Earl Wayland Bowman, "the Ramblin' Kid," promoter of Idaho and author of popular stories and novels of the American West, was born in Missouri on March 13, 1875, to Francis Marion Bowman, a Baptist preacher, and Sidney Anne Priestly Bowman. Orphaned at the age of ten or eleven, he spent most of his youth wandering through Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Old Mexico, and Indian Territory, working at a variety of jobs -- cattle punching, cooking, butchering, dishwashing, coal digging, and most significantly, in a print shop in New Mexico. There he learned enough of the trade to enable him to work as a traveling tramp printer. His early Western experiences, and the colorful characters he met along the way, provided fodder for the many stories he would write later in life.
At the age of 21, back in Missouri, Bowman married Elva Eldora Moss. For a while he ran a newspaper in Panama, Missouri, and later worked for other small-town Missouri newspapers. Always restless, though, he moved with his wife and first-born daughter to Idaho in 1901, first to Weiser and then to Council, where he established a ranch. He wrote for several newspapers in the Council valley, including the
In 1912, Bowman did feature writing for the Boise Capital News and in 1914 began publishing and editing a magazine called
Politically, Bowman was a Socialist with a populist tilt. Editorials he wrote for the Council
During the Mexican border disturbances in 1916 Bowman went with the Second Idaho Infantry to Nogales, Arizona, as a correspondent for the Boise
Ill health forced Bowman to move to Arizona in 1921 and, soon thereafter, to Southern California, where he continued writing, finding frequent outlets for his Western stories in the national pulp magazines. According to one clipping in his scrapbook, he also wrote movie scenarios. He is credited with a small acting part in one film,
Earl Wayland Bowman died in California on September 5, 1952, survived by his wife, a son, and two of his three daughters. Although many of his stories were written in California, he always considered himself an Idaho author. In a 1923 letter to his friend Agnes Just Reid, he advised that the California state librarian had sent him a card requesting biographical data as a "California author." He told the librarian that he was "an Idaho Author, if any kind," adding a remark to his friend: "I'm all Idaho and want to stay that way."
For a brief review of Wayland's political career, drawn mainly from the American Socialist and his correspondence in the Socialist Party collection at Duke University, see David R. Berman, Radicalism in the Mountain West, 1890-1920: Socialists, Populists, Miners and Wobblies (University Press of Colorado, 2007).
The collection is arranged in eleven series: 1. Biographical materials; 2. Correspondence; 3. Writings for newspapers; 4. Solemn Johnson and Dirty Shirt Smith stories; 5. Other stories; 6. Poetry and meditations; 7. American folkstuff; 8. Novels; 9. Oversize items; 10. Magazines (originals); and 11. Photocopied original documents.
Collection is available for research.
Gift of Mr. Bowman's daughter, Gladys Bowman Knight, Council, Idaho, 1972.
Much of the paper in the collection is highly acidic and fragile. For that reason, researchers are asked to use photocopies; originals are retained in separate files and may be consulted if necessary.
[item description], Earl Wayland Bowman Papers, Box [number] Folder [number], Boise State University Special Collections and Archives.
The Earl Wayland Bowman collection contains Bowman's Western stories and novels (in both typescript and published form), news articles and press releases, letters, clippings, several photos, and other biographical material documenting his work as a writer and his brief career in elective politics.
The largest part of the collection consists of Bowman's writings. Included are clippings of newspaper articles and editorials, typescripts of short stories and novels, plus issues of many of the magazines in which his stories appeared, including
By far the largest file of correspondence is with fellow author Agnes Just Reid of Shelley, Idaho. The collection contains approximately 80 letters Bowman wrote to Reid between 1917 and 1926. Their correspondence began when Reid submitted some of her work to
Bowman's service in the Idaho legislature, his dispatches from the Mexican border, and his war bond work, in particular, are documented by clippings in two scrapbooks.
A part of the Idaho Writers Archive.
There is no Box 8 in the collection (accidentally skipped when numbering).
Additional materials related to Earl Wayland Bowman are located at Boise State in:
Bowman's colorful and wide-ranging career as an author and, briefly, as a politician, are documented in articles and clippings about him. The series includes both loose clippings and clippings assembled into two scrapbooks (Box 1, Folders 16-18). The "Treasure Scrapbook" is devoted principally to Bowman's legislative service (1915) and his dispatches from the Mexican border (1916); the other scrapbook mainly to his World War I fundraising and his literary career. The 1920 interview in The Red Chevron (Box 1, Folder 10) is rich in early biographical detail, and, as a veterans magazine, recounts in particular his war work on the Liberty Loan and war savings stamp campaigns. Much of the material in this series is in photocopy form. Originals have been preserved elsewhere in the collection. Quite a few of the papers have been annotated by Bowman's daughter Gladys Bowman Knight. More photos of Bowman are located in Series 9, Oversize.
