Joseph Kinsey Howard
Joseph Kinsey Howard (February 28, 1906 – August 25, 1951) was an American journalist, historian, and writer. He wrote extensively about the history, culture, and economic circumstances of Montana. One of the state's most noted authors of nonfiction, Howard's landmark 1943 book, Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome is a respected account of Montana history that has influenced later generations of historians. Howard also authored numerous other historic and literary works, and was a vocal, articulate and persuasive advocate for a variety of social, economic and environmental reforms. These endeavors earned Howard the posthumous sobriquet, "Montana's Conscience." Howard believed Montana and the rural West provided the "last stand against urban technological tedium" for the individual. He fervently believed that small towns of the sort that predominated in Montana provided a democratic bulwark for society. Howard's writings demonstrate his strong belief in the necessity to identify and preserve a region's cultural heritage. Howard worked first as a newspaper editor on the Great Falls Leader, later for the Montana Study (a statewide community development project), and as a freelance writer. His books, speeches and magazine articles, expressed his ideals of community awareness and identity, encouraging readers to retain an idealistic vision contesting the deadening demands of the modern world. Biography Howard was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and spent his early childhood years in Lethbridge, Alberta, with his family. In 1919 he moved with his mother to Great Falls, Montana, where he graduated from high school in 1923. Immediately after graduating, Howard landed a job as a reporter for the Great Falls Leader, one of the city's two daily newspapers at the time. He was promoted to news editor at the Leader in 1926, at age 20, a position he held until 1944. At the Leader, Howard developed a characteristic writing style that was simultaneously straightforward, evocative, and compelling, and within a few years his talent began to receive broader attention. Beginning in the mid-1930s Howard authored numerous nonfiction articles for national publications, including The Nation, Harper's Magazine and others. He was also a stringer covering Montana issues for Time and Life magazines. Many of the essays Howard produced for these periodicals explored the difficulties faced by Montana's Native Americans and other disenfranchised groups; others were exposés of what Howard saw as undue corporate influence in Montana economics and life, particularly by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Though primarily an author of nonfiction, Howard also wrote book reviews for The New York Times and short stories that were published in The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and elsewhere. Howard's first book-length effort was Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome, which was published in 1943. The volume was both a thoughtful history of the state, and an impassioned indictment of the corporate and bureaucratic forces that had heavily influenced much of that history. Among the book's primary targets were Anaconda Copper, which controlled much of the state's economic and political activity at the time, and the Great Northern Railway, which had lured thousands of homesteaders onto Montana