Steve Friesen grew up in Kansas but a summer job brought him to the West in 1973. Since then he has largely worked in historical museums, with the last 22 years spent as director of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave on Lookout Mountain. He notes that the subject of his previous book “Buffalo Bill” also spent a great deal of time in Colorado before choosing to be buried here in 1917.
SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?
Friesen: I have been interested in food history for many years and have an extensive collection of food history books. In 1995 I started as director of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave and eventually wrote two books about William Cody. While eating at a Denver Mexican restaurant, my friend Patty Calhoun (of “Westword”) mentioned she had just heard Cody opened a Mexican restaurant in New York City in 1886. I started looking into Buffalo Bill as a foodie and discovered an abundance of material on the subject. So I decided to write another book.
SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?
Friesen: I chose a series of excerpts which, in my opinion, combine to make the case that a man who most people only know as a frontiersman and showman had another little-known side to him. It is not just a biography, it is a culinary biography.
SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Friesen: I love research and was motivated by the opportunity to do the research on this rather unknown topic. Once I had my notes together (over 1,500 pages), I sat down and it all unfolded as I wrote. I had expected to follow a chronological approach but discovered there were a lot of compelling themes that did not integrate well into a simple timeline. So the book begins and ends chronologically but the middle, and largest part, is thematic.
UNDERWRITTEN BY
Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.
SunLit: Are there lessons you take away from each experience of writing a book? And if so, what did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?
Friesen: There are many biographies of Buffalo Bill. My goal with my books has been to uncover an unexplored aspect of his life. Research is not a challenge for me; the challenge is making the results of that research as interesting to the reader as they are to me. Food and drink are fascinating to most people; integrating them into the Buffalo Bill story without losing that fascination forced me to become a better writer.
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?
Friesen: I finished my first draft while isolated during COVID. With plenty of time to write, I ended up with a manuscript that was 120,000 words. My editor at University of Nebraska Press told me I had to trim it to 90,000 words. Deciding what stories and ideas I had to drop was painful but I had help from my wife, who has done a fair amount of editing, and was able to emerge from the “surgery” with a better book.
SunLit: If you could pick just one thing — a theme or lesson — that readers would take from this book, what would that be?
Friesen: Buffalo Bill, both consciously and unconsciously, used food to bring people together. For him, dining was an opportunity for dialogue and, ultimately, understanding.
SunLit: In a highly politicized atmosphere where books, and people’s access to them, has become increasingly contentious, what would you add to the conversation about books, libraries and generally the availability of literature in the public sphere?
Friesen: Go ahead and keep trying to ban, censor, and even burn books, it only makes them more desirable. Knowledge is a fire that cannot be quenched.
SunLit: Walk us through your writing process: Where and how do you write?
Friesen: I write in our guest bedroom at a folding table, surrounded by bookshelves and a nice horizontal surface (a queen-sized bed) where I can spread out my notes. My most creative time is in the morning, and I edit in the afternoon or evening. My handwriting is nearly illegible, so I only use a computer to write. Fortunately, we don’t have a lot of guests spending the night.
“Galloping Gourmet”
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SunLit: Is Buffalo Bill’s reputation as a heavy drinker accurate?
Friesen: Rumors of his drunkenness have been greatly exaggerated. Like many frontiersmen he was a heavy drinker in the earlier part of his life. When he began Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, his business partner insisted that he not drink during the show season, which lasted seven months every year. For nearly 30 years he did not drink for those seven months but would drink during the off season. He was a social drinker and rarely went on a “bender.” As he got older he drank less and less in the off season and by the time he was in his 60s had stopped drinking altogether. Buffalo Bill was a drinker but not a drunk.
SunLit: Tell us about your next project.
Friesen: I am exploring the story of a Swiss folk artist who immigrated to the Mennonite farming communities of south central Kansas in the 1890s. There he painted murals of Switzerland in their farmhouses; creating Alps on the Plains. It is a return to my roots; I grew up in one of those communities and my first grade teacher was his daughter.
Just a few more quick questions
SunLit: Do you look forward to the actual work of writing or is it a chore that you dread but must do to achieve good things?
Friesen: It’s a bit of both; but once I start it is uplifting.
SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of?
Friesen: It was a required research paper during my junior year in high school. Written during the time of the Vietnam War, it was an examination of the Mennonite heritage of pacifism. I got an A.
SunLit: When you look back at your early professional writing, how do you feel about it? Impressed? Embarrassed? Satisfied? Wish you could have a do-over?
Friesen: I have written, and occasionally been paid, ever since my first submission to a church youth magazine in high school. I’ve never had any regrets about anything I have written but then I’ve never considered myself a professional writer.
SunLit: What three writers, from any era, can you imagine having over for a great discussion about literature and writing? And why?
Friesen: The philosopher and historian David Hume, because while his works are ponderous and difficult to read his ideas are fascinating. Jimmy Buffett, because he was a modern Renaissance man, whose lyrics are creative and whose fiction is intriguing. Ernest Hemingway, because his writing is lyrical and I think it would be one heck of a party.
SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing?
Friesen: Ernest Hemingway: “Write drunk, edit sober.” I don’t practice it at all but I kind of like the thought.
SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?
Friesen: What a history nerd!
SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write?
Friesen: I start the day with music but it goes off when I start writing. I prefer quiet.
SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?
Friesen: I remember writing a required short story when I was in junior high English and thinking “that was fun.” I also enjoyed diagramming sentences…what a nerd.
SunLit: Greatest fear as an author?
Friesen: Dying before I finish what I am working on.
SunLit: Greatest satisfaction?
Friesen: Living to see it published.