Bird Cloud

When a cherished dream—to make real one's vision of hearth and home in the vastness that is Wyoming—actually materializes, then one has to come to terms with the realities of cliffs and rivers and a "Falling Cow" incident. As Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Proulx ("Brokeback Mountain") became dissatisfied with an adequate house in a funky, small Wyoming town by the cross-country ski trails of the Snowy Mountains, she became drawn to the rabbit brush grasslands and rocky cliffs along the North Platte River, on the outskirts of Saratoga, WY, a landscape that spoke to and seduced her. Her memoir reflects upon the resulting act of creation, the design and construction of her new home, called Bird Cloud, an integration of art and nature that became sanctuary for her working library and writing space.