Not much of Bowman's correspondence has been preserved, save for approximately 80 typewritten letters he wrote between 1917 and 1926 to fellow writer Agnes Just Reid in Shelley, Idaho. He addressed her as "Range Cayuse" - from the title of her first book of poems - and signed his letters "Ramblin' Kid." Written from Boise, New York, Arizona, southern California, and Tacoma, Washington, Bowman's letters include descriptions of his activities as publicity director for Idaho's World War I bond campaign, life and work in Greenwich Village and his neighborhood just off Washington Square, work on
These files contain examples of Bowman's writings for newspapers. Most of the editorials in Folder 30 are unsigned and unidentified, but Gladys Bowman Knight attributes them to her father and says they came from the
This series contains Bowman's stories featuring the characters Solemn Johnson and Dirty Shirt Smith, two old Western prospectors, in both typescript and published form. Titles represented by typescripts are so indicated; published articles are indicated by the name of the magazine and the date of publication. Because of the fragility of the original papers, these are photocopies; originals are preserved elsewhere in the collection.
Like the Solemn Johnson and Dirty Shirt Smith stories, both typescripts and photocopies of published versions of these stories are present in this series.
Bowman mentions his "Papa Goose" rhymes (Folder 51) occasionally in his letters to Agnes Just Reid. They evidently were published in a number of newspapers across the country.
In 1938 and 1939, Earl Wayland Bowman compiled life histories and stories for the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project (U.S. Work Projects Administration). These are typescripts of two sets of stories; one set narrated by Harry Reece, the other by William D. Naylor. Bowman headed the stories "American Folkstuff." Bowman apparently was in New York at the time, for his informants were New Yorkers and he records his address as 86 West 12th St., New York. The Library of Congress has published versions of most of these stories, along with biographical information about Reece and Naylor not found in the collection, on their American Memory website, American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940. (Search for Bowman).
Reece's stories were of Uncle Steve Robertson's experiences in the Idaho outback. Documents at the Library of Congress filed by Bowman along with the interviews identify Reece as a native of Illinois, about 55 years of age, who spent time in the West around cowboys and was at the time of Bowman's interviews the operator of a bookstore at 63 Washington Square South. Bowman says he had known him for about ten years. He indentifies William D. Naylor as a New York native who traveled with Doc Porter's Kickapoo Indian Medicine Show on the carnival circuit in the 1890s. Naylor's stories are of his experiences with the show.
The Library of Congress website also reproduces several interviews by Bowman with other persons not represented in the collection at Boise State.
Earl Wayland Bowman wrote at least four novels, two of which were published: The Ramblin' Kid (Bobbs-Merrill, 1920) and Solemn Johnson Plus (Grosset and Dunlap, 1928). Both are represented here in typescript. In addition, this series contains copies of the serialized version of The Ramblin' Kid as well as reviews and publicity. Copies of Bowman's two published novels as well as Arrowrock, the collection of his verse and stories published by Caxton Printers in 1931, have been cataloged separately for the book collection of the Special Collections Department. Additional materials relating to The Ramblin' Kid can be found in Series 9, Oversize items.
Two unpublished novels are found in Box 5. They are quite unlike Bowman's usual work. He described "Issmir Will Sing Again" as an "American romance novel." It is the story of a young child stolen by Gypsies from her Southern home. "Autobiography of a Worm" is a whimsical vehicle Bowman used to explore philosophical and religious themes and notions of civilization. Neither typescript is dated, though Bowman gave his address on the title pages of both as Los Angeles.
This series contains the original magazines in which many of Earl Wayland Bowman's stories and poems were published. Most of the issues are here in full; but many are represented only by their covers and the pages with Earl Wayland Bowman's stories, which Gladys Bowman Knight extracted from the magazine. Photocopies of these stories can be found in Series 4 and 5.
These original documents, on fragile paper, are represented by photocopies in Series 1 through 10 of the collection. Researchers should consult the photocopies first, and refer to these originals only if the photocopies do not meet their research needs.