Jim Harrison, who appears on our masthead as the honorary chair of our Board of Inspiration, was a friend and truly an inspiration. He wrote every day with grace, warmth, and empathy for all his subjects, but especially for his female characters and Native Americans. They were never far from the center of his interest.
He had a habit I have never perfected, or seen equaled. In conversation, he would tell a story about a personal experience, but by the end of the first sentence he was already telling a better story, an act of imagination. The real and the imagined were a seamless narrative for Jim. Once you detected his method of communication, you knew he was telling the greater truth.
For all those years we corresponded and occasionally shared a meal, Jim was protected, encouraged, and helped by Joyce Harrington Bahle. For more than 40 years, she has managed the details of Jim’s real life. The practical
