THAT LITERARY CONNECTION: Mark Spragg grew up surrounded by books. Not so strange. It is when you consider that he grew up in Wyoming’s Wapiti Valley, surrounded by 13 million acres of forest that was home to many more animals than people. “I was raised without television, radio, or, for the most part, playmates,” Mark said May 21 at the Literary Connection Conference in Cheyenne. ”There were three kids in the Upper Valley – me, my brother, and two others.” So Mark read his Dad’s books and, on the family’s monthly trips to Cody, stocked up on Park County Public Library books. As a teen, he spent summers tending the ranch’s herds with real cowboys. He lived with them in the bunkhouse. “These career cowboys liked to tell stories and they liked to read,” he said. He remembered one cowboy reading the plays of Moliere. Another had a copy of Milton’s collected essays stuffed in his boot. These influences started Mark on a career as a writer. Now, at 53, his widely praised novel, “An Unfinished Life,” will be released as a movie on Sept. 9. Mark and his wife, Virginia, wrote the screenplay. They live in northwest Wyoming.

- posted by Michael Shay @ 11:07 AM