Crow Fair was published by Knopf in 2015. The title refers to the annual Crow Fair — a gathering of the Crow people on their reservation near Hardin, Montana — but the collection ranges across the entire state and its social landscape: ranchers losing their land to development, Indian communities navigating between tradition and modernity, divorced couples negotiating custody across vast distances.
The stories display McGuane’s late mastery: the prose is stripped to essentials, the comedy is darker and quieter, and the emotional range has expanded to include a tenderness that the early novels avoided. “Canyon Ferry” follows a couple’s fishing trip that becomes a reckoning with their marriage. “Motherlode” traces a meth-addicted son’s destruction of his mother’s life. “Stars” finds a rancher alone at night with a horse and a bottle, contemplating what he’s lost.
Collecting Crow Fair
First edition (Knopf, New York, 2015): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $10–$20
- Signed first: $25–$50
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation.
The Changing West
Crow Fair takes its title from the annual gathering of the Crow Nation near Hardin, Montana — one of the largest Native American celebrations in the United States. The stories explore the tensions between the mythic West and its contemporary reality: ranchers losing land to developers, Crow Indians navigating between tribal culture and American capitalism, fishing guides watching their rivers dry up, and everyone confronting the fact that the landscape they love is changing faster than they can adapt.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was McGuane friends with Jim Harrison? McGuane and Harrison (1937–2016) were close friends for decades, both living in Montana and sharing passions for literature, food, hunting, and fishing. Harrison’s death was a significant personal loss. The two are often mentioned together as the leading literary voices of the American West.