James Welch

There’s an intriguing review of the work of James Welch in the January 26 Weekly Standard . Welch, who died last year, was a Montana-based poet and novelist, known as an “Indian poet” and “Indian novelist” for his focus on the lives and history of American Indians. The interest of the article is not only its introduction to a (to me previously unknown) writer, but also the fact that this appears in the Weekly Standard at all. What other DC-based political journal would have an article on a Montana-based writer written by a newspaperman from Pierre, South Dakota. But this has become fairly normal for this journal. Weekly Standard Books and Culture editor Jody Bottum should be commended for consistently seeking to represent the WHOLE of American life and culture in his section of the magazine.