“Four Deer,” drafts, 1993, undated

This series surveys Bass’ works from his earliest published pieces to his more recent articles and stories. In this series are manuscripts for The Watch, Oil Notes, The Ninemile Wolves, Winter: Notes from Montana, as well as notes for The Deer Pasture and short stories published in Platte River. The series also contains numerous short stories and essays, research notes, journal notes, reviews, and interviews. Most of the non-fiction manuscripts relate in some way to Bass’ intense relationship with nature and concern for the environment, although they also concern his writing career. The bulk of this series is comprised of photocopied pages from the notebooks in which Bass does most of his writing, and also contains manuscript pages, typed drafts, computer disks, galley proofs, and published pieces, many of which are heavily annotated. Not all of the manuscripts are complete; many lack pages, while others contain only Bass’ notes or are partially finished. It is important to note that the backs of his papers often contain notes to other manuscripts, correspondence, and other information, since Bass recycles paper by using both sides. Some notes are on scraps, and in one case, a note is written on a piece of bark. Sent to the Wittliff Collections in small pieces at a time, the manuscripts have been arranged alphabetically by the processor.