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Seven years to earn a ‘buck’
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BY: JANET DERY Associate Editor
Shaker Heights native pens biography on champion bronc rider Bill Smith
“Bill Smith wouldn’t tell you his story,” budding writer Margot Kahn was told in 2000 about the rodeo legend she had just met during a family vacation in Colorado. “He’d tell a man.”
The gauntlet was thrown down, and Kahn impetuously picked it up, having no real idea of the scope of work the project would involve. Seven years later n time spent getting to know her subject thoroughly, researching rodeo history, listening to compelling stories of life on the rodeo circuit, watching old Western movies and reading Western contemporary fiction n Kahn finally has the last laugh: Horses That Buck: The Story of Champion Bronc Rider Bill Smith was published last month (University of Oklahoma Press, 194 pp., $24.95).
Kahn, now 32, met Smith when she was working for the Seattle Jewish Transcript (now the JT News), writing personality profiles and obituaries. This job would have a life-changing impact on the Shaker Heights native; it was through her work at the paper that the aspiring novelist became fascinated with nonfiction. “It’s a humongous jigsaw puzzle,” she explains via telephone from her home in Seattle. “The information is already out there; you just have to figure out how to gather it and put it together.”
Although “figuring it out” was daunting and took her several tries, Kahn was so taken with Smith and his story that she stuck with it through many rejections from agents and commercial publishers.
“All the agents wanted me to put myself in the book and to make it a love story of sorts,” she says. “I was completely unwilling to make that change. They didn’t know how to market a book about a rodeo cowboy.”
The end result n with no love interest n is beginning to receive positive reviews. “A marvelously told biography … Kahn’s meticulous efforts pays real dividends,” wrote The Seattle Post Intelligencer. “Kahn brings the reader into the rodeo world with her descriptions,” says NewWest.net.
Kahn has always loved horses. She went to Chincapin Riding Camp in Kirtland Hills and took lessons during her younger years; in high school she rode with her godfather, former CJN president Wilton Sogg. But as Kahn delved deeper into the Bill Smith project, she became particularly interested in rodeo history, which turns out to be the oldest sport in America, she reveals.
The writer also discovered that during World War II, the U.S. government’s war department sponsored rodeos on national and foreign military bases because it was considered patriotic. In the early years of the 20th century, women used to ride broncs. “They (the women) were extraordinary,” says Kahn. “They looked so tough and cool.”
But even more meaningful for Kahn in writing the book was the relationship she developed with Smith. From the start, she was struck by his passion for rodeo and his unrelenting determination to make himself an expert despite a lack of natural talent.
“He’s a man of very few words but a striking character,” she explains. “I learned from him about determination and stubbornness.” When Kahn began the project, she had no idea how much time she would end up spending with Smith and his wife. “I was out in Wyoming last fall, and we were relaxing together watching football. He turned to me and said, ‘You know, we’re connected at the hip now forever. You know me better than anybody.’”
This idea of loyalty and kinship is central to rodeo life, Kahn discovered. The rodeo world “is a family,” she explains. Competitors will help a cowboy with expenses, set his saddle, dispense advice on a particular horse, and wish him luck, she adds. “Cowboys can be on the crazy edge of determined n they break bones and get right back on because they have to make a paycheck. But there is a real love of their lifestyle.”
During the seven years it took to complete the book, Kahn has done many things in addition to the Seattle Jewish Transcript job. She edited stock reports at an investment bank, was a speechwriter for the Bloomberg administration, and an arts administrator for a nonprofit organization. She married Seattle native Scott Case. She also received a master of fine arts in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Now she runs creative writing programs for children at a literary center in Seattle.
As for her next book project, Kahn does have an idea “percolating,” revolving around American culture. But she’s not yet sure if it will pan out. “I want to make sure I’m as obsessed with it as much as I was with this book.”
She does have one wish: “Hopefully, it will take less than eight years. The trouble is, you never know!”
jdery@cjn.org
“Bill Smith wouldn’t tell you his story,” budding writer Margot Kahn was told in 2000 about the rodeo legend she had just met during a family vacation in Colorado. “He’d tell a man.”
The gauntlet was thrown down, and Kahn impetuously picked it up, having no real idea of the scope of work the project would involve. Seven years later n time spent getting to know her subject thoroughly, researching rodeo history, listening to compelling stories of life on the rodeo circuit, watching old Western movies and reading Western contemporary fiction n Kahn finally has the last laugh: Horses That Buck: The Story of Champion Bronc Rider Bill Smith was published last month (University of Oklahoma Press, 194 pp., $24.95).
Kahn, now 32, met Smith when she was working for the Seattle Jewish Transcript (now the JT News), writing personality profiles and obituaries. This job would have a life-changing impact on the Shaker Heights native; it was through her work at the paper that the aspiring novelist became fascinated with nonfiction. “It’s a humongous jigsaw puzzle,” she explains via telephone from her home in Seattle. “The information is already out there; you just have to figure out how to gather it and put it together.”
Although “figuring it out” was daunting and took her several tries, Kahn was so taken with Smith and his story that she stuck with it through many rejections from agents and commercial publishers.
“All the agents wanted me to put myself in the book and to make it a love story of sorts,” she says. “I was completely unwilling to make that change. They didn’t know how to market a book about a rodeo cowboy.”
The end result n with no love interest n is beginning to receive positive reviews. “A marvelously told biography … Kahn’s meticulous efforts pays real dividends,” wrote The Seattle Post Intelligencer. “Kahn brings the reader into the rodeo world with her descriptions,” says NewWest.net.
Kahn has always loved horses. She went to Chincapin Riding Camp in Kirtland Hills and took lessons during her younger years; in high school she rode with her godfather, former CJN president Wilton Sogg. But as Kahn delved deeper into the Bill Smith project, she became particularly interested in rodeo history, which turns out to be the oldest sport in America, she reveals.
The writer also discovered that during World War II, the U.S. government’s war department sponsored rodeos on national and foreign military bases because it was considered patriotic. In the early years of the 20th century, women used to ride broncs. “They (the women) were extraordinary,” says Kahn. “They looked so tough and cool.”
But even more meaningful for Kahn in writing the book was the relationship she developed with Smith. From the start, she was struck by his passion for rodeo and his unrelenting determination to make himself an expert despite a lack of natural talent.
“He’s a man of very few words but a striking character,” she explains. “I learned from him about determination and stubbornness.” When Kahn began the project, she had no idea how much time she would end up spending with Smith and his wife. “I was out in Wyoming last fall, and we were relaxing together watching football. He turned to me and said, ‘You know, we’re connected at the hip now forever. You know me better than anybody.’”
This idea of loyalty and kinship is central to rodeo life, Kahn discovered. The rodeo world “is a family,” she explains. Competitors will help a cowboy with expenses, set his saddle, dispense advice on a particular horse, and wish him luck, she adds. “Cowboys can be on the crazy edge of determined n they break bones and get right back on because they have to make a paycheck. But there is a real love of their lifestyle.”
During the seven years it took to complete the book, Kahn has done many things in addition to the Seattle Jewish Transcript job. She edited stock reports at an investment bank, was a speechwriter for the Bloomberg administration, and an arts administrator for a nonprofit organization. She married Seattle native Scott Case. She also received a master of fine arts in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Now she runs creative writing programs for children at a literary center in Seattle.
As for her next book project, Kahn does have an idea “percolating,” revolving around American culture. But she’s not yet sure if it will pan out. “I want to make sure I’m as obsessed with it as much as I was with this book.”
She does have one wish: “Hopefully, it will take less than eight years. The trouble is, you never know!”
jdery@cjn.org
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