Perspective

Gretel Ehrlich is an American author, poet, and filmmaker. In 1976, Ehrlich traveled from her native California to Wyoming to shoot a documentary for PBS. The documentary was designed to focus on sheep herders and their lives throughout the high months of the year, which are June through September. While in Wyoming, Ehrlich fell in love with the wilderness of the state, its primitiveness, and wide open spaces. As a result of this transformation and her introduction to the world of ranch life, Ehrlich began to write The Solace of Open Spaces in 1979. Over the next five years, Ehrlich would record her experiences as a ranch hand and herder as well as a friend to others in the same occupation. Those experiences are what Ehrlich used to draw upon for the book, which was completed in 1985.

While in Wyoming, Ehrlich tried her hand at many things from lambing to...