Smith, Diane

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SMITH, Diane

PERSONAL: Female.

ADDRESSES: Home—Montana. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Penguin Putnam, 345 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER: Novelist and nonfiction writer specializing in science and the environment.

AWARDS, HONORS: Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Fiction Prize, for Letters from Yellowstone.

WRITINGS:

Letters from Yellowstone, Viking (New York, NY), 1999.

Pictures from an Expedition, Viking (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: With fifteen years of experience working in areas of science and the environment, Montana-based writer Diane Smith has also published two novels about scientific exploration in the American West. Letters from Yellowstone and Pictures from an Expedition have several similarities; both books feature independent heroines who are embarking on scientific careers, are set in Montana and surrounding areas, employ a diverse cast of characters who have been drawn to the west, and emphasize the impact the remarkable surroundings have on their central characters. Both works were well received by critics, who complimented Smith on her ability to dramatize the history of science and create a memorable picture of the western landscape.

The protagonist in Letters from Yellowstone is medical student Alexandria"A. E." Bartram, who is accepted, sight unseen, to join a scientific expedition in Yellowstone. The year is 1898, and the lead scientist, Professor Merriam, is unpleasantly surprised to discover that he has hired a female botanist. Bartram is awed by her surroundings, which include dangerous geysers and thermal springs. Over the course of six months, she learns to work with the members of the team and meets the many folk drawn to Yellowstone, including tourists, developers, and politicians.

Letters from Yellowstone received praise for both its style and substance. In an article in the Women's Review of Books, Diana Postlethwaite said it was a "pleasure" to read the novel, in which "the physical setting … [is] more intriguing than its central character." Postlethwaite suggested that the enormity of the book's subject—the impact of the American dream on the environment—does not fit the scope of the storyline. Bartram's story is told through a series of letters and telegrams, which according to Library Journal's Charlotte L. Glover, provide "abundant detail and a mannered style that perfectly capture the attitudes and atmosphere of the era." Booklist's Stephanie Svirin commented that "comic misunderstandings and tragedy pepper the story as lives are intertwined" and concluded that the book was "thoroughly enjoyable, intriguingly offbeat." In a review for Library Journal, Nan Palmer said the "charming epistolary first novel is for readers who love history, science, and personal drama." A Publishers Weekly critic commented, "Serenely attentive, deliberately paced, as careful with psychology and history as it is with it botany, Smith's epistolary narrative makes a worthy addition to the expanding category of history-of-science novels."

The events of Pictures from an Expedition, Smith's 2002 novel, are told through the remembrances of Eleanor Peterson, who once joined fossil hunters in the Montana badlands as a scientific illustrator. She recalls when, ten years after the U.S. Civil War, she and her eccentric mentor, painter Augustus Starwood, were first introduced to the astounding beauty of the American West. Eleanor set out hoping the work would bring her a job a Yale; instead, it introduced her to a sometimes violent rivalry between paleontologists and the conflicting interests of explorers, settlers, and natives. In fact, the Battle of the Bighorn disrupts the dig and sends Eleanor back east, at least temporarily. Starwood remains in Montana to paint and later dies trying to save a boy's life.

The balance of action, introspection, and scientific study in Pictures from an Expedition impressed reviewers in diverse ways. A Kirkus Reviews writer noted that the book's "quiet development" of relationships is "somewhat at odds with a melodramatic plot." At the same time, a Publishers Weekly critic called Pictures from an Expedition a "crisply intelligent and unsentimental novel" and said that Smith's "precise evocation of the stark western landscape matches her exacting portrayal of scientific debate and the assimilation of new theories." In a review for Library Journal, Jack Hafer commented that the "impressionistic" novel is "ultimately … about Eleanor's and Augustus's reactions to the West." And Booklist's Carol Haggas recommended the novel as "compelling" given that it "tempers its Indiana Jones-like qualities with the veracity of an eyewitness account of history in the making."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1999, Stephanie Svirin, review of Letters from Yellowstone, p. 1795; September 1, 2002, review of Pictures from an Expedition, p. 60.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2002, review of Pictures from an Expedition, p. 991.

Library Journal, August, 1999, Charlotte L. Glover, review of Letters from Yellowstone, p. 142; December, 1999, Nan Palmer, review of Letters from Yellowstone, p. 220; August, 2002, Jack Hafer, review of Pictures from an Expedition, p. 147.

Publishers Weekly, June 7, 1999, review of Letters from Yellowstone, p. 74; August 19, 2002, review of Pictures from an Expedition, p. 66.

Women's Review of Books, July, 1999, Diana Postlethwaite, Natural Wonder, p. 40.