," and her "playful, humorous vein." A 1922 New York Times review stated: "there has always been an authenticity about them, a genuine smell of sagebrush and saddle leather, which many of her pretentious rivals lack. Her humor, too, is native and unforced, and lingers in the mind." Desert Brew: 1925 The Dry Ridge Gang: 1935 The Eagle's Wing: 1924 The Family Failing: 1941 Five Furies of Leaning Ladder: 1936 Flying U Ranch: 1914 The Flying U Strikes: 1933 The Flying U's Last Stand: 1915 Fool's Goal: 1930 Good Indian: 1912 The Gringos: 1913 The Happy Family: 1910 The Haunted Hills: 1934 Hay Wire: 1928 Her Prairie Knight: 1909 The Heritage of the Sioux: 1916 Jean Of The Lazy 'A: 1915 Laughing Water: 1932 Lonesome Land: 1912 The Lonesome Trail: 1909 The Long Loop: 1931 The Long Shadow: 1909 The Lookout Man: 1917 The Lure of the Dim Trails: 1907 Man on Horseback: 1940 Meadowlark Basin: 1925 The North Wind Do Blow: 1937 Open Land: 1933 Outlaw Moon: 1952 (Ghost written by Oscar Friend) The Parowan Bonanza: 1923 The Phantom Herd: 1916 Pirates of the Range: 1937 Points West: 1928 The Quirt: 1920 The Ranch at the Wolverine: 1914 The Range Dwellers: 1906 Rim O' the World: 1919 Rocking Arrow: 1932 Rodeo: 1928 Rowdy of the Cross L: 1907 Shadow Mountain: 1936 The Singing Hill: 1939 Sky Rider: 1918 Spirit of the Range: 1940 Starr of the Desert: 1917 A Starry Night: 1939 The Swallowfork Bulls: 1929 Sweet Grass: 1940 The Thunder Bird: 1919 Tiger Eye: 1930 The Trail of the White Mule: 1922 Trails Meet: 1933 Trouble Rides the Wind: 1935 The Uphill Climb: 1913 Van Patten: 1926 The Voice at Johnny Water: 1923 White Wolves: 1927 The Whoop-Up Trail: 1933 The Wind Blows West: 1938