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This interview is excerpted from
Jean Henry-Meads book:
Maverick Writers

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Jean Henry-Mead

Peggy Simson Curry

An Interview with Peggy Simson Curry
By Jean Henry-Mead

Eighty years before Peggy Simson Curry was inducted posthumously into the Western Writers Hall of Fame, she left her native Scotland for North Park, Colorado, where her father had been hired by the Big Horn Cattle Company. By the age of 12, she learned to drive a hay rake and helped her mother cook for a twentyman haying crew. Ranch hands taught her to hunt, fish, and trap small animals along sandy river banks, and to appreciate the beauty of nature.

Long before she was honored as Wyomings poet laureate, she wrote about her life on the ranch, primarily from the male point of view. Two of her short stories won Spur Awards and the honors and kudos that came her way included: "Peggy Simpson Curry Day" in Walden, Colorado, every April 13, until her death in 1987.

Her father insisted she leave the ranch at the age of nine to get an education in town, which prompted her premier poem, written that first day at Walden School. "I expected to be kicked out of class," she said, "but my teacher got it published in the local newspaper, and I saw my name in print." The poem was short and to the point: "I hate school. I hate school. I want to go back to the ranch, my horse, and the red fox in the meadow." Peggy felt she had been banished to the small town, where she boarded with the local sheriff and his wife, who had no children of their own.

She continued to write about ranching as well as her first unrequited love. Peggy wrote hundreds of poems about a good-looking sixth grade student; reams of rhymes, odes, and verse about his hair and teeth. When he didnt take her seriously, she created a magnificent Valentine, complete with appropriate prose, which, although crushed by their teacher, was publicly appreciated by the young Adonis. Peggy still hadnt won him over, but she credits the experience with her emergence as a writer.

Boarded with a number of Walden residents from the fourth through ninth grades, she spent her summers on the ranch, cooking and performing chores. She studied her last two years of high school in Denver, where her writing won on-campus essay prizes and subsequent sales to various newspapers.

Peggy Simson majored in journalism at the University of Wyoming at Laramie, where she wrote and performed a play for her creative writing teacher. When her talents were discovered, the University staff went out of its way to reclassify courses so that she could take advantage of them.

Her first major magazine sale was to the Saturday Evening Post following her marriage in 1937 to Bill Curry, an English major at UW. They had moved to Illinois for his first teaching assignment, and at that time, unknown poets were required to submit character references to prove they had actually composed their work. So the Currys trekked downtown to gather affidavits. During the years that followed, Peggy sold a number of short stories and poems to the Post without the verifying statements, but later appreciated the Posts policy when one of her poems was plagiarized on a Casper radio station.

Her first short story to Good Housekeeping received a nice rejection letter, suggesting she resend it to a romance magazine. Peggy said, "It was a silly story about a cowboy, and contained phrases like cows dont breed in too much heat. The romance editor wrote back, saying We can use it, if youll change some of the dialogue. Theres nothing romantic about cows breeding." She then revised the story and sold it for $40. "Not bad in those days."

Not all of her work has been Western in origin. She wrote her first novel about Scottish fishermen while visiting her ailing grandmother. Bored with sitting and drinking tea, she persuaded a relative to take her out on a commercial fishing boat. Women were considered bad luck but the six man crew returned with an unprecedented catch of herring, and she was then welcomed on all local vessels. She managed to spend some thirty days at sea, gathering research before returning to the University of Wyoming. Her subsequent novel, Fire in the Water, sold quite well and became a book club selection.

Curry considered her second novel, So Far From Spring, her best. Somewhat autobiographical, one of her main characters is Monte, a liberated nineteenth century woman rancher. The story follows a young Scotsman as he migrates in 1830 to North Park, Colorado, to work as a ranch hand. The writer interviewed a number of old timers in her childhood territory, and based some of her characters on people she had actually known.

After their son Michael was born and her husband was teaching in Casper, she wrote another novel titled, The Oil Patch, which, with her earlier books, has been translated into eight languages. Her juvenile book, A Shield of Clover, is an historical look at ranching, which preceded The Red Wind of Wyoming, a book a length poem about the Johnson County war.

Peggy Curry didnt adhere to a strict writing schedule because she taught in the Poetry in the Schools Program (Wyoming Council on the Arts), which she helped establish in 1970. Traveling the state in her jeep, she taught primarily in outlying areas, dispensing juvenile verse and stimulating smiles, even from sixth graders who normally consider poetry "sissy stuff." She initially captured their interest by reciting a silly verse about frogs.

Adults attended her creative writing classes at Casper college for more than thirty years, some of them senior citizens who enrolled for each class. She also taught a writing course each summer at the blind camp on Casper Mountain. Her students were told to write about things they liked, because "theres nothing sadder than a writer at his typewriter with nothing to say." They were also told to "relate your inner world to the world around you."

Peggys writing techniques have reached around the world with her nonfiction book, Creating Fiction from Experience. In it she says: "Writing is a way of life At best it is a rewarding combination of creative experience and creative expression. One cannot exist without the other. Memorable writing can only happen out of memorable living. And how much authenticity and vitality appear in the written word is directly dependent upon the writer himself. He is the fountainhead of all his fiction."

A. B. Guthrie, Jr. was her favorite Western author. She enjoyed his "realism and writing skill," and shared "the feelings he has for the natural world." Reading "exceptional authors" in bed at night was the way she liked to end her day.

Imaginative and emotional, she wrote whenever something whet her interest: "when I ride in the car, get up in the night, or walk by the lake. I work hard hours at the typewriter when an article, poem, or story takes over my imagination. But writing is never a grind in my life. I find great pleasure in being inspired to capture meaningful existence and words."

When the impulse arrived, she used pen, pencil, or her typewriter--whatever happened to be at hand. She said, "I carry note paper everywhere I go, whether Im fishing, hiking, or having lunch with friends. I simply follow my impulse to capture what excites me, regardless of time, place, or dream."

Often one draft was sufficient, although she often wrote several. "Sometimes I know the conclusion, but many times I dont," she explained. "Characters take over in fiction and are as alive as people I meet, listen to, and see clearly. I record anything and everything that interests mescenery, aspects of people, vagaries of weather, voices in the wind, and history. . . I enjoy recording things that interest me. It makes me more aware of the relationship of my inner world to the world around me."

Friends and acquaintances rarely interrupted her during the day, and her husband ran interference while she was writing. The Currys lived on Casper Mountain in a large, comfortable log cabin that seemed to lure dear to their rustic doors during snows. Bill Curry, retired from teaching and thirteen years in the Wyoming Legislature, wrote poetry of his own as well as occasionally serving as his wifes proofreader.

Not one to be categorized, Peggy wrote a play, television script for Disney, hundreds of columns and short stories, including many Boys Life adventures, and howto pieces for The Writer. Her work has been included in numerous anthologies and textbooks, her poetry often in literary magazines. She once received a call from the U. S. Department of Education in Washington, asking permission for a London-based publisher to use one of her Spur-winning short stories in an English textbook..

Peggy Simpson Curry continued during her seventies to lecture at writers conferences, library gatherings, and delivered college graduation commencement addresses. And she always managed to squeeze in some fishing during Wyomings warmer months, although writing remained her first love. She would often say, "Its as necessary to me as eating meals, and I intend to continue as long as Im alive and able."

Copyright © 1989 & 2000 Jean Henry-Mead. All rights reserved. This interview excerpted from Maverick Writers by Jean Henry-Mead (The Caxton Printers, Ltd, 1989).  Reprinted here by permission of the author.