Donald McCaig (May 1, 1940 in

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the ...

– November 11, 2018) was an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

and sheepdog trainer.

Early life and education

McCaig was born in

and served in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

for two years. He received a BA in philosophy from

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 6 ...

in 1963 and subsequently completed postgraduate studies in shepherding and sheepdogs.

Career

He had a brief but successful career on New York's Madison Avenue before moving to a sheep farm in Bath County, near Williamsville in the western mountains of Virginia with his wife, Anne. His 1998 novel, ''Jacob's Ladder'', and his 2008 novel, ''Canaan'', won the '' Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction''. ''Jacob's Ladder'' also won the

Library of Virginia The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and ...

Fiction Award, the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, and the

W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction is awarded annually by the American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and l ...

. His last work was ''Ruth's Journey: The Authorized Novel of Mammy from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind'', about the eponymous literary character. His second-to-last was ''Mr. and Mrs. Dog: Our Travels, Trials, Adventures, and Epiphanies'', which draws on twenty-five years of experience raising sheepdogs to vividly describe his—and his dogs June and Luke’s—unlikely progress toward and participation in the World

Sheepdog Trials A sheepdog trial (also herding event, stock dog trial or simply dog trial) — is a competition or test for working abilities of Herding dog, herding breeds dogs. It is a type of List of dog sports, dog sport that emerged in the 1860s in New Zeala ...

in Wales. Before that, he wrote the highly acclaimed '' Rhett Butler's People'', a sequel to ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

'' authorized by the

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...

estate. McCaig was also a contributor to NPR's ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

''.

Bibliography

Poetry

*''Last Poems'', Grindstone City, Michigan The Alternative Press, 1978

Novels

*''The Butte Polka'', New York, NY, Rawson Wade, 1980 *''Nop’s Trials'', New York, NY, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1984, . BOMC,

Reader’s Digest Condensed Books ''Reader's Digest Condensed Books'' was a series of hardcover anthology collections, published by the American general interest monthly family magazine ''Reader's Digest'' and distributed by direct mail. Most volumes contained five (although a ...

Large Print Edition, Warner Paperback; British, French, German, Norwegian, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Swedish and Japanese.

Recorded Books Recorded Books is an audiobook imprint of RBMedia, a publishing company with operations in countries globally. Recorded Books was formerly an independent audiobook company before being purchased and re-organized under RBMedia, where it is now an ...

, movie rights sold, QPB edition, Lyons and Burford, NYC, 1992, 2007. BMOC classic hardcover reissue: 1998, 2007. *''Nop’s Hope'', New York, NY, Crown, 1994. Large Print Edition, Recorded Books, Japanese edition, QPB Lyons & Burford June 1998, 2007, . *''Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the Civil War'', New York, NY, W.W.Norton, 1998. Penguin QPB 1999. Recorded Books 1999 . *''Canaan'', New York, NY, WW Norton, 2007. Recorded Books, March 2007. QPB 2008

Nonfiction

*''Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men'', New York, NY, Harper/Collins, 1991. Large Print, British, German editions. Recorded Books, Harper Perennial Paperback, QPB Lyons & Burford, June1998, . *''An American Homeplace'', New York, NY, Crown,1992. Large Print Edition, Recorded Books, QPB, 1997. *''A Useful Dog'', Charlottesville, VA, University of Virginia Press, March 2007. Originally printed in a limited edition in Carrollton, OH by Press on Scroll Road, 2004. *''The Dog Wars'', Kearney, NE, Outrun Press, 2007. *''Mr. and Mrs. Dog: Our Travels, Trials, Adventures, and Epiphanies'', Charlottesville, VA, University of Virginia Press, March 2013. QPB spring 2014 .

Entertainments

*''Stalking Blind'', New York NY, St. Martin's Paperback, 1976. Movie option. *''The Man who made the Devil Glad'', New York, NY, Crown, 1986. British edition, large print edition, recorded books, St. Martin’s Paperback, movie option. *''The Bamboo Cannon'': New York, NY, Crown, 1989. Large print edition, recorded books *'' Rhett Butler's People'': New York, NY, St.Martins, Nov. 2007. Large print, recorded books, QPB 2008. British, German, French, Spanish, Catalan Czech, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Danish, Polish, Serbian, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Norwegian, Lettish, Slovak, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Hungarian, Bahasa Indonesian, Romanian. *''Ruth's Journey'': New York, NY, Atria Books, Nov 2014. Large print edition,paperback, e-book, recorded books

Ephemera

*Poetry in '' Harper's Magazine'', ''Extensions'', ''Clear Creek'' *Nonfiction in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', ''The Bark'', '' Harper's Magazine'', '' GQ'', ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'', '' Outside'', ''Country Journal'', '' Smithsonian'', ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...

'' *Reviews, articles, OpEd pieces in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', ''

New York Newsday ''New York Newsday'' was an American daily newspaper that primarily served New York City and was sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The paper, established in 1985, was a New York City-specific offshoot of '' Newsday'', a Long Island ...

'' *Introductory essays for

Konrad Lorenz Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded ...

’ ''

Man Meets Dog ''Man Meets Dog'' is a zoological book for the general audience, written by the Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz in 1949. The first English-language edition appeared in 1954. The original German title is ''So kam der Mensch auf den Hund'', which ...

'' and

Vicki Hearne Vicky, Vicko, Vick, Vickie or Vicki is a feminine given name, often a hypocorism of Victoria. The feminine name Vicky in Greece comes from the name Vasiliki. Women * Family nickname of Victoria, Princess Royal (1840–1901), wife of German ...

's '' Adam's Task'' *Anthologies. Radio commentaries on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

's ''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCaig, Donald 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists 1940 births 2018 deaths American military writers 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets American male poets American male essayists 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American essayists People from Butte, Montana Writers from Montana Montana State University alumni Military personnel from Montana Novelists from Virginia People from Highland County, Virginia 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers